Question 1

Does this enclosure (or any like it) have the ability to install a CD/DVD burner in place of one of the drives?

Accepted Answer

It does not.  CD drives are 5.25" wide (CDs themselves are 4.7" in diameter), and the drive bays on this cage are 3.5" bays.  This cage is intended to fit into space that would normally hold two CD drives, one on top of the other.  Also, even if you had a 3.5" SATA device with removable storage, you wouldn't be able to use it with the door open; this enclosure seats the drive onto the SATA connectors as you shut the door and unseats it when you open the door.

Question 2

Do the hard drives in this cage have to be 3.5" or can you also put a 2.5" hard drive in (maybe with an adapter)?

Accepted Answer

Not designed to handle 2.5" drives no practical way to add a 2.5" drive  since this is a 2 height 3 drive bay 3.5" x 2.5 " drive adapters brackets will almost certainly be too tall to fit . even if they fit vertically it is  unlikely they will  align the drive at the proper height or depth to cleanly engage with the drive bay connectors . The front of the drive will not extend far enough for the hinged drive cover which acts as drive retainer and provides proper pressure for drive on the rear connectors . Drives must extend  behind the drive cover exactly the correct amount or the drive ejection / insertion mechanism will break .

I could make this work but would not bother

Ken

Question 3

I saw in description that this supports up to 3TB drives.  Anyone have any luck trying a higher capacity drive?  I am interested in putting in a 5TB drive but wondering if this device will recognize it before I buy this hot swap cage.

Accepted Answer

We are currently using this product in a production environment with 4TB Western Digital Reds.   The drives are actually part of a RAID5 array that is use for temporary storage.

I'm not sure why they specify 3TB, we actually didn't even notice the spec when buying.  One would think that the SATA connection is a straight pass-through which would mean that any SATA drive would be supported.   I think you should be ok with 5TB drives.

Question 4

By default this comes attached with a 70mm fan. Would it be possible to fit a 80mm fan on it? Thanks!

Accepted Answer

It does not appear possible to modify this product for an 80mm fan.  Any attempt to do so would be troublesome and probably void the warranty too.

Questions & Answers