StarTech.com HSB220SAT25B 2 Drive 2.5in Trayless Hot Swap SATA Mobile Rack Backplane - Dual Drive SATA Mobile Rack Enclosure for 3.5 HDD

Pros: Benchmark with Samsung Magician 4.5 confirms both bays are running at the latest SATA revision. Confirmed benchmarks with Performance Test version 8.0.1030.0. Looks real nice. Does not require a drive tray. Fits perfectly in an Antec Sonata III 500, with matching blue LED's.

Cons: Comes boxed with (what looks like) SATA 2.0 cables. The bay hinges look fragile. Even though I tested the drive bays and confirmed SATA 3.0 6GB/s speeds, the included manual still claims otherwise.

Overall Review: Used SATA 3 cables that came with my Z97-Pro because the boxed cables looked like all the old SATA 2 cables I had laying around. After reading all the reviews about this only running at SATA 2 transfer speeds, I was quick to put this unit through some benchmarks. Everything tested out at SATA 3.0 6GB/s speeds. The following tests were done under AHCI mode: Granted the drives I have in the bay are older Samsung 830 SSD's, but here is what I got out of Samsung Magician's performance benchmark with RAPID mode DISABLED.. Sequential Read: 546 Sequential Write: 317 Random Read: 76062 Random Write: 28070 These numbers are VERY close to the manufacturers MAX rated specs on these SSD's, and both bays performed nearly the same (probably differences in the drive could account for the variance). The Performance Test Benchmark program was run in "Long" mode and it also confirmed SATA 3.0 6GB/s speeds. Next did some real world transfers, and with large files (between 66 MB and 1.55 GB) totaling over 38 GB of data, the read speeds of both drives were around 482 MB/s the whole time! For this test I copied the files FROM each Samsung 830-128 (mounted inside the HSB220SAT25B) TO a Samsung 850 Pro. Finally, to put this bay to the test I loaded a couple of SSD's into a RAID array (had to reconfigure windows switching between AHCI and RAID). Everything went off without a hitch. I cannot speak for others who are not seeing SATA 3.0 6GB/s transfer speeds, but the unit I purchased on 1/22/15 works as advertised by Newegg.

Pros: Price: 4.0 eggs Quality: 4.5 eggs Performance: 4.0 eggs I have several types/models of these types. Including: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817993014 and http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817998060 This one was my most recent purchase of the three models. They all do the same job and do it well. The only major difference is how the door opens. This one isn't any better or worse than the other two models I listed above. I think it comes down to preference. I will note that I feel this model is 1 of 2 where it would not be easy to break the latch from opening it. I leave the choice to you. I have left reviews on the others as well. SATA-III COMPATIBLE (but I have not achieved SATA-III benchmarks with my SATA-III SSDs).

Cons: The smaller traditional 2.5" spin drives have issues ejecting. Not very good for the ultra compact 2.5" spin drives. I recommend you do NOT run/use two traditional spin drives in this type of unit without proper independant cooling (like a case fan directly blowing on it). Although compatible with SATA-III devices, the benchmarks I have performed shows a max of around 375MB/s - or around 3Gbps - SATA-II performance.

Overall Review: Great for SSD drives. Not so great for traditional spin drives. Verify that either ACHI and/or RAID features are enabled to use the hotswap features. Like the other StarTech backplane I bought: (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817998060) I have plugged in Crucial, OCZ, and Kingston SSD drives in this unit. They plug in and eject perfectly well. I have plugged in Western Digital and Seagate traditional spin drives in this unit. They go in very easily - they do NOT come out easily. My recommendation is to stick with SSD drives.

Pros: I've purchased a dozen or more of these over the years and since the BIOSes have implemented hot-swap SATA controllers, they've become an integral part of my system builds. Imagine a high-end 64 GByte Flash drive for back-ups or a low-end 64 GByte SSD. Both about the same price ($45-50) but the SSD is at least 20x faster. And after the back-up is done, you have to remember to "safely remove it" the flash drive. So if your BIOS can enable hot-swap SATA ports for a trayless hot swap rack, it makes life really good! Although the trays are a little tight and must be to insure proper alignment of the data a power connectors. Both 7 mm and 9 mm drives fit very nicely and firmly.

