Customer Reviews

4 In 3 Sata I/ii Module

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ive had this for 3 months now and what can I say. Read the title of this review.
As long as you have 3 open standard 3.5" bays it installs with ease.
The aluminum bay rails are a little bit flimsy due to design,
but after the hard drives are screwed the whole bay is sturdy.
The fan creates very little noise.

I like the product and plan to buy 2 more in the future.

I've been useing one these for many months ... lately I've been seeing itermitent hangs of the machine ... today I took the covers off and one the SATA conectors fell off this thing ... cheap parts would be my guess be carefull ...

I ordered this so I could house a RAID array on my desktop, so I can backup the desktop + 2 laptops to it. Then I could get SATA II backup speeds (for the desktop, laptops will be WiFi speeds), RAID 1 for all the backups, and ability to yank the disks and take with me in case of a fire.

+'s:
+ Drives are easy to install, move to a different slot, and seem to auto-seat onto the power / SATA connectors well (I've probably removed / re-docked my 2 drives 5-6 times).
+ No problems w/ hook-up, using it right away, etc. etc.

-'s:
. Fit and finish - The bay itself is aluminum, and fits very, very, very tightly into a standard 5 1/4" rack (1st annoyance). Screw holes are also tough to get to once installed (2nd annoyance). Front panel and front of trays are plastic (that portion feels a bit flimsy).
. Bug - I have 2 drives installed - bays 2 & 4 from top. Last night, red thermal alert LED went off on bay 3, as did the audible alarm. Bay 3 is empty, so where's the problem? Are the LEDs on the front 1-4, but mapped to 1,2,4,3, ala the SATA connectors, as the other review suggests?
. Documentation suggests leaving an empty space between 2 drives if other bays are unused. I had a thermal issue using bays 3 & 4 only. If it over-heats w/ just 2 drive in, but adjacent, I'm doubt I'll ever put 4 drives in (unless maybe I replace the fan...)

The ICY Dock MB454SPF-B does everything is should. My only complaint is that once it is in your machine, you can't read any of the labels. You can't even see who made it or what its model is. This makes finding the order that the 4 sata connectors go very difficult. Once I found it, I was able to make a simple little diagram on the side that just looked like this:
......1
...2
4..3
which once you look at the back explains quite a lot.
I'm always wary of companies that aren't willing to put name and model on the front of a product. But so far this has worked exactly the way it should.
If you are wanting to know more, a site called bjorn3d (I have no relation to them) wrote a detailed review of this device with lots of pictures.