April 6, 201115 yr So I was curious, on my 5in3 cages there are three Molex power connectors and two SATA power connectors. How many cables do I need for each cage? The manual only says that I can mix and match SATA/Molex connectors.
April 7, 201115 yr Author The problem with the 5in3 trayless designs is that they all use tiny fans which will be loud and have poor airflow. This is not correct. I use 3 5in3 cages and have 13 Black 7200 rpm drives all being kept cool with just the stock 80mm fans. The 80mm fans aren't on 5in3 trayless cages, only the cages with trays Find me a trayless 5in3 cage with a 80mm fan and I'll be your friend forever This is the closest so far. 4in3 Icy Dock. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817994113
April 7, 201115 yr This is the closest so far. 4in3 Icy Dock. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817994113 It looks good too. If someone came out with a 5in3 with an 80mm+ fan I'd seriously consider selling all 3 of my current 5in3 cages.
April 7, 201115 yr I agree that it looks good. I have two reasons for preferring the 5 in 3 layout - obviously the increased capacity, but also I would rather not stack the drives one on top of the other (for thermal/heat dissipation reasons).
April 7, 201115 yr They are on their way.... Have the SM 3x5 cage already, purchased the Norco from NCIX last night and checked with Newegg today and they had the Icy Dock 3x5 back in stock and the iStarUSA one in and on sale as well. So I should have the three new cages in and ready to mount next week. Now, to get out that C clamp... Shawn
April 7, 201115 yr I have 4 of the IcyDock 5in3 in my case and I find they run pretty hot, but I am running all non-green 7200 RPM Seagate Barracuda drives which is likely not the optimal configuration. As I upgrade, I'll probably lean towards Green Drives (although I am partial to Seagate's for "employment" reasons ) I've had to replace one dead 80mm fan for failure, which was simple, but I'm in the High 30's-Low 40's during any kind of normal use and can go higher on a warm day running a parity check, etc. I have my server in a closet with 4 other 80mm fans (8 total with the 4 on the cages) and a 120mm as well). I need to check the fan speed switches next time I have the Server Open...One of things I dislike about them is requiring 3x4Pin Molex Power connectors, so between the 4 of them I have 12 Molex, so lots of SATA to Molex and splitters, etc to get enough power to all of them. I wasn't crazy about the $$$ for the Icydocks (have $475ish on just the 4 drive cages) and since I'm not "Hot-Swapping" at this point, it's probably overkill, but I like the way they look!
April 7, 201115 yr I had 7200 Seagates in my Icy Dock 5-in-3 and I had a bit of an issue keeping them cool. They would push in low 40's to 45c especially during parity check. I switched over to the LP drives and it's not a problem now. The WD EARS stay cool in these cages very nicely. opentoe, what cages are you using?
April 7, 201115 yr They are on their way.... Have the SM 3x5 cage already, purchased the Norco from NCIX last night and checked with Newegg today and they had the Icy Dock 3x5 back in stock and the iStarUSA one in and on sale as well. So I should have the three new cages in and ready to mount next week. Now, to get out that C clamp... Sir, I commend you for your public-minded spirit. I'm sure that your findings will be of great assistance to those trying to make a decision. However, I am slightly disappointed .... I cannot find the iStarUSA BPN-350 (trayless) units listed on the Newegg website - I conclude, therefore, that you have purchased the unit with trays, the BPU-350 model.
April 7, 201115 yr Sir, I commend you for your public-minded spirit. I'm sure that your findings will be of great assistance to those trying to make a decision. However, I am slightly disappointed .... I cannot find the iStarUSA BPN-350 (trayless) units listed on the Newegg website - I conclude, therefore, that you have purchased the unit with trays, the BPU-350 model. That is correct. All my cages will be ones with trays. More an apples to apples comparison as it were. Shawn
April 7, 201115 yr So I connected one of my iStarUSA cages today to test a drive, and the fan on the cage is LOUD on low, and on high it's preparing for takeoff. These are the cages with the blue aluminum handles. They look really nice and work well, but the fan is killer. They also take non-standard 20mm thick fans. So, I can buy $8 thin fans and solder them to the existing connections or cut a hole and run the fan to the board or PSU headers. Or, I could just remove the fan from the cage and install a few beefy fans in the case to try and draw in air through the cage opening. And I have 3 of these cages, so it would be $24 for new fans plus the PITA of soldering them together and hoping everything works. Decisions, decisions.
