Best hot swap 5 in 3?

[xamindar]

I'm looking at getting a 5 in 3 hot swap tray for my unraid. Anyone who has used these please post your experiences and any problems they may have. I have heard everything from "they keep the drives at 35 C" to "you can't use all 5 trays as the drives overheat" so I'm not sure. They are quite expensive so I want to get a good one.

 

Here are the two I am currently looking at:

iStarUSA

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816215176

Supermicro

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817121405&cm_re=supermicro_sata_hot-_-17-121-405-_-Product

 

I'm leaning toward the iStarUSA one as it looks better and looks like solid construction with the aluminium handles. The drawback compared to the supermicro is that the fan is non-standard so a little harder to replace. The supermicro one would also leave only about 1cm of space between the back of the fan and my PSU in the case.

 

Any other brands out there I should be considering?

Thanks.

[GaryMaster]

Based on what I have read, I would go with the Supermicro or Chenbro 5 in 3 if buying a trayed hot swap system.  I have used the ICY DOCK 5 in 3 and it has also been reliable for the past 5 years with no fan failure, but it doesn't get as good of reviews as the Supermicro on newegg.

 

I prefer the idea of a Trayless system (see the options I have posted on this thread), but am not getting much feedback on good vs bad:

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=5412.0

 

 

 

[Talos]

I use three of the Norco SS-500 5in3 units in my Lianli pc-a17b. Reason I chose these over the Icy's and Chenbro's etc is they use 90mm fans that can be swapped out easily for any fan of that size you want.

 

I have replaced the stock ones that come with the Norco's (which are ~2700rpm and loudish) with some quiet Noctua NF-B9's. The Norco/Noctua combination keeps all my drives easily under 40deg and is basically silent.

 

Below is a link to a review on the SS-500 and also a comparison between the Norco, iStar and two diff IcyDock modules. The Norco does pretty well in comparison.

 

http://www.wegotserved.com/2009/02/21/hands-on-norco-ss-500-backplane-hot-swap-module/

http://www.wegotserved.com/2009/03/08/round-up-a-final-look-at-my-backplane-hot-swap-module-reviews/

[boof]

I use the supermicro ones and have one that's fully populated with all 5 drives.

 

I've replaced the fan with a quieter model and use a fanmate to under volt it to keep the noise down.

 

Temps across all drives are still fine and have been for the past year and a bit the cage has been fully populated.

 

No problems with it at all.

[330T]

currently i'm using three of the supermicro 5 in 3 in my server.  I really like them.  I was not a happy with the amount of fan noise they had so i did remove the fans.  But, I had a lot of exhaust fans in my case that pull significant air over the drives, and for the first few days i closely monitored the drive temps as i was moving files onto, and off of the server.

[xamindar]

Thanks for the input. Looks like the Norco is the best choice and is cheapest as well.

 

About these things in general, do they all have drive power and activity LEDs? From the pictures on newegg for the Norco it looks like it doesn't have any LEDs at all. Also, do they have a way of telling you about a dead drive and which drive it is?

 

And regarding the fans, if I plugged the fan into the motherboard (or anywhere else besides the tray) is there a way to disable the fan fail alarm?

 

If I get the Norco I will have to buy 4 sata cables separately. Although getting it all from newegg is still $10 cheaper than buying the istarusa one or the supermicro.

[boof]

Thanks for the input. Looks like the Norco is the best choice and is cheapest as well.

 

About these things in general, do they all have drive power and activity LEDs? From the pictures on newegg for the Norco it looks like it doesn't have any LEDs at all. Also, do they have a way of telling you about a dead drive and which drive it is?

 

And regarding the fans, if I plugged the fan into the motherboard (or anywhere else besides the tray) is there a way to disable the fan fail alarm?

 

If I get the Norco I will have to buy 4 sata cables separately. Although getting it all from newegg is still $10 cheaper than buying the istarusa one or the supermicro.

 

The supermicros have individual activity leds as well as an led for an error state in general (but not, i think per drive although I could be wrong..I'd have to go and look).

 

THe supermicro controls the fan fail alarm via a jumper so you can disable it if you like. It's very loud!

[Talos]

About these things in general, do they all have drive power and activity LEDs? From the pictures on newegg for the Norco it looks like it doesn't have any LEDs at all. Also, do they have a way of telling you about a dead drive and which drive it is?

