Question 1

Do I have to use this for RAID or can I put three different 3.5 inch HDs in there and NOT DO RAID to make room in the rest of my case?

Accepted Answer

It is not necessary to use for RAID.  You can mix drives & physical sizes without problem (2.5 & 3.5).  Hot swap is no problem.  Also, I often use this to easily swap drives to boot into a different OS.  After 10 mos. of use I am more than satisfied.

Question 2

What are the three buttons / leds on the side? I can't find any documentation on them.

Accepted Answer

The blue button-looking things are latches that you slide down in order to pop the caddy out for drive replacement, and the LEDs indicate hard drive activity.  They work beautifully.  Only downside is, the caddies are not tool-less.  So, you need a screwdriver, just as you would if you didn't buy this drive cage in the first place.  Therefore, its main advantage is the LEDs.

Question 3

While I know software I was not put on this earth for hardware.  So bear with me :)  This may sound dumb, but since the cage takes up two drive bays, wouldn't the front of the case interfere with the placement?  That is, would the front of a computer case have to be cut to make room?

Accepted Answer

Usually no. If your case has two external drive bays, then no modification to the case is required. Just remove the two bezels (sp) and insert your Icy Dock. You may have to bend down the (I don't know what you call them) flaps that hold the CD or DVD to compensate for the Icy Dock.

If you only have two external bays, there will not be a place for your CD/DVD to slide in. Hope this helps.

Personally, I swear by these multiple racks. Supermicro has a five bay
rack. In a five bay case, I have access to eight, yes eight, hard drives.

Question 4

What is the fan for? I see many ICY DOCK products have a fan on a back that seems to be totally redundant, it can't possibly suck/blow air through the cage itself, because it mounted on solid back plate...

Accepted Answer

The fan pulls air through slots in the backplate and is very effective. Temps run 45C+ with the fan disconnected and hdd active. I put a resistor on the fan to make it quieter and even at slow speed, active hdd temps are 30-35C.

Question 5

Has anyone changed out the fan to get better airflow/cooling? installed and storage drive is only 4-6 degrees lower than a main drive that is not in the enclosure.

Also can you just insert/remove a drive while the computer is on or does computer need to be powered off when inserting/removing drives ?? Thanks.

Accepted Answer

I replaced the stock fan with a high RPM fan (6400 RPM) from 1st PC Corp but it was very loud. It did reduce the temps on the drives about 8-9 degrees celcius from about 40 to 31.  This was for 7200 RPM enterprise drives (WD Re/Se series).  Supermicro also makes fans that have CFM > 100 and they are the best for temp control but are even louder -- they are really meant for a server rack environment. I believe the stock fan has a CFM of 40 so it is really only viable for 5400 RPM SATA drives in the summer heat.

It is hard to get a really high CFM fan for the 80x25mm form factor without the really loud noises that come from a >6000 RPM fan. Also if you only use it to put 2 hard drives just don't put a drive in the middle and your airflow will be better. I notice the the middle drive is about 3-4 degrees celcius hotter than the other 2.

You should also check to see if you have good airflow out of the chassis. If you have 3 high RPM drives and they are running all the time you will need to make sure that  the hot air is being expelled  from a good top or side fan.

The enclosure is a hot swap so you do not have to power off the computer, however if you are not using an HBA/RAID controller you will have to make the ports hot swappable from the motherboard BIOS. Most modern motherboards have the ability to turn on/off the SATA hot swap capability.

Question 6

Are the 2x 15pin SATA power connectors enough for 3x 7200rpm drives? (In particular, HGST Deskstar NAS 4T drives)

Accepted Answer

While I cannot speak to the specific HGST NAS drives, I have 2 of these ICY DOCK units in my server (each with 3x 3TB WD Red NAS drives) and I have had no problems with them whatsoever.  I am very happy with this product (I had the 4 in 3 ICY DOCK prior for over 2 years without any issues either).

Question 7

Does this support 2.5" drives natively?

Accepted Answer

No, not natively.  I also tested the enclosure with a 3.5 to 2.5" adapter plate (that was included w/ an OCZ Vertex 4 drive).  This adapter wouldn't allow the SATA ports to align properly due to the thickness of the adapter plate under the drive.

Question 8

What is the cooling system like for this device?

Accepted Answer

The cooling system includes a replaceable 80 x 80 x 25mm cooling fan, compatibility with most 80mm fans with 2-pin or 3-pin connectors, and a metal chassis for heat dispersion.

Question 9

Is it easy to replace the cooling fan if it fails?

Accepted Answer

Yes, the cooling fan is replaceable for easy maintenance.

Question 10

Can this hard drive cage support SATA 3.0 and SAS 3.0?

Accepted Answer

Yes, this hard drive cage supports SATA 3.0 and SAS 3.0.

Questions & Answers