Question 1

Is it quiet enough to keep it near a desktop or is it to loud? Is it hot, can it be placed inside a closet?

Accepted Answer

I have mine on a shelf in my dining room and it's pretty quiet.  The only real noise-making piece is the rear fan, and it remains quiet.  It isn't silent (no fan is), but it is as quiet as any 80mm fan can be.

As this box is full of hard drives, I would not suggest putting in a closet unless there is airflow into and out of the closet. 
Over-heating an hdd is always a bad idea, let alone 5.

The fan in the back can only cool the drives is there is cool air to be pulled through the enclosure.

Question 2

1. Do all drive bays need to be occupied or can I expand use over time?

2. Can I have  a mix of Raid 1 in for two drives and JBOD for remaining slots?

Accepted Answer

1. You can use as many or few bays as you need for your raid configuration and expand over time. The raid card also has an extra external and 2 internal ports so you can add another external bay or internal drives.

2. You can mix up the raid configuration any way you want.

Question 3

Is this a nas or you have to connect this via eSata to the card thats inside your computer?

Accepted Answer

You must connect this to a computer via eSATA. This is a drive enclosure, and it includes the interface card that installs into any free PCIe slot in your computer.

Question 4

Details clearly state "New 6G Port Multiplier PM storage, with 6G RAID controller, fully support 6G hard drives" - but next to External I/O it says eSATA 3Gbps (via Port Multiplier). How does it output 3 Gbps when it's saying it's all new 6G. Totally confused. I want to use it in JBOD mode (separate drives). Does enclosure transfer data internally at 6G (SATA III) from drive to drive but communicate with other external mounted drives at only 3G? Very confusing info!

Accepted Answer

Sorry - thought you were asking about the TR4UTBPN. It looks like the TR5M6G does indeed support SATA III 6Gb/s rates...

Questions & Answers