 

The Norco has two LED's above each drive bay, 1 of which lights up green when a drive is attached and the other which lights up red when the drive is being accessed. This is actually the only complaint I have about the Norco units. The green LED's are super bright so if you have it in a room you spend a lot of time in the dark in (or try to sleep in) then its a little distracting. With three of the units full in my server there are 15 bright green LED's pumping light out into my study.. I know a few people have covered them with opaque tape to dull them a bit.

 

And regarding the fans, if I plugged the fan into the motherboard (or anywhere else besides the tray) is there a way to disable the fan fail alarm?

 

There are jumpers on the back of the unit which allow you to turn off the fan alarm. I had to remove them as the Noctua fans spin too slowly for the Norco to detect properly so it alarms even when the Noctua's are at full speed.

 

If I get the Norco I will have to buy 4 sata cables separately. Although getting it all from newegg is still $10 cheaper than buying the istarusa one or the supermicro.

 

Yeah the Norco doesnt include anything apart from the cage itself. No manual, no cables nothing..

[lionelhutz]

I have iSTAR USA 4 into 3 units and they seem to be well built. The supplied fan is a thin 80mm fan and it is very loud. I replaced it with a thicker fan by attaching it to the outside. I just took the back off and drilled through the mounting screws then attached the old fan wire to the new fan.

 

The cages I have have a 2-colour button for each HD that you can use to turn the drive off. The colours are green for on and it turns red (orange) when being accessed. There is also a top and bottom LED that look like the buttons, I think one is a temperature warning (green = OK and orange = problem) and maybe the other is a power or something. I can't remember offhand. They also beep for high temperature or if the fan fails.

 

Peter

 

[xamindar]

Thanks again for all the help. I ended up buying the Norco ss-500. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816133030&Tpk=ss-500%20norco

Looks like they must have changed it. The leds are on the backplane and there are two clear plastic leads on one edge of each caddy that allows the light to shine out of the front. Not a bad idea. In the reviews I looked at on this it looked like it had leds on the front like other 5 in 3s I have seen. These caddies will also take either 3.5" drives or 2.5" laptop drives which is a big plus.

 

I haven't hooked it up yet but so far I am liking it!

[Talos]

mmm.. i bought my SS-500's only 6 months ago but that link you provided is a complete redesign.. I hope you can still swap out the fan for one of your choice.. looks a bit harder than the units i have as the fan just screws onto the back not underneath a shield plate like the one you linked.

 

I'll be interested to hear what you think of this new revision.

[xamindar]

mmm.. i bought my SS-500's only 6 months ago but that link you provided is a complete redesign.. I hope you can still swap out the fan for one of your choice.. looks a bit harder than the units i have as the fan just screws onto the back not underneath a shield plate like the one you linked.

 

I'll be interested to hear what you think of this new revision.

 

I just tried. The back easily comes off after removing the four corner screws. The back panel has what looks like a normal fan (80mm x 25mm) and a daughter board that has the power and sata connectors on it. The fan is connected to the daughter board. There is also another fan plug on the backplane board as well but both fan connectors are labeled the same (JFAN1). The buzzer on the backplane has a sticker on it that says "HUDZ REMOVE SEAL AFTER WASHING" Think I'll remove that now. There is one jumper spot, I assume that is to disable the buzzer. But there is no instructions so I don't know if I take it completely off or switch it over to pins 1 and 2 (currently on 2 and 3).

 

One of my sata drives will not go in all the way. It's an older drive that still has the 4 pin molex plug on it in addition to the sata one. Looks like the sata plugs are in the same location so I don't know why it wont go it all the way. There is nothing blocking the molex spot either. Did sata plugs change at all sense these early drives?

 

EDIT: I see the problem with that old sata drive. Even the new "locking" sata cables I just bought do not fit on it. The space between the top of the connector and the wall of it is too small. Looks like they later modified the connector to allow locking cables and had to make that space on the top about twice as thick. Bummer. The backplane must also have that same thickness on the top part of the connector, probably so it doesn't break off easily. Oh well, at least I can stick one of my spare 2.5" drives in the backplane instead.

[boof]

Send it back and get the supermicro