5.25" RAID cages for 2.5" HDDs?

Cerulean

Cerulean

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NewEgg's database for RAID cages is messy (you can only filter by manufacturer, price, and HDD type [SATA/SATA2/SCSI/etc]). I have 3 empty bays in my machine and was wondering if there are any RAID cages for 2.5" HDDs out there. In the future I would like to put in some 2.5" SSDs for a RAID0/5 setup.
 
If you search newegg for 2.5" backplane you will find what you are looking for.

Looks like there are now 5 models to pick from. Last time I checked (6 months ago) there were 2
  1. Athena Power
  2. iStarUSA
  3. Enhance Technology
  4. SNT w/fans
  5. SNT w/out fans

These backplanes are becoming more popular because of SSD's and laptop drives approaching 1TB. I have seen many people buying these up an shoving SSD's into them. If your looking for some crazy performance having one of these is a must.

If you were thinking of putting laptop drives in here and using this as a bulk storage means, your probobly better off buying 3.5" drives and a 3.5" backplane. The price per GB is much better. If your just looking to cram as many TB as possible into 1 cd-drive bay then this is your best bet.

I personally do not own one of these 2.5" backplanes, however I do own a 3.5" backplane made by iStarUSA. I am pleased with it. It has its fair share of quirks, but what doesn't these days. It gets the job done.
 
I am wanting to use one of these babies (loaded with 2.5" SSDs of course) for performance, scratchdisk, and VMware.

Yeah, for storage, I was planning on loading up the HDD racks beneath the 5.25" bays with some 1-2TB HDDs. Thanks guys!

EDIT: Currently considering SNT SNT-SATA1842C 4 x 2.5" HDD in 1 x 5.25" bay SAS/SATA 2.5" Hot Swap Backplane RAID cage w/ 2x40. Man, I can't wait until SSDs get cheap. =D

EDIT2: Also considering http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115029 for a RAID card. I do not really want to go over $100 on a card, but I would be willing to make a small reach over.
 
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I use two of the Athena power ones with my Savvio 15k rpm drives. Love them, but remember they aren't really consumer devices so the fans are a bit louder.
 
The Athena, iStar and SNT units are identical, made in the same factory. A few minor tweaks of silkscreening, little differences in the fans, but otherwise identical. I have an Athena and an iStar and frankly I can't tell them apart...go for price when choosing between them.

What I really want is a 4x1 trayless backplane. I just hate the little trays, little screws, etc. They just don't add value or stability for the 2.5" drives. Anybody seen one? I know (and have) a trayless 2x1 (2 2.5" drives in a single 3.5" floppy bay) but I really want one that is 4x1 in a 5.25" bay. That would be very handy.
 
Agreed. This is what would push me to 2.5" SAS drives for my workhorses. Currently Cheetah 15k.5s as per sig.

Dustin
 
If you want decent, only the Supermicro ones are really well built and reliable in the long run. They offer two versions (4-in-1 and 8-in-2) as well.
 
I was using 8x Savvio 15k.1 drives in raid 5 just for the higher IOPS/ sequential reads with 3x 300GB 15k.5's in raid 5 as a mid-tier storage, and 1.5TB 7200rpm SATA drives as the local archive and backup drives. Earlier this year I switched every PC I own to SSD's and moved all spindle drives to servers out of earshot. This works really well. I'd say that the Savvios are faster in sequential reads than the SSD (well think like 700MB/s v. 240MB/s) but the SSD did have the IOP advantage.... and of course no noise/ heat. Here's my blog with a quick writeup I did a while back: http://www.servethehome.com/?p=147
 
Blue Fox said:
If you want decent, only the Supermicro ones are really well built and reliable in the long run. They offer two versions (4-in-1 and 8-in-2) as well.
Click to expand...

The SuperMicro's are good racks, but they don't expose all 8 SATA/SAS ports. Instead they offer either a 4x or 2x "expander". It only works with SAS controllers. Also, if you want to stack up a bunch of 2.5" SSD drives for maximum performance it just won't work out for you as you'll be limited to 600MB/s transfers - where 8x OCZ Vertex and an LSI controller will easily push almost twice that. The 2x expander, which would be better, will only work with dual-ported SAS drives - and there are not dual-ported SAS SSD drives on the market.

And I still want one that is trayless...
 
PigLover said:
The SuperMicro's are good racks, but they don't expose all 8 SATA/SAS ports. Instead they offer either a 4x or 2x "expander". It only works with SAS controllers. Also, if you want to stack up a bunch of 2.5" SSD drives for maximum performance it just won't work out for you as you'll be limited to 600MB/s transfers - where 8x OCZ Vertex and an LSI controller will easily push almost twice that. The 2x expander, which would be better, will only work with dual-ported SAS drives - and there are not dual-ported SAS SSD drives on the market.

And I still want one that is trayless...
Click to expand...
The 4-in-1 doesn't have any logic and has 4 ports on the back (multilane too).
 
Never realized the 8slot supermicro rack used an expander, guess I'll stick with the 4-in-1's. The 4-in1 doesn't have sata ports but it does come with a breakout cable for the multilane connector.
 
Blue Fox said:
The 4-in-1 doesn't have any logic and has 4 ports on the back (multilane too).
Click to expand...

I hadn't noticed the 4x1 before. It apparently wasn't available when I was building early last year...SuperMicro's documentation is a bit hard to read - I can't tell for sure what the SAS connector is.

- Is it old-style SAS multilane? That is what it appears to be but I can't be sure
- Or is it SFF-8087, which obviously would be highly preferable?

And I am still looking for a 4x1 2.5" rack that is trayless!
 
crewzen said:
any of the Supermicro units are very very noisy.:mad:
Click to expand...

Yes, they are, mainly because SuperMicro builds for datacenters and not for home users.

OTOH, all of SM's mobile racks are built with the fans attached in an outboard enclosure and use standard fan connectors. It is trivial to replace their noisy fans with more reasonable ones.
 
PigLover said:
Yes, they are, mainly because SuperMicro builds for datacenters and not for home users.

OTOH, all of SM's mobile racks are built with the fans attached in an outboard enclosure and use standard fan connectors. It is trivial to replace their noisy fans with more reasonable ones.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I do, works very well. Just don't lose the actual fan enclosure, it's $30 from supermicro :(
 
pjkenned said:
I use two of the Athena power ones with my Savvio 15k rpm drives. Love them, but remember they aren't really consumer devices so the fans are a bit louder.
Click to expand...

What about the noise from the drives themselves? Some 15kRPM drives make some awful resonance (my experience is with 3.5" drives, though).
 
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