Review on ICY DOCK ToughArmor Backplane External by Michael Caste

Я понятия не имел, что можно разместить 16 дисков в два стандартных отсека для 5,25-дюймовых дисков, но, похоже , that is possible. I'm currently only using 8 discs with it because I don't have $400 left right now, but I'm very happy with the setup as it is. Extreme storage in a small form factor, this is a very good way to go about it. Alternatively, you can buy smaller, more dense drives (like 10+ TB) and get a similar effect, but more smaller drives in a RAID10 will probably work better in terms of the read/write performance. I should know better, but I don't always question gear purchases. In this case I did it and avoided possible frustration. Some tips: Drive size: Not only these 2.5 inch SATA/SAS/SSD drives are only 7m high. Check your height. If the height is in inches and the math comes out to be a little over 7mm, then technically it's a 7mm high drive and will probably be fine - at least that's what happened with some Seagate drives in my case. Double or triple check your discs fit so you don't waste time returning them. Data Cables: You can use standard SATA data cables for your motherboard or PCI expansion cards, but that's a really bad idea. This drive bay has 4 Mini-SAS data slots, each corresponding to 4 SATA data cables. You can choose not to buy a Mini-SAS expansion card and use 4 Mini-SAS -> 4 SATA connectors instead. For reasons of cabling/good conscience, please do not try this, instead buy a 4-slot MiniSAS card or two 2-slot MiniSAS cards; Make sure your motherboard has free PCI slots of the appropriate size - it will be easier if you get 1 card with 4 slots, although to be honest they are a bit more expensive, check your options. Power supply: You only need 4 standard power connections. In fact, this shouldn't be the main energy consumer for your power supply. Airflow/Fan: This is expected to be mounted on the front of the case, by default it blows inwards, ie if installed on the front the airflow will be front to back. . You can reinstall the fan in the other direction if you want to psycho mount it on the back of the server. It also has a spare setup: the drives are hot-swappable, so there's no reason to install them until the entire bay is securely installed in the system (obviously fully desktop-tower and rackmount-compatible if it's at least 2 x 5.25 inches). drive bay). Also, there are hard drive covers on the mini SAS port which I found surprisingly difficult to remove having already installed a bunch of other hardware on my server but obviously good to have shipping available and maybe if you're clumsy. You might also want to adjust the fan speed to your desired speed before your giant fingers have a hard time reaching the tightly wired corner of your case. These are trays, not trayless, which means you have to screw the drive into a small plate that you pull out of the slot before reinserting, but that takes 15 seconds, just keep the spare screws in a safe place . Compatibility: I must reiterate that this is compatible with any case. It has two 5.25-inch drive bays, which is enough for many cases, but maybe not for those with a tempered glass front.