Anyone have any experience with these yet?  I'm digging their look, but not so sure about 70mm cooling on the 3-in-2, since the 80mm fan on the Icy Docks is barely sufficient...

 

3-in-2

 

4-in-3

I can't remember right off, but there was/is a build in the unRAID Compulsive Design and somebody was using them. I tried to look earlier and well I got kinda lost. LOL

I can't remember right off, but there was/is a build in the unRAID Compulsive Design and somebody was using them. I tried to look earlier and well I got kinda lost. LOL

Yeah, I know that feeling! 

Having been led to the iStar site by this post, I explored a little further and found the 5 in 3 trayless model BPN-350V2-SS, here

 

This made me wonder whether there are any other trayless 5 in 3 backplanes available - a quick google only found one other, the Athena Power BP-TL3051SAC, here

 

Now, to my way of thinking, if you're going to go for hot swap, what's the point of using trays and having those fiddly screws to contend with every time you change a drive?

 

So, what disadvantages do these trayless designs have?  Both of these designs seem to be much shorter than any of the 'with tray' models, which is a definite advantage.  The only disadvantage I can see is that they both use two small fans (50mm in the Athena, 60mm in the iStar) which, I suspect, are going to be more noisy than a single larger fan.

 

Does anyone here know of other 5 in 3 trayless backplanes?  Does anyone have experience of any? Does anyone have any further comments?

 

Based on the information I currently have, I'm torn between the Norco SS-500 with tray, or the iStar BPN-350 trayless.

The problem with trayless designs is alignment.  If the manufacturer cuts too much structure out to make room for disks, the drives may not line up properly.  Using drive trays mitigates this by forcing rigidity into the design.  As far as I know, most of the 5-in-3 trayless solutions have run very hot.  The newer 4-in-3 and 3-in-2 designs I have listed in the OP are using 80mm and 70mm fans, respectively, which should be a huge improvement over the 50 - 40mm fan designs other manufacturers are using for trayless cages.  That being said, the newer Icy Docks use 80mm fans and provide just enough cooling when full of 7200rpm drives (in the mid to upper 30s).

As it currently stands (albeit I understand that changes are in the works), UnRaid does not support hot-swap.  The array needs to be brought offline before you can remove or add a drive to the array, limiting to the value (to me personally anyway) the tray-less design.

Trayless or none trayless having access to your drives from the front is a great benifit to your server. I'm in the process of building if you would an Entertainment Center in my closet for my server and all of my other gear. As it stands if I want to add a drive or take care of a drive I have to:

1. Shut down the array and machine

2. Pull the machine out

3. Open the side of the case

4. Disconnect all my wires

5. Pull out the cage

6. Remove the affected drive

7. Insert new drive.

8. Reverse Process

 

If I had one of these or any of the sort I could just perform step #1 and #7 and be done with it.

 

For the average Joe its purely a time saving step, but for me so far its been a money saving step not to buy one as of yet. If I had a fully loaded machine you bet your butt I would be using these since I really don't want to have to deal with  multiple drives and wires everywhere.

The problem with trayless designs is alignment.  If the manufacturer cuts too much structure out to make room for disks, the drives may not line up properly.  Using drive trays mitigates this by forcing rigidity into the design.

 

Okay, thanks ... this is something to bear in mind, although I don't see why a trayless system should be less rigid than with a tray.  I guess that the crucial point here is that the manufacturer can enforce strict alignment on the tray which is under their control, compared to aligning a drive which can come from one of a number of other manufacturers.  However, having to take a little extra care when inserting a drive is still a lot more convenient than dealing with the screws.

 

As far as I know, most of the 5-in-3 trayless solutions have run very hot.  The newer 4-in-3 and 3-in-2 designs I have listed in the OP are using 80mm and 70mm fans, respectively, which should be a huge improvement over the 50 - 40mm fan designs other manufacturers are using for trayless cages.  That being said, the newer Icy Docks use 80mm fans and provide just enough cooling when full of 7200rpm drives (in the mid to upper 30s).

 

Thermal performance is much more critical to me, because my ambient temperature is often well over 30C.  However, quoting an absolute temperature is rather meaningless - in order to be able to make any meaningful judgement about the thermal performance, it is crucial to know how high the drive temperatures are above ambient.

 

I guess that not only do the trayless designs appear, for some reason which I don't understand, to use smaller fans, but another factor is that the tray, itself, can act as a heatsink.

 

Perhaps a compromise between trayed/trayless systems might be to keep a couple of spare trays so that drives can be swapped with minimal downtime.

Ther

If I had one of these or any of the sort I could just perform step #1 and #7 and be done with it.

 

Indeed - the hassle of physically having to move the hardware, remove side panels, disconnect cables, remove screws etc. is a major argument for adopting a backplane solution.

 

For the average Joe its purely a time saving step, but for me so far its been a money saving step not to buy one as of yet. If I had a fully loaded machine you bet your butt I would be using these since I really don't want to have to deal with  multiple drives and wires everywhere.

 

Just so!  While my current 5 drive system doesn't really justify the expense of using backplanes, I have exhausted my supply of 5.25 to 3.5 carriers.  My chances of finding more carriers in this country are little higher than zero, and if I'm having to go through the hassle of placing an international order, I may as well do the job properly!  My only other option would be to fabricate my own 5.25 to 3.5 frame.

...

 

For the average Joe its purely a time saving step, but for me so far its been a money saving step not to buy one as of yet. If I had a fully loaded machine you bet your butt I would be using these since I really don't want to have to deal with  multiple drives and wires everywhere.

 

I used to feel the same way but have changed my mind.  If drives are difficult to add or exchange, and a drive were to fail, you would run the risk of knocking a wire lose or not hooking something correctly when swapping the new drive in for the failed one. This can make it appear to unRaid that a second drive has failed in your array when it is in a delicate state and complicate recovery. At a minimum, I think each array should have one open and extremely easy to access slot to swap in a drive without opening the case.  It could be as simple as an eSata enclosure, but I'd recommend a drive cage.

I guess since my machine is well done as far as I can go until I need more drives I'm thinking I'll keep watching these cage threads and pick one up here and there until I replace all 3 of mine. I guess I'm just super spoiled knowing that my drives are super cooled with my 120MM fans blowing across them.

If drives are difficult to add or exchange, and a drive were to fail, you would run the risk of knocking a wire lose or not hooking something correctly when swapping the new drive in for the failed one.

 

Very true - even with only five drives, the risk of disturbing other connections is always a concern.  However, it is reassuring that, as of 5.0b4, it is no longer important to keep drives matched to host ports.

 

Of course, another benefit of using backplanes is that it reduces the number of power connections required.