StarTech.com 3-Bay Hot Swap Backplane for 3.5in SAS II/SATA III - 6 Gbps HDD - Aluminum Trayless Mobile Rack Backplane (HSB3SATSASBA)

First off, the first one I received was faulty. The power led on the top tray was intermittent. It was replaced promptly however. The replacement unit works a treat though. The drive activity led feeds are taken from the sata cable via the supplied cables. This is like all the Startech equipment I have bought, well made and works.Update My 2020, one fan has failed. Easy to replace.

I've had one of these '4 drives in 3 bays' backplanes in my main PC for nearly 3 years now and it has performed absolutely flawlessly. It gives me 3 extra drives that tend to stay in the machine (2 are redundant daily incremental backups using Retrospect) and one bay that I use for weekly full backups in a archive sequence or import/export to any 3.5" drive. I agree with the other review on the UK site that it would be nice if less than 4 power connectors were needed, but I didn't find it a problem using splitters.Just about to buy the 3 drive 2 bay equivalent for another machine build!

Both HDD bays work as intended but it does not fit flush with the front of my 5.25" drive bays(see picture) which every other device I have ever installed did. The internal fan is also annoyingly loud, I decided to remove this which is easy to do. If security is in mind the locking function is just an Allen bit, while great for accidental opening of the bay security is a zero.Other than those small issues of which the last one doesn't effect me I would highly recommend this drive bay over the cheaper alternatives on Amazon.

I was slightly nervous about using these but I had an old tower case and an old server motherboard and wanted to create my own NAS so thought I'd give these a go. The worry was that the drives would be too cramped and run hot.Iniitally I ran 2 of these with four drives (2 per enclosure with a central gap) over a period of a month and monitored the temps. The drives ran consistently between 28 & 31 C.Then I loaded the final two and ran with all 6 ever since. Over two years these have run with the drives consistently between 28 & 31. Each drive has its own temp. and it's actually the drive, not the position as I tried swapping a couple round after a year to see if it made a difference.Under periods of really heavy load for an hour or more, one or two disks rise a degree then settle back.So enclosures and fans do what they are supposed to.Although slightly fiddly to fit 6 drives in two of these it wasn't hard.

Okay so i bought this for my Plex server and here's my conclusion.Pros:1. It's metal and it looks cool and the activity lights are nice.2. 3 SATA cables in the box yayIt ends there.Cons:1. ITS LOUD on the lowest setting this is by far the loudest thing in my server.2. As ridiculous as it seems It doesn't fit in 2 x 5.25 bays. I have a dell precision with this in and it is too tall to fit in its dual 5.25 bays inpatient as i am i have found a way to force it into the case (i suspect it will never come out) but there is a lip added to it at both the top and bottom making it not fit if it didn't have this it would fit fine i imagine so if you don't have 3 bays free or two with something like a disc drive in the top one i cant say i recommend this too you!Unless you purely like this ones aesthetics be prepared to return it if you only have 2 slots :(

used in a dell t320 for several months now, easy extra 3 slots in place of the empty 5.25" bays

Some other reviews mentioned this doesn't fit into 2 5.25" drive bays which has not been my experience, this fit exactly in 2 bays with no issues.It can be a bit awkward to get the drives in and if you have little space behind the bays it might be a problem.The fan is a bit loud and the control switch to control it's speed (simple toggle, no granular speed control) is on the back of the unit instead of the front where depending on your case it might not be easily reachable. It doesn't have any way to connect to a motherboard or external control unit separately or automatically.I'm not sure about the qality of the electronics, that will take some time.

Works really well. Love the trayless design. Tried under Linux and Windows. Works well.