Question 1

About the 3 power connector on the back.. Are all 3 needed, do there need to come from 3 different rails/cable leads or can a cable splitter work?

Accepted Answer

Highly suggest you ensure your power supply has a single rail, most of the high quality do.  If so, then at least two, with a splitter is fine.  Otherwise if your power supply has the old  style with two rails, you could use a splitter but be sure that you are balancing the load and your power req is less than than your PS rating.   I upgraded my PS when I put in mine.

Question 2

One of the features describes, "5 in 3 RAID backplane module"...
This is not a RAID card, correct?
Does each drive installed get recognized as individual drives?

Accepted Answer

Correct: No, it is NOT a RAID card.  And yes, each drive is individually recognized and (in Windows) given its own drive letter (or letters if that drive has multiple partitions).

To install it, I had to bend two metal guides in my case that were in the way.  Beyond that, installation went smoothly and so far the product has always worked as advertised.

In addition to having separately-removable drives, you also get a separate activity LED for each one, which can be nice.  Keeping track of which drive is in which bay can be tough, though, as there is no labeling system and really no room to add one.

Question 3

Will Icy Dock MB453Tray-B Removable Tray be compatible with this product. The descriptions are far from clear on this point. If it isn't compatible, what tray is compatible?

Accepted Answer

Sorry, yes, that is compatible

Question 4

I bough this unit. Often the drives do not get recognized. In fact the blue led will not even light when I boot machine. I have to close the door half way then wiggle the drive (computer off) to get them to seat. Even when doing that, some times they will not light up when computer is powered on. I've read all the reviews and no one else has complained about this. Anyone else have this problem? If so, what do you do about it?

Accepted Answer

I do not have this problem, and I've been running this now for close to a year.

I would check to make sure you're supplying enough power to it, as in making sure you're not over-taxing your power supply.  Drives eat a good amount of power when they're spinning up to start, so you might be getting a weird voltage drop, and subsequently failing to power on the drive.  Also make sure if you're splitting some of the SATA power connectors into multiple connectors, that you're not pulling all from the same one.  Spread them out to multiple outputs from the power supply.

I would also suggest to make sure your SATA connections to your controller cards or motherboard are secure, but it really sounds like a power issue more than anything.

Hope this helps.

Question 5

Does this cage handle hot swapping? I tried out a 3 in 2 version and as soon as I hot swapped a drive into another slot the entire unit failed and I had to RMA it. Was mine a fluke or not?

Accepted Answer

Definitely hot swap capable. I just had to replace failing drive in raid array and did it with everything live with no problems. I do have a separate controller card. I haven't had as much success hot swapping with onboard controllers.

Question 6

Where did you find the low profile head screws needed to mount the 3.5" hard drives to the slide-in-carriers?  They were not provided like other manufacturers have done for similar product.  Screws, like the 8 provided, can not be used since they interfere with guides for the side-in-carriers.  Can't find in stores, making this product useless.  Any hints how you over came this design flaw?

Accepted Answer

Until I ready your question, I thought the low-profile screws had come with the item.  It's been a few years, so I don't recall for sure.  I do keep a little container of screws that I've taken from computer parts over the past 20 years, so maybe I found them in there.

Sorry, getting old, memory bad

Question 7

What is the max drive size per bay?

Accepted Answer

3.5" physical size.

If you mean storage, it just has SATA passthrough, so whatever your motherboard, SATA/RAID card, and operating system can handle.

Question 8

What cooling features does the Icy Dock MB155SP-B have?

Accepted Answer

The Icy Dock MB155SP-B features a large 92mm cooling fan with a full metal body for excellent heat dissipation, as well as an enhanced direct air flow design to improve cooling efficiency.

Question 9

What is the maximum number of 3.5" SATA hard drives that the Icy Dock MB155SP-B can support?

Accepted Answer

The Icy Dock MB155SP-B can support up to five 3.5" SATA I / II / III hard drives.

Question 10

Is the included fan a 3-pin or 2-pin? And if the stock fan is a 2-pin like in the newegg image, why is it plugged into the 3-pin port?

Accepted Answer

The included fan is a 3-pin fan.

Questions & Answers