iStarUSABPN-DE340SS 3x5.25 to 4x3.5 SAS/SATA 6.0 Gb/s Trayless Hot-Swap Cage

It came securely shipped and when you hold the cage, it is sturdy and stable. I practiced opening and closing the bays a few times and everything worked as expected. It didn't quite fit the area I had intended so I put it on its side and secured it with the enclosed screws. It looked good and solid. I started adding the drives in bay 2 and 3 with no issues. But here is where my -1 star comes in. The drives in bay 2 and 3 were HDDs but the drive for bay 1 is an SSD. Don't get me wrong, it eventually worked but I had a little effort getting it lined up even with the SSD caddy. This cage is designed to be used with the bays horizontal with bay 1 on the top. Everything works fine with gravity holding the drives against the rails. Once you break that design...like putting it on its side, gravity doesn't work for you anymore. There are no rails that ensure multiple orientation alignment. So, -1 star for design. One additional note...About the fan...I was worried by other reviewers about the sound of the fan. Once installed though, if the fan was loud then in blended in very well with my other fans in the server (there are 9) and I didn't even notice it.Would I buy it again? Yes, but this time I would pay attention to the orientation. In the end everything worked as expected and at a perfect price point.

Seems like a pretty solid enclosure. I was planning on converting an old PC to a NAS using this to bump up the drive count. Unfortunately I would have had to buy a new case to do it. To be clear it does fit 3x 5.25 bays as described. The problem for me was the length. It's about an inch longer than a disc drive in my case that pushed it pretty much flush with the back of the power supply. I didn't have enough room to run cables. If the fan were just screwed on instead of enclosed in a little bump out. I probably could have taken that off and made it work.I knocked one star off because I had a fitment issue. I believe everything about this device is as described, I really wanted this to work. I even considered building a "test bench" style NAS and just screwing this to a sheet of plywood. A couple hours in CAD and it just didn't make sense to try to shoehorn this device into the system I wanted. I think these are great products, it just didn't work for me. Take some time to get your measurements and make sure this works for you before you bite the bullet. Note that there is a 15% restocking fee, and you have to pay return shipping to California. Measure twice, checkout once.

I had two IcyDock enclosures which were also 4 drives in 3 5.25" bays, but used trays. Otherwise, they were a similar design. I replaced them because one slot in one unit was having intermittent connectivity issues, and I didn't trust that it wasn't the IcyDock unit because the connectors are not well supported and can be bent easily.I ordered three of these units to replace the IcyDock, and so far everything is better about them. No trays is preferable, being able to lock the doors helps prevent accidental removal (though they're not going to prevent theft or anything), and the fans move quite a bit of air. This unit is noisier than the IcyDock, but it's due to high airflow and is the dull sound of air moving.Most importantly, the drives are 10-14C cooler in this enclosure than they were in the IcyDock. Data transfer speeds are also significantly higher, leading me to believe that I had some other issues with a connector or cabling or something - or maybe the backplanes on the IcyDock were just that bad, who knows.Glad I bought three of these to have room to expand since they seem to be high quality.

I purchased this item to replace an IcyDock MB673SPF. This unit is MUCH better.First, this unit actually fits. The icy dock was too wide and had to be forced into the case. Second, this all-metal unit feels like a tank -- smooth and professional -- while the Icy Dock unit has a lot of plastic, feels like a toy with its wiggly doors.As for functionality, I used my icydock for several years before one of the bays died on me. Although they issued an RMA, I never sent the unit in for repair because I had no way of using my computer without the bay. Obviously I just got this box, so I can't say how it will perform long term.Overall, I love this unit and would buy it any day over the Icy Dock.Oh, and to the seller of this unit, it takes 3 bays, not 2, which is obvious from the photo.edit: It's been quite a while since my purchase, and these bays still hold up like tanks. Great buy.

At first I thought the problem with this cage was that the cooling was inadequate. I have an unraid system and the drives in this cage started showing as failed. At first I assumed it was overheating because the drives were running at 43-44 C, and they were refurbished Seagate drives. But it turns out that model runs hot anyways, as when all four drives eventually failed I took two of the drives and performed a battery of tests on them, which passed with no issues. Meanwhile, two drives I have had zero issues with failed in the same way when placed in this cage. My assumption now is that the cage, which powers four drives through only two connectors, is not passing through the power cleanly and the drives are having power failures. Meanwhile the drives I took out are running fine in my other cage.

On the Directron - Butch and Harold item page you get what you see not what's in the title. Title says "2BAY 5.25IN Sas 2X5.25 To 3X3.5 Cage Blue" you actually get what's pictured, three 5.25" bay to four 3.25" bays.I've only done a few drive inserts so I will have to see how they hold up over time. So far they seem to be great quality.

I installed one of each servers I built for the company, this product is perfect and fits well.The different colors are a nice touch and helps us identify the different servers.Great build quality and it even came with sata cables.