StarTech.com 3-Bay Hot Swap Backplane for 3.5in SAS II/SATA III - 6 Gbps HDD - Aluminum Trayless Mobile Rack Backplane (HSB3SATSASBA)

I originally bought two of these to enable easy swapping of drives in a backup server. They have worked flawlessly since then, running 24/7 for over a year. The build is robust and swapping out drives is very easy. I later added one to my desktop PC because I have a 24TB drive that runs very hot, but the built in fans in this enclosure also cool the drives far more than any case fan. Since moving the drive to the enclosure I have had no problem with overheating. So, great for swapping drives but also great for cooling drives.

I was slightly nervous about using these but I had an old tower case and an old server motherboard and wanted to create my own NAS so thought I'd give these a go. The worry was that the drives would be too cramped and run hot. Iniitally I ran 2 of these with four drives (2 per enclosure with a central gap) over a period of a month and monitored the temps. The drives ran consistently between 28 & 31 C. Then I loaded the final two and ran with all 6 ever since. Over two years these have run with the drives consistently between 28 & 31. Each drive has its own temp. and it's actually the drive, not the position as I tried swapping a couple round after a year to see if it made a difference. Under periods of really heavy load for an hour or more, one or two disks rise a degree then settle back. So enclosures and fans do what they are supposed to. Although slightly fiddly to fit 6 drives in two of these it wasn't hard.

I bought this because I wanted a 3 in 2 with front access (I'm fed up with having to wiggle drives in and out of cases), it was in stock and startech are generally a decent brand. Good points: cage is metal and feels solid, cables and screws were included, trayless so you don't have to worry about getting extra trays or about tray compatibility between different cages. Sufficient space around the power connectors to accomodate connectors with pass-through cables. Not so good point: it barely fit in my case, the back touches one of the motherboard standoffs and the front sits slightly proud of the front of the case (though they way it's styled it probablly looks better that way anyway) I'm not sure if this is startech's fault or antec's but it's still less than ideal.

Work as it should, i used this for mostley for sas drives you will need a sas card and a lead to get the correct speed and to work the sas drives, also can be used for sata drives as well or plugged direct to the motherboard for sata only but speed is limited to sata speeds. you can only use sas Drives with a sas card.

used in a dell t320 for several months now, easy extra 3 slots in place of the empty 5.25" bays

Some other reviews mentioned this doesn't fit into 2 5.25" drive bays which has not been my experience, this fit exactly in 2 bays with no issues. It can be a bit awkward to get the drives in and if you have little space behind the bays it might be a problem. The fan is a bit loud and the control switch to control it's speed (simple toggle, no granular speed control) is on the back of the unit instead of the front where depending on your case it might not be easily reachable. It doesn't have any way to connect to a motherboard or external control unit separately or automatically. I'm not sure about the qality of the electronics, that will take some time.

Great device, solid, quite, SAS or SATA connecions, topped off the flexibility of my NAS. Don't expect anything in the way of packaging.

I buy many Startech products as they are always reliable and well built, and this is no exception. A high quality metal design with sturdy doors (unlike many competitors) and a pleasing aesthetic look. There are two things wrong with it. Firstly a very noisy fan that has to be heard to be believed. On 'Low' setting its noisy (which even my Corsair 550d silent case can't subdue). I can't imagine anyone using the 'High' setting - its unbearable. This would not be too bad if it wasn't for the lack of power switches on each drive slot. HDDs could then be turned on individually when required and also hot-swapped on demand. It doesn't though, so the noisy fan is on all the time (even when no drives are present) and you have to power down the computer to change/remove the drives, unless you fancy ripping them out powered on which isn't advisable. I removed the fan (easy to do) but found myself wanting one with power switches for additional flexibility. This could be a class leading design if these two issues were sorted out.