I have a Coolermaster stacker coming. What drive trays do you guys recommend?

According to Tom, the "Cremax 4-in-3 and 3-in-2 cages are very very good."  Here's a link to one of their products:

 

http://www.icydock.com/product/mb454spf.html

I've been having similar considerations and have ordered an Icydock 5 into 3 Bay SATA Caddy having seen one used in the Ultimate Unraid thread.

 

My thinking was 5 HDDs into 3 bays plus 9 Individual caddies will make 14 HDDs, which will soon be the new maximum capacity on the UnRaid Server software, taking up the 12 Bays of the CM Stacker case.

 

One thing I was wondering during my reseasrch was whether the Icydock PATA to SATA Caddies would be a good solution for my current IDE HDDs?

 

This would mean that I could use Sata cables & Controller cards for my current IDE drives making internal server cabling a whole lot easier and improving air flow, but would it have any impact on performance?

 

Thanks,

 

Mark.

 

 

I'm using the Kingwin KF-21 aluminum tray and it works great.  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817121109

 

WHIW I found them to be a little less expensive then the icydock trays too

 

 

 

According to Tom, the "Cremax 4-in-3 and 3-in-2 cages are very very good."  Here's a link to one of their products:

 

http://www.icydock.com/product/mb454spf.html

 

With the size case I'm getting I don't really have a need for X-in-Y cages I'm just looking at the trays. Does anyone know the model number of the ones that came in the prebuilt systems that Tom used to sell? I've seen several like them but not sure which ones he was using.

I'm using Cremax ICYDock MB123AK IDE mobile racks.  These are the ones Tom used in the prebuilt IDE systems.  I've had my server for a little over a year and I haven't had any problems with them.  For SATA systems he used ICYDock MB123SK-1B.

 

Here's a link to the IDE rack:

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817186004

 

See the comment from limetech on this page:

 

http://www.lime-technology.com/wordpress/?page_id=24

 

 

I'm using Cremax ICYDock MB123AK IDE mobile racks.  These are the ones Tom used in the prebuilt IDE systems.  I've had my server for a little over a year and I haven't had any problems with them.

 

OK, that's made my mind up 6 x MB123AK for the IDE drives in my system 

 

For SATA systems he used ICYDock MB123SK-1B.

 

These I'm a little more concerned about.  Reading the Specs on a UK reseller site they appear to be Sata150 only.  All my Sata drives are SataII (Sata300), will this reduce the performance in an UnRaid envirmonment?  or are there other factors limiting the transfer rate making Sata300 compatibilty irrelevant?

 

I have a similar problem on the IDE interface as I can currently only find the Promise TX2 100 IDE controllers for sale in the UK.  The Sata variants of those Caddies & my IDE HDDs all support IDE133.  Am I limiting the performance of my UnRaid server if I buy the 100 variant of the Promise controller for use with these caddies?

 

For most people just streaming movies etc. It may not be so important, but I'm trying to work out how to archive lots of CCTV footage, keep backups of many PCs and store my PCs "My Documents" on the UnRaid so I'd like to give this new server the best shot at performance that I can.

 

Many thanks,

 

Mark.

I'm using Cremax ICYDock MB123AK IDE mobile racks.  These are the ones Tom used in the prebuilt IDE systems.  I've had my server for a little over a year and I haven't had any problems with them.  For SATA systems he used ICYDock MB123SK-1B.

 

Here's a link to the IDE rack:

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817186004

 

See the comment from limetech on this page:

 

http://www.lime-technology.com/wordpress/?page_id=24

 

 

 

I've got SATA drives coming. What do the ICYDock MB123SK-1B give me that the MB123SRACK-1S don't? The price difference is huge.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817994031

That link is for the internal tray only, it does not include the other half that the tray slides into that has the Fan and lock assembly.

 

I would expect it to cost less than both halves... 

 

It would be used if you were swapping several drives into one slot on a PC.

 

Joe L.

That link is for the internal tray only, it does not include the other half that the tray slides into that has the Fan and lock assembly.

 

I would expect it to cost less than both halves... 

 

It would be used if you were swapping several drives into one slot on a PC.

 

Joe L.

 

Oh ok. Thanks.

According to Tom, the "Cremax 4-in-3 and 3-in-2 cages are very very good."  Here's a link to one of their products:

 

http://www.icydock.com/product/mb454spf.html

 

Quick question about those 4 in 3 cages. What I'm trying to find out is can one drive spin up without everything in the cage spinning up?

Quick question about those 4 in 3 cages. What I'm trying to find out is can one drive spin up without everything in the cage spinning up?

 

I can't speak to the IcyDock Caddies, but my no-name unit sure does.

