Customer Reviews

StarTech.com 4 Drive 2.5-Inch Removable Mobile Rack SAS SATA Backplane SATABAY425BK (Black)

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

 

 

I have three of these from the previous revision with eight ports (4 yellow / 4 black). The one I just received from Amazon is the newer (cheaper to manufacture) revision with only four black ports.

BEWARE: The newer revision will NOT work with SAS drives and will not work with certain SATA drives as well, namely Velociraptors. I use the three previous revisions with Velociraptors and they all work fine. In the newer product, they spin up, but aren't recognized.

Mainstream 7200rpm SATA drives work well, but these newer Startech blackplanes just aren't compatible with SAS or enterprise level SATA drives, DESPITE what the specs indicate in the ad.

I bought this 4x2.5 SAS/SATA backplane for new HTPC I built. I had filled the case with 4 3-1/2 SATA drives and I needed a place to put 2 2-1/2 SAS drives for the OS. I had an empty 5 1/4 bay with no access to the outside of the case and this unit worked perfectly. I like how the drives fit onto a "sled" that slides in the case and plugs into connections. Very easy. I just felt the $70 was pretty pricey but I really needed a solution.

This is a great solution for fitting four 2.5 inch drives in one drive bay. I use it to mount solid state drives. The quality isn't at a professional level but it is perfectly adequate for home use. The racks slide in and out with no problems. The only issue I have with my unit is that the individual drive lights do not work but this is no big deal. The fan is a bit loud as are most such fans but it can be easily disconnected with no major issues. All in all I have been very satisfied.

It's a unique product niche, and there is a prototype feel to the product. Fans (2), even jumpered to low, are annoyingly loud. I have four WD Scorpio Black drives installed - and not much cooling is required. Trays are flimsy, but you're not likely to remove/insert them often. When you do, a little care can prevent a lot of frustration. I wish the engineers had been more conservative with the space, at least the depth. It appears they could have made the overall drive bay the same depth as a standard CD/DVD ROM drive. It's at least an inch greater in depth, which in my case forced me to remove a cooling fan previously located behind the DVD drive in an InWin micro-ATX case. Still, it offers a whole lot of bang for the buck. Rev. 2 could be a clear winner. Remember, too, that the desired Hot-Swap capability requires AHCI to be enabled in BIOS.

Everything works just OK with this drive carriage. The trays don't slide in very smoothly and I believe that there is an issue wih power consumption with all drives inserted. 3 drives work great, 4 drives works intermittently. It's also noisy with the fans even on low.

The stuff came as ordered and i was never disappointed until today! Keep it up amazon and merchants!