I recently purchased the following USB3.0 external enclosure for 8 bay hard drives and can confirm that it is well worth the price

 

Amazon.com: Syba 8 Bay Tool Less Tray Hot Swappabe 2.5" 3.5" SATA Non Raid External USB 3.0 Enclosure SY-ENC50119

 

 

I have 8 drives in it and can confirm the following: 

 

• Accessing a single hard drive it can max the speed of the hard drive and maintain the max speed
  • on my drive this was ~220 MB/s
• The tool less trays are quality
• it is quiet
  • Quieter than my server is at least
• i have it it sitting horizontally and it works great
• comes with everything you need
• can now have 8 drives attached using unassigned drives to transfer data / format / preclear before putting into main array
• single USB3.0 connection to computer / server
• single external power brick to wall power

 

Only con i can think of is that you can't control the fan speeds but for the external switch, however i don't use it for drives in an active array so this is not a problem for me.   I use this instead of a Hard Drive Dock for extra drives. 

 

Hope this helps others. 

Edited October 27, 20223 yr by bing281
add additional clarification points

For users tempted to use USB connected drives within the array, on the Unraid forum JonathanM has said:

 

USB is notorious for random disconnects, which kicks the drive out of
the array. Also, the USB-SATA interface may introduce differences in
absolute size, or other abnormalities like non-unique serial number
returns or several other issues. Smart reports, and the ability to track
drive health may be limited. Cooling can be a challenge.
Some drives work better than others as USB, but on the whole it's a
recipe for disaster when you depend on all drives to work perfectly 100%
of the time.

 

https://forums.unraid.net/topic/75930-why-not-to-use-usb-external-drives-in-an-array/

Edited October 27, 20223 yr by peterg23

7 hours ago, peterg23 said:

For users tempted to use USB connected drives within the array, on the Unraid forum JonathanM has said:

 

USB is notorious for random disconnects, which kicks the drive out of
the array. Also, the USB-SATA interface may introduce differences in
absolute size, or other abnormalities like non-unique serial number
returns or several other issues. Smart reports, and the ability to track
drive health may be limited. Cooling can be a challenge.
Some drives work better than others as USB, but on the whole it's a
recipe for disaster when you depend on all drives to work perfectly 100%
of the time.

 

https://forums.unraid.net/topic/75930-why-not-to-use-usb-external-drives-in-an-array/

 

Yes thank you for clarifying that.   I put in my large original text I do not use this for any drives in my array.   I also would not do that or recommend anyone does that.