StarTech.com 4-Bay Mobile Rack Backplane - Trayless Hot Swap Mobile Rack Backplane for 3.5in SAS II/SATA III - 6 Gbps HDD (HSB4SATSASBA)

I needed a 4 Disk back plane that didn't use port multiplication for my RAID 10 setup on my server system and this worked perfectly. It is intended to fit inside of the actual PC chassis, but for what I was doing that was not possible. I needed it to be able to connect to 4 WD Red 3TB drives for RAID 10 with hotswap, but needed it to be separate from the actual server computer. I was able to build a custom case for this, and wired up a power supply to go in the bottom of the case to run the enclosure. The enclosure sits in the top of the case, and has 4 SATA plugs coming from my Intel RS2PI008 RAID Card via a Mini SAS to SATA breakout cable. Once I finished with all of the building, I plugged it all up to the server and set up the RAID without a hitch. I like the fact that this backplane has individual LEDs for each drive to monitor activity and will tell you when one of the drives in not functioning. Each drive slot is trayless, and is easy to insert and remove the disks from. All you have to do it open the door on the front for the slot you want to insert the disk in, and slide the disk in partially. Then close the door and the spring in the hinge will do the rest for you, pushing the disk all the way in and making the connection on the PCB. To remove the disk, just open the door, and the disk will partially pop out of the slot allowing you to grab hold of it to install a new one. Each slot has a lock on it, so you can lock the doors to prevent someone from opening the doors and disconnecting the disks. This is nice if the unit is in a place where others are able to access it, just don't lose the keys (It comes with 2). If you are installing it inside of a chassis, there are slots on each side for installing screws to hold the backplane in position. It requires 2 SATA Power connectors from you PSU, and it is recommended to use each from a different rail, especially if you are using the same rails for powering other things. This way you won't over load the rails. There are 2 switches on the back, one for turning on and off the LEDs, and one for setting the fan to either off, low or high. There is also a cut out where you can see 4 pin spots on the PCB that are not filled in. I took the whole thing apart to try and figure out what they are for, and as far as I can tell, they are for a temp sensor. I looked around on the net and there are a few models similar to this one that have a temp sensor installed from the factory. I guess if you wanted to, and you are good at soldering, you could install your own if you have a thermocouple, but without an LCD readout it would be kinda pointless. Overall this is a nice backplane, that is built really well and is ready for the long haul. I forgot to mention, that the 4 drive slots are able to accept either SATA or SAS drives, but the ports on the back are only SATA unfortunately, but it isn't hard to find a SAS to SATA cable adapter or even a SATA to eSATA adapter if needed. The fan that installed in it is a standard 3 pin 80mm fan, and it is really quite as it is with it set to low. If the fan ever fails, or you just want to install a higher grade one, it isn't hard. There are 4 screws on the housing for the fan that need to be removed to gain access to the fan, but the other 12 screws around the outside of the back plate have to be removed to gain access to the PCB so you can unplug the fan. I can't remember right off the top of my head, but I think the plug for the fan is a non-standard 3 pin plug, so you may want to have a de-pinning kit ready so you can swap the plugs out. The PCB for the backplane is not readily available online, I did some searching for it to see, as really for what I wanted to do that was the only part of this I really needed, but I was unable to find one. As long as the temps stay relatively low, and the input voltages don't spike ( I have it connected to a APC 1500 Pro UPS so there shouldn't be any fluctuations in voltage) and blow the circuit it should be fine and not need replacement. If it does, I guess I will have to contact StarTech and see if they can point me in the right direction to procure a replacement. Since this is going to be used for my server to maintain all of my media and backups it will be on 24/7 so I will put time on it quickly and I will post back later on to let you guys know how it holds up. I predict there will not be any issues, but I have been wrong before, just ask my Wife.

This is a very well made Drive bay. I have put it in an old server Tower and I'm making my own NAS array. Solid metal Construction and fit into the tower seamlessly. I am not sure what others are talking about with loud fan noise, but this one seems very quiet. I can mostly just hear the drives spinning.

Slip the drive in and close and latch the door. Opening the door removes power from the drive, and when you open it wider partially ejects the drive for easy removal. The model I bought has two sata drive power connectors and four sata data connectors on the back for easy connection internal Motherboard connectors or SAS fanout cable. Mostly metal construction and built in fan draws cooling air across the drive(s) to dissipate heat. No more precariously balanced hard drives tugging on cables. I'd recommend this for easy servicing on you storage or NAS build.

Works fine with 2 drives, starts acting a bit flakey with 3 and with 4 it's nothing but problems. A drive starts going online and offline, and not always the same drive. I connected all 4 drives to the computer directly and no problems, so I check things over and try this bay again with the exact same result. A bit of a disappointment having had good experiences with Startech stuff until now.

As the description mentions, this 4-drive bay fits in 3 standard tower slots. It comes with mounting screws, but not enough to fill all the screw holes. It also comes with 4 sata cables. Drives snap in and lock with security key. Overall I am very satisfied as this was exactly what I was looking for.

Easy to install and actually worksHot-swapping is easy as you just pull out the tab and drop in a hdd if neededOnly complaint is the fan noise - it's a cheap 70mm fan that makes a LOT of noise.However, it can be replaced with an 80mm fan which I did - and it was not easy. Mounting screws are non standard and the bay itself only has a 3-pin JST PH-type female connector (not standard and good luck finding that). At least the mounting holes align with an 80mm

I have used two of these backplanes in several different configurations of servers and home computers since 2015. While most of my experience did not involved anything extremely complex, I have not had any known problems. I used these devices along with Western Digital drives and Stablebit DrivePool to manage multiple drives as a single logical unit of JBOD.

Sturdy and keeps the drives cool. A little pricey though compared to competitors.