The 5X3 Cage review - Norco, SuperMicro, iStarUSA and Icy Dock


Whaler_99

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  • 4 weeks later...

Icy Dock user here. Thinking of switching to the SM's.

 

One of my MB455SPF-B is giving me the alarm temp beeping after about 18-20 hours of use.

 

Anyone know if i can use replace the fans with stock 80mm or do I need to beg Icy Dock for their replacement?

 

Thanks

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Thinking of switching to the SM's.

 

The SM's use a 92mm fan instead of 80mm. The stock fans move a lot of air and work great for my application. But they can be easily swapped for quieter units. The 92mm fans move more air at the same RPM and should allow quieter operations. 120mm fans move even more air and wold be quieter than either 80mm or 92mm, but I am not aware of a 5in3 drive cage with 120mm fans, although the cheap but effective Rosewill 4in3s do use 120mm fans.

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It uses a standard 80mm fan ... and the mount is detachable, so it's very easy to replace.

 

Sorry, just to clarify.. On the ICY DOCK, No soldering or anything needed on that big mount thingy?

 

Just remove mount and replace the fan with a 3 or 4 pin 80MM fan - then the mount goes right back on with new fan?

 

Thanks!

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Icy Dock has used two different configurations that I know of in their 5-in-3 cages (possibly more).

 

One required soldering the fan wires; one did not.    The fan is removable => so just shut down; pop the fan mount off the rear of the cage; and have a look to see whether or not yours requires any soldering.  If not, it's trivial to just pop in a new 80mm fan.  If it does require soldering, it's VERY simple -- you simply need to cute the two existing wires and then solder the new fan's wires in place.

 

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Thanks!

Icy Dock has used two different configurations that I know of in their 5-in-3 cages (possibly more).

 

One required soldering the fan wires; one did not.    The fan is removable => so just shut down; pop the fan mount off the rear of the cage; and have a look to see whether or not yours requires any soldering.  If not, it's trivial to just pop in a new 80mm fan.  If it does require soldering, it's VERY simple -- you simply need to cute the two existing wires and then solder the new fan's wires in place.

 

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  • 3 months later...

Has anyone tried the new Icydock trayless 5n3's? I'm looking at picking up another batch of disks and thought this might be a good upgrade:

 

http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=163

 

I do like that the 80mm fan can be replaced without soldering as it's only a screw swap away.

I'd be interested in these as well, look nice, did have a look at some other model that was discussed on the boars somewhere but it was a proprietary fan which immediately caused me to lose interest.

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I did review a couple of trayless models. Work fine although the drives fit in a little loosely. And if you have a thinner than normal 3.5" drive, like some Seagate drives, you need to pay attention when slotting them in as the alignment may be off.

 

Overall, I still prefer the trays where I have to screw the drives in. Everything is just much more secure.

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Will be selling my iStarUSA 5x3 cages. They work fine and just need a good cleaning. They do have 80mm fans, but I never replaced them. Have to remove the back with screws. NOTE: Most of the screw holes are stripped, so if you were to mount them in a case you would need to be handy and figure out how to do it. I just put them on top of one another since they are strong enough. Haven't put the post in the for sale area yet. Will be cheap, probably cost more to ship them.

 

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...

Check when you fit 5x3's, there is often a right way and a wrong way.  Whilst they will work upside down, on some of them the LED's are illuminated at an angle and are only properly visible on floor standing towers when mounted one way round so the LED's are angled upwards.

 

Good point, something to keep an eye on when putting everything together. Guess I have been lucky till now.

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  • 3 weeks later...

[quote author=:) link=topic=12405.msg431861#msg431861 date=1452026840]

Aah, understood, thanks.

 

I will be using a LSI 9211-8i flashed to IT mode. Will that support 6 or 8TB drives?

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/291641245650

 

I believe since you will be using it in passthru mode (IT) it doesn't matter the size of the drive. The OS just needs to recognize/support the size.

 

The only LSI controller I know of that has problems with large drives use the LSI SAS1068E chipset. Most notably the IBM Br10i. They are capped at 2T in RAID or HBA mode. I believe the 9211 supports drive sizes at least to 8T.

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Thanks for the replies.

 

Has anyone tried this card with Windows 10? Does it work well? Are there drivers for Windows 10 for this card?

 

Need to post questions like that in the Storage Controller Devices area.

http://www.avagotech.com/products/server-storage/host-bus-adapters/sas-9211-8i#overview

 

Is this a card you already own and want to use it with unraid?

 

And I never knew SMF would allow someone's username to be a smiley. Ha!

 

 

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  • 4 months later...

(Doesn't have to be 5 in 3)

 

Does anyone know of a silver drive case that's available? I was going to get the Silverstone CFP51 (but long story mean that I didn't). Now that I want to add extra drives....it looks like it's no longer being made.

 

It doesn't have to be easy to swap drives (would be a bonus) - it just has to be primarily silver since that's the case I've been using for my build. Ideally it would also have a fan to help with cooling (heat is currently not an issue).

 

Edit: Going to try the Lian Li EX-H34S - that seems to be the only option I can find after hours of searching...

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