SANS DIGITAL TR5M-B 5 Bay SATA to eSATA (Port Multiplier) JBOD / RAID 0, 1, 1+0, 5 Enclosure (Black)

Pros: Very good for the price. I ordered one of these to put 5 1 TB drives into in a Linux software RAID5 configuration. I ran into no problems. Build is nice and sturdy. Obviously not as solid as an enterprise-level disk enclosure, but for the price its very acceptable.

Cons: I would have liked it if they offered a an option for a PCI controller, as the one included is a PCIe card, which my server lacks.

Overall Review: If you find yourself having to get a new SATA controller in order to take advantage of the port multiplier (say, because you don't have any PCIe slots), make sure you get one that supports port multipliers. Any SATA controller that utilizes the SiL3124 (SteelVine) controller should do fine.

Pros: Drives are easy to install and the unit is nicely designed for use in public view. It doesn't make a lot of noise when on, though it's louder than would be ideal for most media centers (in my media center, these boxes are in a soundproofed cabinet with large quiet fans in the rear).

Cons: The included controller card is awful. I use a Samsung 32GB SLC SSD for boot, and when the included interface card was working, its on board BIOS (for software RAID) increased my boot time by 30 seconds! Note I said "when it worked." The card was very intermittent in my J&W Minix MB (780G/SB700/9350e). The SATARAID5 management software that comes with this unit, by the way is terrible and looks like it was written by a kid over the summer.

Overall Review: Here's the wierd thing. I e-mailed Sans Digital some time back to ask if the box would would work with the SB700 instead of their controller card and they said "No, the SB700 doesn't understand Port Multipliers." On a lark, I plugged the unit into my SB700 eSATA port and it worked! It later stopped working and I discovered it was because I had uninstalled the AMD/ATI AHCI Compatible RAID Controller driver. I reinstalled the AMD RAID driver, and suddenly all 5 drives show up in Vista RELIABLY and without fail. Note this mode of operation does NOT require setting "RAID" in the BIOS, so the AMD RAID PROMs are not in the boot sequence and my boot times are nice and fast again. With all 5 drives showing up in Vista, I am using Vista's own striping capability to get the speed I desire (actually striping across TWO units so I have two eSATA ports worth of transfer bandwidth).

Pros: Fantastic value for an external enclosure that offers a port multiplier and hard drive cages. Build quality seems reasonable, although obviously not engineered for heavy duty swapping.

Cons: Users buying this to compliment their Mediasmart ex470 / ex475 servers be warned, the mediasmart is incapable of utilizing the 5th bay (top hard drive.) Only the bottom four will connect, although the top unit will spin up if plugged in without any lights. Also the esata connectors used by Sans Digital are a poor choice- they're merely pressure fit onto two screws on the back of the case. If you use too much pressure to put your cable on or accidentally attempt to put it in upside down you risk pushing the connector off into the inside of the case, requiring a search and rescue mission to retrieve it.

Overall Review: For now it's the best value external esata/port multiplying case available.

Pros: VERY quiet. Solid build (for the price).

Cons: None really.

Overall Review: The only issue I have (and it's not REALLY an issue) is the esata seems like it may pull out easy. Other than that, I'm very happy with it. When ordering this I thought I may want to order a high quality fan at the same time to swap out, but I'm glad I didn't. I'm running 4 - 1tb drives and it's really cool and quiet.

Pros: - 5 easily swappable drive bays make adding and removing hard disks simple. - build quality seems decent - very quiet and has good air flow

Cons: - the HDD activity/power leds are not bright enough; you can hardly see them through the case's screen. - the included management software and raid controller work but are not great. The silicon image SATARaid5Manager breaks Vista's Aero and is frustrating to use.

Overall Review: The raid controller card did not detect my drives in the boot-up configuration but did in windows and im not sure why.

Pros: It's quick to connect, for the most part everything just works. Case feels solid.

Cons: The cable is junk, the end seems to have broken off in the connector now i'm hoping i can get it the unit replaced if you touch or move the cable at all the drives disconnect. Drive bays are plastic

Pros: Installed to a refurbished Dell 3.2 GHz GX280 using the PCIe 1x card (came with it) in a JBOD config. This box runs a home email/web/file server under CentOS 5.4. Install was completely painless with CentOS recognizing everything without a burp. Case is more solid than I expected and drive insertion/removal is a snap. As another reviewer pointed out there are now 5 lights in the lower left corner (if your are facing unit), just a bit more convenient to see.

Cons: None so far.

Pros: This is my second one.. It's building as we speak (persay). Just wanted to let you know (and Newegg - upgrade photo) that the box comes with a newer card (newer ver.) and there are now 5 lights in the front bottom left of the box (across from power light), indicating drive diagnostics. Each dock still has lights also.

Cons: I've used the 1st TowerRaid for a few months now with no problems other than the e-sata cord fitting loose .. my cats go behind it and bump it out.

Overall Review: If you have any problems setting things up just contact SansDigital tech support and they'll walk you through it. Takes a good couple'a days to build raid group (I have group 5 on each of mine) and then another coupla'a days to format it. Might be faster to quick format and then run chkdsk with the fix prompt.