Cons: None

Overall Review: Although these come with two plastic insulators that can protect two drives with exposed circuitry, I'd rather the bottoms be made with an insulated material or have an insulating coating on the steel.

Pros: - Two 2.5" drives fit in a single 3.5" slot; saves case space - No need for any additional adapters (assuming you have a free 3.5" bay, of course) - Hot swappable* (see below)

Cons: - Slightly expensive - No security locking mechanism

Overall Review: This dual-tray setup is extremely useful, I use one bay for a boot drive and the second as a removable backup drive. You must make certain your BIOS has been set to AHCI mode for hot-swap support. Otherwise, the computer must be off when you swap. Drives slide in and out easily, there is a latching mechanism on the doors but no locking mechanism. One time (note: ONE time) I accidentally pulled out my system drive and crashed my computer; I'd like to see some way to security or "hard" lock the bays so I'd have to go through an extra step to get the drive(s) out when I wanted, to avoid any accidents. Overall, an extremely useful product, every 2.5" SSD (I have 3 from different manufacturers) and 2.5" hard drive (I have 7 from 4 different manufacturers) all fit perfectly and have worked beautifully. Highly recommended, would like to see a few bucks knocked off but I guess you can divide the price by two and get the amount it costs to manage each drive.

Pros: Built solid Nice push latch to open door Nice blue HD Activity light

Cons: None, yet with the light being on all the time, I'm assuming that the HD is in idle when I'm using my Master 3.5 drive?

Overall Review: The unit is well built, with a nice eject system. Looks good in my Cooler Master HAF 922 (bought at Newegg) tower drive slot that has the conversion for a 3.5 drive, which this fit in perfectly. Have been running the RC window 7 for the last 3 months on a notebook drive from this unit, performs excellent.

Pros: It seems sturdy

Cons: The doors are plastic The spring on the doors is too strong The cables have nothing to clip into in the back of the bay so they fall off easily.

Overall Review: In just moving the computer the weight of the cables dislodges them from the back of the bay.

Pros: Hot-swap SATA III Toolless quick-eject Two disks in a single drive bay

Cons: No ventilation means drives can heat up quickly

Overall Review: I have a pair of SSDs in RAID1 in one of these. Setup was easy enough and no performance problems. One of the disks failed at one point, and replacing it took literally less than 10 seconds. My only issue is lack of ventilation. Any time I'm doing a large write to the RAID I get temp alerts. I tried putting a fan right in front of the bays to put some cooling in, but this thing is so dense and compact it made no difference.

Pros: While I normally prefer hot swap bays that do not use an ejecting door due to the potential for breakage of the eject mechanism, this one appears to be solid enough despite the use of plastic for the door and the eject finger. My SSDs slide in and eject freely. Basically, it does exactly what it is supposed to do and does it very well (which is why I gave the review four stars despite my complaints).

Cons: I dislike the cables needed to connect the docks to the computer. My main issue is having to use their cable(s) to connect SATA power and get power for the activity indicator LEDs. There is no good reason why StarTech couldn't have wired power for the LEDs internally instead resorting to those Michael Mouse external cables and floppy connectors (which are a chore to remove with my old, arthritic fingers, btw). All those wires looping around at the back unnecessarily take up more room and look like a rat's nest exploded. My other gripe is the SATA data connectors on the hot swap bays will not latch with latching SATA data cables (which is ironic since the SATA data cables included are the latching kind).

Overall Review: There is no good reason why StarTech couldn't have wired the activity indicator LEDs, allowing people to use their own SATA power cables if they choose. I would feel better if the hinges on the eject linkage were all metal instead plastic and metal. Hopefully, being gentle with the doors will ensure longevity of the mechanism. It's a pity StarTech doesn't make a four bay unit like this one that will fit in a 5.25" bay. Edit: After 9 months of use, it is still going strong and hasn't given me any problems. I mostly use SSDs with it but I have, on occasion, inserted and removed Seagate and WD 9mm thick HDDs and they insert and eject with no problems. While it may seem preferable for the plastic protector sheets to have been installed in the swap bays, the reason for installing them directly on the PCBs of HDDs is to prevent the thin insulating layer on the traces from wearing off.