 

 

Quick question about those 4 in 3 cages. What I'm trying to find out is can one drive spin up without everything in the cage spinning up?

 

I can't speak to the IcyDock Caddies, but my no-name unit sure does.

 

 

 

Bill can you clarify. Are you saying that your caddies only spin up one drive or all drives when data is called for? What caddies are you using?

Bill can you clarify. Are you saying that your caddies only spin up one drive or all drives when data is called for? What caddies are you using?

 

I'm using a no-name 4-in-3 drive caddie (i.e., a "3141SATA Back Plane" which holds four SATA I or II drives in three 3 1/2" drive bays).  While the power lights on the front of the caddie are always "on", I can see from the unRAID configuration screen (i.e., //tower) that my drives spin down when not in use (see snap1, all the "lights" are off and none of the drives are reporting a temperarture).  Then as I use the drives, the individual drives spin up (see snap2 after I read data off of disk1, only disk1 has a green light and a temperature reading).

 

 

 

Thanks for the info Bill. I ordered that cage off of Fleabay for $79

i plan on using this one

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817332009

 

any thoughts or experiences with this company?

 

cyg

cygnusaa,

 

I can't swear to it, but the pictures of the SATA caddie on newegg's website looks almost exactly like mine (see my post from 3/10, 1:06 p.m.) except the front labeling and # of drive slots (i.e., I suspect the same manufacturer, but different reseller).

 

BillK

ya and its cheaper than an athenatech product that i recall seeing on newegg...perhaps AMS and your brand do share a manufacturer....lots of this is new to me so im not 100% on what to look for in a caddy or backplane but it seemed to have the right capabilities...ill know soon enough how it does...heh

i plan on using this one

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817332009

 

any thoughts or experiences with this company?

 

cyg

 

Cyg,

 

I would not do it. I own a variation of this, a rebrand from Chieftec and others (Model BP-SATA2131). I've had them over a year now, and the fans are not only noisy, near useless, but are giving out as well! The ventilation is just horrible. I've read one guy reversed the direction of his fans to some positive effect but the gains are just not worth messing with it. I was also thinking of replacing the fans with better/quieter ones, but these are not standard 80mm fans.. they are 15 or 20mm thick... whereas the standard 80mm case fans are 25mm. There are some on the market that are this thin but they are expensive (20 bucks per) and do not have the half the power of the originals. So again I repeat, don't do it or worse case: return it.

 

Optimally, I'd like to replace these with just an open slotted mobile rack and use case power/SATA directly to each drive. I can use a bunch of quiet/cheap fans hung on a cross bar for much better ventilation. Problem is- I cant find any open mobile racks on the market. If anyone knows an open/slide/slot rack that suites 3 in to 2 (or 6 in to 4) please post it.

 

Actually, we've been evaluating the 5-in-3 version and it's not too bad.

As I see it, the only advantage closed units have is they consolidate the power cables a bit. Otherwise, they add to throughput overhead a little, and create a lot of heat that can be better vented with well placed case fans.

I take it when limetech was selling systems they didn't use the motherboard fan option that the CoolerMaster Stacker offers.  Clearance for a hard drive tray between the motherboard fan and the front of the case (so the drive trays can actually mount without sticking out the front of the case) is 8.75 inches.  Those IcyDock trays are about 9.25 inches.

 

Are there any recommendations for drive trays that are 8.75 inches or less in length?  Preferably IDE since I have some IDE controller cards already, but since I'm not yet 100% sure unRAID supports them, SATA trays are still a possibility.

 

Thanks!

 

 

As I see it, the only advantage closed units have is they consolidate the power cables a bit. Otherwise, they add to throughput overhead a little, and create a lot of heat that can be better vented with well placed case fans.

 

Agreed, though throughput overhead is truly negligible.  The big advantage of course is being able to install/remove drives without opening the case and dealing with cables and fasteners!

True. But there is nothing to stop, however, anyone designing a completely passive cage with cables (power + SATA say) lined up and secure, direct from the MB/PS. Thats what I'd like to have, a cage with easy slot/rail access per drive but no intermediary electronics and my own (far better) fans.Maybe the cables will be a little custom, or maybe theyll take a passive secured adapter to make them more solid. But thats it as I see it.  Dont know if I'll ever see it though.

 

Plus there is a good argument to be made about additional points of failure, air flow obstruction and additional heat generation (and possibly the use of the worst fans on the market).

What you describe is exactly what we were looking for in a chassis.  If you have ever seen/used the Antec Sonata chassis, there's a good example of what we wanted to do:

 

 

Notice how these drive trays work. You attach the tray, slide into chassis, then hook up individual power and data cable.  We tried to get Antec to quote us a custom chassis with this style drive cage the entire height of the chassis, but they weren't interested unless we  wanted 10,000 of them