Re: OT: SATA Backplanes drivebays and caddies

From: Joe Emenaker <joe(at)emenaker.com>
Date: Fri Dec 07 2007 - 15:53:22 EST

John Miller wrote:

> Nate Duehr wrote:
>   
>>> Bob wrote:
>>>       
>>>> ... what I'm looking for is a drivebay / backplane
>>>> manufacturer that has 5, 4, 3 and 1 slot internal bays available
>>>> that use the *same* tray / housing / caddie.
>>>>         

I've got about 4-5 rackmount servers using the Addonics 3-drive units. They also make 4-drive and 5-drive units that look like they use the same trays.
Pros:

• Just about the cheapest I've seen
• The cage has power buttons for each drive so that you can turn off power to unused drives (or for simulating a crash to test your RAID?).
• The tabs that release the drives are smooth and *just* tall enough to put a 1/2" Brother P-Touch sticker on the front for labeling.
• Built-in over-temp alarm with reset button on the front. Cons:
• In order to fit the drives in that tight, you have to use the screws that they provide you with (so, don't lose them) which have really flat, really thin heads.
• There's a release-lock for each tray (which is good), but it's kinda tricky to engage the lock without actually triggering the release lever.

I should note that the cons are very slight inconveniences... no big deal at all.

Lately, I've been trying out StarTech's trayless cages and those work nicely as well. No trays, no screws... you just open the door, slide the drive in, and close the door. If you can operate a refrigerator, you can operate these cages.

Both the Addonics and Startech have yet to fail on me... and I think I've had the 4 Addonics in place for about 2 years now.

• Joe

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Received on Fri Dec 7 16:13:58 2007