My OWC 4m2 enclosures (I have 2 of them) use 4 of the Samsung 990 PRO 4 Tb SSDs and they get 2800 r/w. I use Apple Raid Software with Raid. I love them and each one is 16 Tb!
Nice video. I was really curious about this one. BTW, what size is the fan? Could you let's say swap it with some Noctua or Arctic fan or is it soldiered to the mainboard? But as said, great video. Thumbs up! 👍
Maybe not as sleek solution as a NAS, but hey it does the tick just the way I want it... NAS would be limited to 2.5 Gbit max if that... Anyhow I did not want to run these hard drives 24/7 anyway, just when needed
What is the max capacity of a single drive? There is no information on the official website. I found a person uaing a 14TB HDD. But I also would like to use 18TB drives. Do you know if this is possible? And could you show how to swap the fan? Thank you a lot!
Hmmm there is no info on the single drive, I have max 4TB on me so I could not test this with a bigger drive. Regarding the fan, 4 screws in the back, should be easy peasy. I might do this is a short video, stay tuned 👍
Can you use HDDscan to spin down the drives you do not need, before powering off individually? (select drive, tools>features>spindown). Do they all show via CrystalDiskInfo and similar tools? It seems to be a rebranded Icy Box IB-3804-C31. I'm not sure which came first. It looks like a decent option for 4 drive storage for basic fan based storage. For budget, maybe the Qnap TR-004 although it seems to be slower than it's TR-002 two bay equivalent.
Drives will spin by themselves down when not in use this is a built in feature in fw of almost all the drives. I know for sure that they are stopping after XY amount of time. They show in Crystal Info and DiskMark as well as individual drives. Also yeah it looks like a rebranded Icy Box or vice versa 😉 For QNap idk haven't tried them sorry...
Does anyone know whether performance cuts by 50% if copying or rsync from one bay to another possibly due to using a shared single cable? Looking for your real world experience with this enclosure. Thank you.
YOU'd be limited to only ~100 MB/sec transfer rate by each drive's limitations anyway, so I doubt doing an inter-unit transfer would affect it that much...
Thanks to the backplane blocking 90% of the air path to the drives, the rear fan is hardly doing anything but cooling the... Back plane? This is not good cooling. It's just a pretty small oven.
Thanks for sharing this. I got confused with part you talk about this being faster than NAS. I understand that NAS, as it uses the raid system, speeds go higher because they treat the sum of all disks as only one and that allows you to get faster transfer speeds. Isn't that right? Could you clarify the information your shared about speed? I didn't understand why this would be faster. Thank you! 🙏
With a NAS you are limited to the speed of your network. Usually it's 1.0 Gbps most of the time, some might have 2.5 Gbps network and sometime there are 10 Gbps as well. This enclosure is 10 Gbps out of the box without expensive network cards and such...
@@LevelUPGamingTech that makes total sense!! I also just watched many videos about USB connections and I just cleared a lot of confusion I had about 3.1, 3.2, gen 1, gen 2... Now everything makes sense. Thank you so much!
@@LevelUPGamingTech That's a shame. I don't understand why manufacturers can't put in variable-speed fans to start with, it is such a shortcut and noise is an important factor for many buyers. Can you tell me the exact model fan you used? Sorry I am not familiar. And thanks for your reply.....
@@occamsrazor000 I haven't used it still, but I plan to, basically I think it's either 92 or 80mm in the back, can't remember now (even tho I said it in the video, my brain is melting now) just get Noctua FLX or ULX model in the same size as the one inside and you are good
@@occamsrazor000 I do find it problematic when I use it, but I use it as a backup like once or twice a week to transfer files on it. During that time it's like a jet taking off, 4 drives makes the noise plus the fan on top of that. I want to change it, but rarely have the time to do it 😂
How does it act in case of power loss? Does it remember the last state (ie. do the drives that were previously on power themselves automatically, or do you have to press the button for each of them)?
@@LevelUPGamingTech Thanks, the reason I'm asking is because I want to plug it to my NAS which has no more free SATA ports nor space in the enclosure to add a PCIe SATA controller :) The concept is that these disks will operate continuously with maybe one of them being powered on only when needed. Looking forward to hearing back from you :)
Thanks for your reply. I've alredy bought the 5-bay version and I'm extremely satisfied with it. It's a pity though that drives cannot be powered on remotely, but I'm pretty sure there's a way to retrofit such feature using arduino or something similar (it's a simple electrical impulse switch after all, why not send the impulse using a pcb? ;) ).
