Icy Dock ships bare-HDD hot-swap internal docking station

14 May 12 22:24 by in category Hard Disk Drives

One convenience of using a desktop 2.5″/3.5″ HDD dock is the ability to use bare HDDs for storage or data recovery. However, wouldn’t it be nice to have an internal HDD dock that could be used much like a tape drive? While hot-swappable bays have been around for a long time, the majority rely on the HDD to be enclosed in a suitable caddy or tray, sometimes even proprietary to the company that makes the hot-swap bay or server.

Icy Dock has unveiled its latest 5.25″ bay docking station, the MB971SP-B DuoSwap that bare 2.5″ and 3.5″ HDDs can be slotted directly into, without the need for a tray or screwing anything on to the HDD. The dock can hold a 2.5″ HDD and a 3.5″ HDD simultaneously and each slot has individual power and eject buttons. The enclosure connects to the motherboard by two SATA cables.

The dock can also handle SATA3 (6Gbps) SSDs and HDDs, offering a significant advantage over USB2 docks and better performance than USB3 such as when using two drives simultaneously. Besides data backup, it could also be used to hold a bootable drive, such as to allow the user to swap between operating systems or slot in a backup HDD in the event that the main OS HDD fails.

This MB971SP-B dock is now available for purchase and costs about US$42+shipping based on NewEgg’s price.

17 Comments on Icy Dock ships bare-HDD hot-swap internal docking station

olddancer
Posts: 285
Posted on: 15 May 12 00:47
Deliverance! I can finally put the side cover back on my PC.
Sadly, my cat's will no longer be able to play with the SATA cables
protruding from the case.
MJPollard
Posts: 51
Posted on: 15 May 12 16:57
Excuse me, but I've had a hot-swap internal bay (made by KingWin) in my system for years. So, other than this product also supporting 2.5" drives, why exactly is it such a huge flippin' deal?
AllanDeGroot
Posts: 1438
Posted on: 11 Jul 12 19:36
I have a front mounted 5-1/4" dock that takes 3.5" drives made by Antec.
It's not hot swappable, but...

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geno888
Posts: 29213
Posted on: 12 Jul 12 16:59
These enclosure are very nice in theory, but all of them have a bad defect: there is no cooling system for the drives.

I installed a similar hot swap enclosure, but when I extracted the drive it was so hot that it scared me (luckily I didn't melt the HDD).

Of course, it is not possible to install a fan in front, and cases doesn't allow to install a fan on side, so basically these enclosures are pretty useless.
alan1476
Posts: 18355
Posted on: 12 Jul 12 18:17
I have hot swap bays in everyone of my 4 builds, the Corsair Obsidian Series, 800D 4 hotswaps bays and the 650D only 1 on the top.
alan1476
Posts: 18355
Posted on: 12 Jul 12 18:19
Quote:
Originally Posted by alan1476 View Post
I have hot swap bays in everyone of my 4 builds, the Corsair Obsidian Series, 800D 4 hotswaps bays and the 650D only 1 on the top.
these are very handy for someone that has limited hdd space.
CDan
Posts: 3913
Posted on: 12 Jul 12 19:04
External HDD docking bays are also very handy, available with eSATA and USB-3 interfaces and slots for 1-4 HDDs. They also offer the benefit of being portable.
geno888
Posts: 29213
Posted on: 12 Jul 12 22:40
Quote:
Originally Posted by CDan View Post
External HDD docking bays are also very handy, available with eSATA and USB-3 interfaces and slots for 1-4 HDDs. They also offer the benefit of being portable.
Do you mean something like this?
CDan
Posts: 3913
Posted on: 13 Jul 12 00:07
Quote:
Originally Posted by geno888 View Post
Do you mean something like this?
Nope, like THIS. They also have no cooling issues.
AllanDeGroot
Posts: 1438
Posted on: 13 Jul 12 02:52
the best case cooling scheme, and thus best method of drive cooling, it to use the fans in the back and top of the case to blow air out of the case.

Then control how the air flows over the components you want cool.

On my case there's a 100mm fan in the top and a 150mm fan in the back both blowing out.

In addition there's a 150mm fan in the bottom of the PSU blowing out through
The PSU, the CPU cooler draws air off the CPU heat sink and directs the hot air towards the PSU fan.

The air inlets in my case all encourage airflow across the hard drives

And while I have one older WD 250gb drive that gets hot enough to
brand cattle when run in that drive bay none of my other "loose"
drives runs more than 3-4'C warmer than the internal drives
(that have their own air inlet) the internal drives in my computer
stay at 40'C

How hot do your drives really get?
geno888
Posts: 29213
Posted on: 13 Jul 12 21:35
Quote:
Originally Posted by CDan View Post
Nope, like THIS. They also have no cooling issues.
oops

Are you sure that there are no cooling issues? When I insert a disk in an external box, the disk can become very hot, so I always put a fan over the disk

@AllanDeGroot
Currently my disks are installed in front of a 12cm fan blowing fresh air over them. There are two cages for HDD, each containing 3 drives, so 6 HDDs and 2 fans. See pic for temperatures
CDan
Posts: 3913
Posted on: 13 Jul 12 22:16
Quote:
Originally Posted by geno888 View Post
oops

Are you sure that there are no cooling issues? When I insert a disk in an external box, the disk can become very hot, so I always put a fan over the disk
I recently measured surface temps on a Samsung F4 in a single drive dock, while doing a 2TB transfer. The hottest temp I could get was 125' F on the back side near the spindle. (room was about 75' F) Average surface temp was under 100' F. The "green" type drives all tend to run pretty cool anyhow, but oriented vertically there's no way for heat to build up. If a drive gets hot in a docking station, it's because it normally runs hot.
AllanDeGroot
Posts: 1438
Posted on: 13 Jul 12 22:23
Right now my WD "Black" 500gb boot drive is running at 40degC.

My pair of WD Black 750gb drives are running at 34degC

I don't know what my Seagate 2tb "Green" drive is running at because it's connected via eSATA in an external enclosure. AND at the moment it's turned off.

as stated above:
"If a drive gets hot in a docking station, it's because it normally runs hot."

I agree.
alan1476
Posts: 18355
Posted on: 13 Jul 12 22:43
You also have to take into account the ambient temps when you are comparing.
AllanDeGroot
Posts: 1438
Posted on: 13 Jul 12 23:43
my current Ambient is 31C

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alan1476
Posts: 18355
Posted on: 14 Jul 12 00:00
Quote:
Originally Posted by AllanDeGroot View Post
my current Ambient is 31C

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If your Ambient temps are 31C then 40 C is not bad
geno888
Posts: 29213
Posted on: 14 Jul 12 23:08
It still makes me feel better to have a fan blowing fresh air over the disk

If cases would allow to put fans in the side of the HDD cages, then I'll install one of these hot swap tray for each disk
Tell us, what do you think about

Icy Dock ships bare-HDD hot-swap internal docking station

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