Has anyone used the SNT SNT-SAC3051TL?  How was the noise levels if you did?  Heat? 

I'm also curious about these units.  I've had my eye on them for a while, but haven't gotten around to testing them yet.

 

Here's the newegg link for anyone interested:

 

SNT SNT-SAC3051TL 5 x 3.5" HDD in 3 x 5.25" Bay SAS/SATA Trayless Backplane Hot Swap RAID Cage

 

If no one chimes in with opinions about these units, then I'll probably buy one before too long and run my own tests on it.

Here's a post from someone who used them - http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2031.msg69956#msg69956

 

Here's a follow up about noise - http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2031.msg70175#msg70175

I PMed funbubba.  Hopefully he'll pop in and give us some more input on the SNT units.

The appear to be the same fans as their 4-in-3, which is obnoxious IMO. I replaced the original fans with quieter ones, but am now rebuilding to make it quieter. If it had a single big fan it would be a great choice IMO.

Pop.

 

Well, they are definitely loud, like I've mentioned.  It didn't bother me at first since the box is tucked away in the basement but after a while I started being able to hear the darned thing from where I normally watch media.  So I've made some modifications to alleviate that problem. 

 

Mainly I removed the small fans in favor of the "negative airflow" whatchamacallit.  I've got four 120mm fans directing the air outside the case and sealed off any holes that do not directly flow over the hard drives, which include any empty bays.  I've got 8 disks in there now, the ambient temp is probably around 18-20 degrees.  I've got a 5400rpm disk in its own cage that's always spun up and it's currently at 26C.  A majority of my disks are repurposed 7200rpm so they run a little bit hotter.  I kicked off a parity check so I'll post a screenshot in a few minutes.

 

BTW, it's pretty much silent in its current setup.  Looking back at my order these are the 120mm's I installed.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103052

I'm about an hour into my parity check and here are my temps.

 

 

So it looks like I have 9 disks, not 8 from what I mentioned before.  The top five disks are in one cage and the 7200rpms sitting next to each other seem to be contributing to each other's heat.  The next three are the same type of Seagate 7200's also next to each other, but sitting next to two empty slots.  The last disk on the very bottom is the WD10EACS that's not in the array and is basically spinning all the time.

 

Not the greatest temps, but that's what I get for reusing 7200's.

Actually that is about perfect IMO. Mine run up to 38º C during parity check, but watching a movie they rarely get over 30, which is a little to cold IMO.

I agree, those are perfectly acceptable temps during a parity check.  If you can get those kind of temps without using the included fans and just installing some large case fans, then I think these SNT units are quite promising.  I might have to buy some soon.