Review on 📁 Mediasonic 4 Bay 3.5” SATA Hard Drive Enclosure with USB 3.1 Type C Hub - USB 3.1 Gen 2 10Gbps (HFR7-SU31CH) by Chris Jenkins

I like the design of this box. It feels solid and I'm happy with the quality. It even has a hydraulically mounted fan. The biggest drawback for me is the ventilation. The fan should last a long time (hydraulic bearing) and be very quiet. but the design for the airflow is bad. When you're working hot and want an easy change. Remove the grille and turn the fan over. I removed the grille to remove any obstructions to airflow (obviously this will expose the fan blades, don't poke around there). This reduces the idle temperature by up to 5 degrees. I am not happy with the automatic fan control as I never felt the change in fan speed. You can disable automatic speed detection and it stays the same. I have a Probox 2 with the old fashioned Auto/1/2/3 speed and prefer it. The speeds are as expected. This block is no faster than other Mediasonic raid blocks (I have some 2-bay blocks from them too). I was hoping to use Raid 0 for all 4 drives, but that's not an option. This is a 4-bay box, but you'll have to settle for a number (2) of Raid 0 or Raid 1 installs if you want to use the Raid feature. If I had to buy again - I'd save some money, go for a cheaper 4 bay with no automatic fan control and no hub function (I won't use it - and you pay extra for it, just know there are other models out there) USB C should ensure faster data transfer. Disk reads and writes are exactly the same as the 3.1 models in my setup. I don't think a decent 3.1 setup will slow anyone down with mechanical drives, even on a raid. Expect nearly double the speed in Raid 0.