Relatively cheap 4-in-3 drive stacker

[Vynce]

The Cooler Master STB-3T4-E3-GP is the newest version of the Cooler Master drive stacker cage/module. It hasn't been released in the US market which makes it kinda hard to get here.

 

Directron has them in stock -- my order just shipped. http://www.directron.com/stb3t4e3gp.html

Newegg is still out. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817993002

 

More info:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=37&threadid=2162365

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=37&threadid=2170957

 

Silverstone also has a pretty nice unit that hasn't been released yet. It currently comes with their Kublai cases and so Zepper (an Anandtech member) has named it the Kublai Kage. You can see some pictures of it in the middle of his case review: http://www.techimo.com/articles/index.pl?photo=296 . The only problem with it is that you have to rig up some cooling if it is mounted in any other case since the fan attaches to the bezel of the Kublai case. It'll still be the cheapest hot-swap SATA drive cage available.

 

Zepper has reviewed just about all of these type of drive modules:

http://www.techimo.com/reviews/showproduct.php?product=430

http://www.techimo.com/reviews/showproduct.php?product=448

[josetann]

I have the older version (no need for fancy looks, I did notice the newer version was out).  The older version doesn't have slots where most cases have holders for the cd-drives, so they'll most likely have to be bent on the case unless you have a CoolerMaster Stacker.  I prefer this over the hot-swap options because #1. it's about 1/10th the price, give or take; and #2.  I like having one huge fan in front pushing air over the drives instead of some smaller punier fans in back (which is a necessity for a hot-swap option).  If you can afford to have your data offline for about fifteen minutes, I think this is a better option (and if you still want hot-swap, make sure your sata ports support that, else you'll still be rebooting at the very least).

[Vynce]

Yeah, I don't really care about the fancy looks either. The main advantage is that this newest revision should fit in most cases without modification. It has an annoying blue LED fan though.

[NAS]

Thanks for taking the time to post about this. I was basically about to order a 16 drive 4U rackmount hotswap case when out of the blue unRAID annouces you need 17 drive slots now.

 

So i needed a cheap temp solution to start reseaching bigger cases again.

 

Can anyone see dust gauze in these pics or is it just blurryness. Its the one thing the old one severely lack.

[Vynce]

As far as I know, none of the Cooler Master modules have dust filters. Maybe one of those foam dust filters can be attached to the front of the fan.