Are there good name brands for HDD bays?

[rand486]

As I commented on in another thread, I had a very bad experience with a Mediasonic HF2-SU2S2 4xHDD bay.

I'm wondering if anyone has had good luck with a specific make/model, because mine lasted me two months. I looked on the forums and many people had similar bad luck.

I'm willing to spend extra money. What I'm looking for is quality (durability). I don't even care if it has RAID built in, as I can handle that software-side.

What I'd like is something that plugs in either by ethernet or e-sata (I have a port multiplier), handles it's own power and cooling, and will stand up to being on all day, every day.

Unfortunately, there's a ton of crappy companies out there, it seems.

A major bonus would be if it took even more than 4 drives, although my port multiplier will take 2xe-Sata cables.

Thanks!

 

[WyomingKnott]

Well, I'm using one of these: http://www.enhance-tech.com/products/ultrastor/rs8.html and it works nicely, but you need an UltraSCSI card for it!

I have had great success using the Kingwin trayless bays for both 3.5" and 2.5" drives. But the ones I am using are mounted in bays in the PC, and I think that you only want external ones. Since Kingwin has been very good to me, I suggest that you look at this http://kingwin.com/products/cate/mobile/racks/kf_4001_bk.asp if you have the bays and this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...xternal_sata_enclosure-_-16-111-159-_-Product if not. The latter claims to do hardware raid within the enclosure which may be more fuss than you need, but it's a good brand.

I used to have links to exactly what I think you want, four or five disks in a dumb external enclosure that supports port multipliers, but they are broken. I'll add on if I find those products.

Edit: Boy, an I having trouble with links today. The first was
http://kingwin.com/products/cate/mobile/racks/kf_4001_bk.asp
and the second was
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816111159&cm_re=external_sata_enclosure-_-16-111-159-_-Product

 

[rand486]

Great, I'll keep an eye out. I'm gonna see if Mediasonic will charge me anything for shipping/warranty stuff, and if they do, I'll be picking one or two of these guys up.

Hopefully I'll have better luck this round.