Icy Dock Backplane Module 2.5 Inch SAS/SATA Drive Enclosure 2.5 Inch MB508SP-B

Hi All. It is not cheap. we can buy 8 - NetApp DS2246 disk shelves which can hold 24 disks, Dual PSUs, Redundant fans and sas modules on the used market. When you pay this amount to an , enclosure not even a Nas Device, you are expecting it to be perfect but it is not the case. My unit came with well packed with no problem with the packed. Thanks to seller. How ever product itself has some things like, Updates after 1 month of use: Negatives: - Noisy fan. (Fan has a bearing sound, probably will not last for a long time) - one of the disk trays was bent. I had to use force to make it straight. - No led brightness setting. (smaller models have it) - Requires 4 separate sata power connector. It could come with one six pin power connector. - it comes with 2 sets of 1 to 8 number buttons. there are no 9-16 numbers for those disks. - you can install only the slimmest sata drives. So if the disks you will install are not slim SSD’s you are out of luck. It is better to check before purchase. Positives: - you will have 16 disk slots which fits in 2x 5,25 slots. - leds work okay. They stay steady in idle and blink during the operation. they are bright though. You may not want to me in the same room at night. - No performance degradation. - fan connector is standard 3 pin connector. I replaced the original fan with 80mm arctic silent fan i had, and now it doesn’t make any sound with better cooling.

Works. Drive number pieces of plastic easily fall out. The fan is not the best quality. For this price level I expect a Noctua.

Anfangs war ich etwas zoegerlich wegen dem Preis, aber es hat sich gelohnt - die Icy Dock ToughArmor Wechselrahmen fuehlen sich wertig an, und die Backplane funktioniert einwandfrei mit einem gebrauchten LSI 9305-16i HBA , vier guenstigen 10Gtek SFF-8643 Kabel, und TrueNAS Core (13.0-U6.1). (auf dem Foto ist oberhalb von dem Artikel noch ein anderer Wechselrahmen mit 6x SFF bays). Ein ganz kleiner Makel ist, dass zwei der untersten trays von einem Vierer-Block ein bisschen haken, wenn man sie rausziehen moechte. D.h. ich muss das Tray leicht anheben, damit es rauskommt. Stoert mich aber nicht - beim Reinschieben war bisher noch nie ein Problem. Die Disks muss man uebrigens mit vier Schrauben befestigen. Eventuell gehen auch nur zwei, das hab ich aber nicht ausprobiert (habe Bedenken, dass dann der SATA Konnektor nicht mehr so passgenau einrastet).

So many drives. 4 SFF connectors makes this much nicer to wire up. Comes with enough screws. Everything works.

Been running this ToughArmor for about 8 months now in my Lenovo P520 and it's been rock solid. Was initially torn between this and some cheaper alternatives, but the full metal construction and MiniSAS HD connectors sold me - glad I spent the extra money. Installation was pretty painless once I figured out the cable routing. Fits perfectly in two 5.25" bays, though you'll want to make sure your case has enough depth. The included SAS cables are good quality and the connectors feel solid. My only minor gripe is that the mounting screws could be a bit longer - had to be careful not to cross-thread them. Hot-swap functionality works exactly as advertised. I've pulled drives while the system was running multiple times with no issues. The individual drive status LEDs are bright enough to see clearly, and the activity indicators actually help when troubleshooting. Build quality is genuinely impressive - this thing feels like it could survive a small earthquake. Running a mix of Samsung 870 EVOs and some older Intel enterprise SSDs with no compatibility issues. Temps stay reasonable even under heavy load, though I do have decent case airflow. The drive trays slide smoothly and lock securely - no wobbling or loose connections. Only real downside is the price, but you get what you pay for. This isn't for casual users - if you're just looking to add a couple drives to your gaming PC, there are cheaper options. But if you're building a proper server or NAS and need reliable hot-swap capability, this is worth every penny. Would definitely buy again for future builds. ICY DOCK clearly knows what they're doing with enterprise-grade storage solutions.

I'm using the Icy Dock MB516SP-B in a Fedora 32 (Linux) virtualization server. Overall, I am happy with it. It is solidly constructed and performs well. Installation required a case mod. The MB516SP-B fits in two 5.25 inch external drive bays. On the case that I used (Corsair Carbide Series Air 540), I had to flatten the metal tab between the 5.25 drive bays. The MB516SP-B does have a groove which might accomodate a lower profile tab, but alas, my chosen case had tabs which stuck out too much. Too be fair I've had to make similar case mods for other cases in which I've installed Supermicro mobile racks (5 drive HDD bays). I flatten these tabs by first bending them part way with an adjustable locking plier (vice grips). I then use a BIG C-clamp to flatten the tabs. It's maybe a fifteen to twenty minute job with the right tools. I'm using Samsung and Western Digital SSDs with the MB516SP-B. It's fully populated, i.e. I have 16 SSDs in it. All bays work and the SSDs mounted easily to the drive trays. One small problem is that two of the drive activity lights are kind of dim. The LEDs on the backplane appear to be bright enough; it might just be that mechanism which conducts the light to the front of the tray is not very effective on a couple of the trays. I considered deducting a star for this problem, but IMO is really only a half star deduction. You will mostly likely need a host bus adapter or RAID controller with this SSD backplane. I'm using a Broadcom HBA 9400-16i which also works well. I had problems with the set of (Cable Plus branded) SFF-8643 cables that I purchased; they simply did not work. I then purchased a set of 10Gtek branded cables which worked fine.