Can I access these drives by connecting them to my phone or tablet? I will mostly be using these with a windows machine but would like transfer files to phone and tablet sometimes.
It can work, but maybe 1 drive at a time, also due not that phone can mess up the drives if it decide to format them to be used as a phone storage, a lot of phones do that
What is the maximum capacity in terms of TB's this bay can handle? 4x16TB, for instance? 4x18TB? I own many large HDD's and I'm looking for a docking station that can handle 2x22TB at least. No luck yet, though...
Like a jet, I recommend that you replace it with a Noctua, I still haven't on mine as I am not using the bay constantly, just like once in 2-3 weeks for a backup, and oh boy it's louder than my complete PC which has 10 fans in total + 3 on GPU 😂 Technically the HDD noise itself is louder than the whole PC, add on top 4 of them + fan... Jet or lawnmower to be precise 😁
My OWC 4m2 enclosures (I have 2 of them) use 4 of the Samsung 990 PRO 4 Tb SSDs and they get 2800 r/w. I use Apple Raid Software with Raid. I love them and each one is 16 Tb!
Nice video. I was really curious about this one. BTW, what size is the fan? Could you let's say swap it with some Noctua or Arctic fan or is it soldiered to the mainboard?
But as said, great video. Thumbs up! 👍
92mm fan, it can be swapped with a Noctua fan most probably. My thoughts as well 😉
Thanks man I really appreciate it 👍
Storage and speed, finally dream come true.
Maybe not as sleek solution as a NAS, but hey it does the tick just the way I want it... NAS would be limited to 2.5 Gbit max if that... Anyhow I did not want to run these hard drives 24/7 anyway, just when needed
@@LevelUPGamingTech Sounds good to me.Thanks for review.
What is the max capacity of a single drive? There is no information on the official website. I found a person uaing a 14TB HDD. But I also would like to use 18TB drives. Do you know if this is possible?
And could you show how to swap the fan?
Thank you a lot!
Hmmm there is no info on the single drive, I have max 4TB on me so I could not test this with a bigger drive. Regarding the fan, 4 screws in the back, should be easy peasy. I might do this is a short video, stay tuned 👍
@@LevelUPGamingTech nice, thanks a lot!
Copying files limited to 200Mbps then when do you benefit from the super fast 10Gbps? Is there any point to USB 3 Gen 2?
Hard drive is limited to that speed anyway, IT can't go any faster. But, you can copy from all drives at once and achieve full speed through USB...
@@LevelUPGamingTech If you install a SSD? Faster speeds should be possible then.
I like this set up, is an option to a NAS for backup and share storage. ty
Can you use HDDscan to spin down the drives you do not need, before powering off individually? (select drive, tools>features>spindown). Do they all show via CrystalDiskInfo and similar tools? It seems to be a rebranded Icy Box IB-3804-C31. I'm not sure which came first. It looks like a decent option for 4 drive storage for basic fan based storage. For budget, maybe the Qnap TR-004 although it seems to be slower than it's TR-002 two bay equivalent.
Drives will spin by themselves down when not in use this is a built in feature in fw of almost all the drives. I know for sure that they are stopping after XY amount of time.
They show in Crystal Info and DiskMark as well as individual drives. Also yeah it looks like a rebranded Icy Box or vice versa 😉
For QNap idk haven't tried them sorry...
Small and convenient to use 🙂
If only I had that many HDDs to put in it!
Would it also accept 2.5" or is an adapter needed in that case?
You would need an adapter for that or wiggle it in 😂 Just getting it out would be another adventure 😀
Does anyone know whether performance cuts by 50% if copying or rsync from one bay to another possibly due to using a shared single cable? Looking for your real world experience with this enclosure. Thank you.
YOU'd be limited to only ~100 MB/sec transfer rate by each drive's limitations anyway, so I doubt doing an inter-unit transfer would affect it that much...
Thanks to the backplane blocking 90% of the air path to the drives, the rear fan is hardly doing anything but cooling the... Back plane?
This is not good cooling.
It's just a pretty small oven.
