5-in-3 device modules

Q

quixotic

Gawd
Joined
Aug 12, 2009
Messages
763
I've searched for 5-in-3 internal 3.5" to 5.25" device modules, but the only ones I could find are the hot-swappable expensive ones (which from reviews can potentially be points of failure). A "solution" would be using a $120 full fledged enclosure as a $20 module without the connections, but that's a bit absurd.
 
A friend of mine has the linked Cooler Master 4 in 3 and likes it.
5 in 3s are scarce, but you might as well go get some sheet at Home Depot and bend & drill it for yourself, all you're paying for is something to sandwich your drives together.
Google around, you'll find some.
 
Call up California PC and get their 5-in-3 drive bay coolers for $25 each, includes fan and I had my choice of color when I ordered. http://www.calpc.com/

I've bought six of them this way, no complaints.
 
Id' go with the expensive hot swappable ones. They have disk monitoring with leds for each disk. So you will know for sure which one failed. And they also monitor temps and report that to the system...
 
XS Janus said:
Id' go with the expensive hot swappable ones. They have disk monitoring with leds for each disk. So you will know for sure which one failed. And they also monitor temps and report that to the system...
Click to expand...

Price is only secondary to the main issue of fried hard drives that some report having with those. Now if 5 drives are fried together, that won't be nice for data even with redundancy (which admittedly I don't even always maintain).
 
What reviewers reported that? I'm sure it was a isolated case.
Those kind of enclosures are used in enterprise solutions.
I would look into Supermicro offerings...

I use Icy dock ones and they are OK. I did fry my OS drive twice though... but that was me, turning the molex cable upside down... enclosure still works...
 
XS Janus said:
Id' go with the expensive hot swappable ones. They have disk monitoring with leds for each disk. So you will know for sure which one failed. And they also monitor temps and report that to the system...
Click to expand...

Got a link?

Thanks!
 
In the newegg reviews for the Supermicro CSE-M35T-1, there's a few people reporting that this backplane does a form of staggered spin-up on its own, regardless of the controller. But only if the drive supports it on sata power pin# 11. I don't fully understand how this works. Short of buying the CSE-M35T-1 and trying it, how can I determine if my drives support this? I have WD10EADS green drives, and I've tried working my google-fu, but came up empty. Staggered spin-up isn't a feature I need now, but as I add more drives I see this being pretty desirable.
 
If you need more than 1 of these then start to consider stepping up to one of the Norco cases that has support for 20 SATA drives. It ends up being cheaper in the long run. I pretty much paid for my norco 4020 selling 2 5 into 3 and 1 3 into 2 racks.
 
brycejones said:
If you need more than 1 of these then start to consider stepping up to one of the Norco cases that has support for 20 SATA drives. It ends up being cheaper in the long run. I pretty much paid for my norco 4020 selling 2 5 into 3 and 1 3 into 2 racks.
Click to expand...

20? That's nice and all, except that I don't think my MB can support that with only 1 old PCI left.
 
Danny Bui said:
Well what mobo do you have and what are in the other slots on the mobo?
Click to expand...

STFS :p P6T Deluxe v.2, which itself has 5 SATA for internal use (6th I left for eSATA). The PCI-e x4 slot has an 8 x SATA controller. Case is HAF 932 with 6 x 5.25" bays (and 5 x 3.5").

So 2 x 4-in-3 modules would probably work in the short-run, but 5-in-3 would accommodate a possible future 2 x SATA controller in the remaining PCI slot. But that would pretty much be it with my P6T D.

On a second thought, I forgot about the third SLI PCI-e... 2 more ports can be arranged there I suppose (set to x1).
 
Last edited:
quixotic said:
STFS :p P6T Deluxe v.2, which itself has 5 SATA for internal use (6th I left for eSATA). The PCI-e x4 slot has an 8 x SATA controller. Case is HAF 932 with 6 x 5.25" bays (and 5 x 3.5").

So 2 x 4-in-3 modules would probably work in the short-run, but 5-in-3 would accommodate a possible future 2 x SATA controller in the remaining PCI slot. But that would pretty much be it with my P6T D.
Click to expand...

You could get this card for that PCI slot:
$100 - SuperMicro AOC-SAT2-MV8 PCI-X (PCI Compatible) 8 Port SATA Controller Card


So thats 5 onboard SATA + 8 PCI-E SATA + 8 PCI SATA = 21 drives :)
 
Danny Bui said:
You could get this card for that PCI slot:
$100 - SuperMicro AOC-SAT2-MV8 PCI-X (PCI Compatible) 8 Port SATA Controller Card
Click to expand...

8 SATA on PCI? :eek: Wouldn't that be so oversaturated that it may be more worthwhile to consider a SATA multiplier for the existing ports instead?
 
Last edited:
quixotic said:
8 SATA on PCI? :eek: Wouldn't that be so oversaturated that it may be more worthwhile to consider a SATA multiplier?
Click to expand...

No, not really. Unless you're accessing all 8 drives at the same time, there won't be an oversaturation. Also, I'm not 100% sure that the Intel ICH10R of your mobo supports Port Multipliers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top