April 7, 201115 yr It seems that every cage on the market has loud fans EXCEPT the Icy Docks. I love these Icy's. Three more just arrived that are going into another client build.
April 7, 201115 yr It seems that every cage on the market has loud fans EXCEPT the Icy Docks. And I got the cages for a good price with Newegg's $25 promotion, so I'll keep them. I'll just have to experiment with fan configurations in the case. The server case is sitting about 2 feet from me and I can hear it well over my normal radio volume. I also took it apart, and it looks like I'll have to either cannibalize the backing plate for a deeper fan or use the thinner fan.
April 7, 201115 yr It seems that every cage on the market has loud fans EXCEPT the Icy Docks. I love these Icy's. Three more just arrived that are going into another client build. And the Norco cages. The Norco's stock fans are quite quiet...maybe not as quiet as the Icy Docks', but definitely not obtrusively loud.
April 7, 201115 yr The problem with the Norcos is that they're almost a full inch longer than the iStarUSA cages, and in my case that's the determining factor. My motherboard also has SATA ports that face the cages.
April 7, 201115 yr Sir, I commend you for your public-minded spirit. I'm sure that your findings will be of great assistance to those trying to make a decision. However, I am slightly disappointed .... I cannot find the iStarUSA BPN-350 (trayless) units listed on the Newegg website - I conclude, therefore, that you have purchased the unit with trays, the BPU-350 model. That is correct. All my cages will be ones with trays. More an apples to apples comparison as it were. Shame! So .... who's going to review the BPN-350 unit for me (or point me to an existing review somewhere on the net)?
April 7, 201115 yr 5x3 Review... So, I expect all the cages to be in next week. I will probably base a review along the lines of this one (great job BTW guys). I won't bother with any "stock" pics prior to putting them in. Newegg and product sites can do them better justice then I. I am going to install them in my tower from deepest to least, that way in pics should be easy to see size differences. If anyone has any other suggestion, let me know. I will take my time trying to get cabling neat and tidy so the pics won't look to crowded. If anyone wants some specific shots of a cage externally, or two or three, side by side, etc, PM me and I will get what is needed before installing them. Shawn Mod edit: Fixed broken link to Greenleaf Blog - Raj
April 7, 201115 yr In that Green Leaf review, cage length wasn't even mentioned as I skimmed the review.
April 7, 201115 yr So I got a response form iStarUSA regarding which power connectors to use on the back of the cage. The instructions say that you can mix and match SATA/Molex, but no mention of that in the response. Dear Ken, Regarding to your question, BPU-350SATA have 3 molex and 2 sata power connectors on the back. You can either plug in all 3 molex ONLY OR BOTH 2 sata power connector ONLY so is either plug in all molex or plug in all sata. not all molex and sata together, Thanks Sincerely, Technical Support Team istarUSA Group Kevin Liang iStarUSA, Inc. www.istarusa.com
April 11, 201115 yr In that Green Leaf review, cage length wasn't even mentioned as I skimmed the review. You are right. With all the fans installed on each unit, the drive cage length of each unit is pretty similar. However, the Supermicro and Icy Dock cages allow you to remove the fans (thus making the cages shorter). However, if you are to run them without fans you had better have some serious cooling in the rest of your case!
April 11, 201115 yr How many power cables do I need to connect to each 5in3 cage running green drives?
April 11, 201115 yr The documentation might tell you but I would connect both molex OR all 3 SATA. The documentation said I could mix/match, but it never explained how many cables need to be connected. There are 3 Molex and 2 SATA power connectors.
April 11, 201115 yr The documentation said I could mix/match, but it never explained how many cables need to be connected. There are 3 Molex and 2 SATA power connectors. then I would connect 2 SATA and see what happens. If that is not enough I would connect 3 Molex and go from there.
April 11, 201115 yr then I would connect 2 SATA and see what happens. If that is not enough I would connect 3 Molex and go from there. See what happens? Is this code for "if things break"?
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