Exactly. Horrible design, a showstopper. For that price a real laugh. I went for Qnap TR-004 instead.
Thanks for sharing this. I got confused with part you talk about this being faster than NAS. I understand that NAS, as it uses the raid system, speeds go higher because they treat the sum of all disks as only one and that allows you to get faster transfer speeds. Isn't that right? Could you clarify the information your shared about speed? I didn't understand why this would be faster. Thank you! 🙏
With a NAS you are limited to the speed of your network. Usually it's 1.0 Gbps most of the time, some might have 2.5 Gbps network and sometime there are 10 Gbps as well. This enclosure is 10 Gbps out of the box without expensive network cards and such...
@@LevelUPGamingTech that makes total sense!! I also just watched many videos about USB connections and I just cleared a lot of confusion I had about 3.1, 3.2, gen 1, gen 2... Now everything makes sense. Thank you so much!
this is louder than a Synology 4bay?
Is the fan temperature-controlled i.e. variable speed? This looks pretty perfect for my needs but I worry about noise....
Fixed, I recommend replacing it with Noctua FLX slow speed ones, ant it's pretty much perfect then 👍
@@LevelUPGamingTech That's a shame. I don't understand why manufacturers can't put in variable-speed fans to start with, it is such a shortcut and noise is an important factor for many buyers. Can you tell me the exact model fan you used? Sorry I am not familiar. And thanks for your reply.....
@@occamsrazor000 I haven't used it still, but I plan to, basically I think it's either 92 or 80mm in the back, can't remember now (even tho I said it in the video, my brain is melting now) just get Noctua FLX or ULX model in the same size as the one inside and you are good
@@LevelUPGamingTech Thanks, so I take it you don't find the noise too problematic? Do you still like the unit?
@@occamsrazor000 I do find it problematic when I use it, but I use it as a backup like once or twice a week to transfer files on it. During that time it's like a jet taking off, 4 drives makes the noise plus the fan on top of that. I want to change it, but rarely have the time to do it 😂
How does it act in case of power loss? Does it remember the last state (ie. do the drives that were previously on power themselves automatically, or do you have to press the button for each of them)?
Hmmm good question, on which I have no answer, because I never experienced this, let me try and get back to you later 👍
@@LevelUPGamingTech Thanks, the reason I'm asking is because I want to plug it to my NAS which has no more free SATA ports nor space in the enclosure to add a PCIe SATA controller :) The concept is that these disks will operate continuously with maybe one of them being powered on only when needed. Looking forward to hearing back from you :)
No, it does not remember power states. ypu must power on each drive.
Thanks for your reply. I've alredy bought the 5-bay version and I'm extremely satisfied with it. It's a pity though that drives cannot be powered on remotely, but I'm pretty sure there's a way to retrofit such feature using arduino or something similar (it's a simple electrical impulse switch after all, why not send the impulse using a pcb? ;) ).
Can I access these drives by connecting them to my phone or tablet?
I will mostly be using these with a windows machine but would like transfer files to phone and tablet sometimes.
It can work, but maybe 1 drive at a time, also due not that phone can mess up the drives if it decide to format them to be used as a phone storage, a lot of phones do that
What is the maximum capacity in terms of TB's this bay can handle?
4x16TB, for instance? 4x18TB?
I own many large HDD's and I'm looking for a docking station that can handle 2x22TB at least.
No luck yet, though...
They didn't listed, let's assume for safe reasons that it's 4x 16TB
@@LevelUPGamingTech I just put a 22tb in, couldn't get it to run
Do these docks via USB keep spinning the HDDs constantly? Vs motherboard SATA regulating efficiency and life of the HDD?
If you eject the drive it stops, it's there but stops spinning or if the drive has a sleep function it will stop spinning if not used.
how is the fan, loud? thanks
Like a jet, I recommend that you replace it with a Noctua, I still haven't on mine as I am not using the bay constantly, just like once in 2-3 weeks for a backup, and oh boy it's louder than my complete PC which has 10 fans in total + 3 on GPU 😂
Technically the HDD noise itself is louder than the whole PC, add on top 4 of them + fan... Jet or lawnmower to be precise 😁
@@LevelUPGamingTech oh dear, having a Mac used to silence, still looking for a solution, thank you very much
Very Kool 😎☕💜
Thanks man 😉
Way too slow