Question 1

Is the backplane legitimately hot-swappable? In terms of the quality of the backplane such that it doesn't fail when a drive is plugged in and the current draw increases.

Accepted Answer

The backplane on this device so more over less a pass through to the drive controller.  The controller must support hot swap as well for the IcyDock to allow hot swapping.  There are 2 power inputs on the backplane so power draw shouldn't be an issue when hot swapping.  As far as testing this, I have not had the oppturnity to try a hot swap because my controller doesn't support hot swapping.

Question 2

This cage says it will take SAS and SATA just wondering how it can manage to do this giving the 2 different connector types for SAS and SATA?

Accepted Answer

A SAS connector is a super-set of the SATA connector...it's actually one whole piece (power and data on a single card edge) where SATA is two pieces with a gap between the power and data lines (for separate power and data connectors).  The SAS connector just fits over the gap on SATA devices.

Question 3

Have another question about the -4S.  It should be arriving soon, I will be having it put in the HP small form factor.  I put Windows ten on and it is surprisingly zippy for a duo.  This computer has the Intel Boot Manager.  Right now I have the internal drive, and also a one drive sata hot swappable in one of the front bays.  After I installed Windows in the front drive, both that and the internal did great.  When it booted up it asked which drive I wanted to boot from.  But when I shut the computer off and booted up just with the internal, the Intel Boot Manager said something is very wrong and I will need to fix it.  I just hit the boot menu then chose the internal.  Will I be having problems with the -4S?  While it can hold 4 laptop drives I will be having only one boot drive in at a time.  Either W10 or W7, but not both as once.  But let's say I forget and have both in at the same time.  Will that make the Intel Boot Manager totally confused more than it is now?  I can't find any way to see what ports the drives are on, right now with both boots in, I just see Windows 10 orange and I forgot the other one.  I just don't want this to happen once the -4S is in and going.

Accepted Answer

Same here, the 40mm (especially now that they have bumped up the power 2 x Molex) there is no need.

I've been purchasing ICY Dock enclosures (which I'm used to calling 1U (5.25" Backplanes).

This most recent model is one of kind as well. If anyone builds Workstations for Businesses who are building VDI's, running ERP or doing DNA Modeling, the most important factor in rendering (second to the GPUs) is storage speed. If you were to visit Broadcom LSI's website and do a search for say, their MegaRAID 9361 8i SAS/SATA Controller, and download their Comparability Matrix, you will find this model listed like this:

"ICY Dock" "MB994SP-4S" "1U Backplane" "SAS/SATA" "12Gb/s"

This means you can and I have used 2 of these 5.25" backplanes in a WS Build  with SAS expander cables, (2 x SAS to 4 x SAS 12 GB/s) with SAS Flash Drives. 8  internal, 400GB for companies who need that kind of speed use the full duplex bandwidth of PCIe3 and 3.1, so in an 8 drive RAID-0 config, using for example, 8 SanDisk Lightning Ascend Gen. II SDLTODKM-400G-5CA1 2.5" 400GB SAS 12Gb/s Enterprise Solid State Disk you're steaming along over 12 GB/s or more, depending on options such as CacheVault, a controller with 2GB of Cache Flash RAM 1,888MHz and your stripe settings.

Excellent product.

Question 4

Will this fit in a Corsair 650D case?  The corsair 5.25" slots have a bezel that has prevented me from using Rosewill hot swap cages/options.  I am curious if anyone has gotten this to work with a 650D?

Accepted Answer

Ryan, Not sure if you're still looking for an answer but I have a Corsair 800D with a similar snap on front face and it worked fine.

Question 5

What is the data transfer rate of this device?

Accepted Answer

The data transfer rate of this device is up to 6 Gb/sec, depending on hard drive speed.

Question 6

Is this product durable and protective of the drives?

Accepted Answer

Yes, the product is described as having a heavy-duty full metal construction and includes features like a top cover for the tray to add extra drive protection, indicating durability and drive protection.

Question 7

How is the cooling system of the device designed?

Accepted Answer

The cooling system of the device includes dual 40mm rear cooling fans and metal heat dispersion for effective drive cooling.

Question 8

Can this mobile rack accommodate different types of drives?

Accepted Answer

Yes, this mobile rack can accommodate different types of drives, including 2.5" SAS and SATA HDDs/SSDs.

Question 9

I am planning to purchase this unit.  I asked Icy about the fan, as the reviews said to replace the included fan with another the connectors would have to be taken off then soldered to the new fan.  This is what they said:

As for the fan on the back of the unit you can replace it with any standard 40mm 2 pin fan. You will not have to solder anything if you want to replace the 40mm fans on the back of the unit.  You just have to unscrew the fans and unplug the 2 pin power connector attach to the PCB.

So would this be a newer model of the same thing, and the reviews saying soldering was necessary might be for an earlier model?

Accepted Answer

I just used the unit as is.  I've been running three SSDs in it for almost two years.  It is a kick ass storage solution, which I highly recommend. The only problem I had was that the Dell tower computer face plate wouldn't fit back in the computer because this unit is a touch wide (or my cover plate is a touch small!)  Tight fit anyway you look at it.  Hope this helps.

Questions & Answers