Sans Digital 5-Bay USB 3.0 / eSATA Hardware RAID5 Tower Storage Enclosure w/ 6G PCIe 2.0 HBA Card TR5UT+B (Black)

Pros: Really low cost for a hardware raid unit and quite fast
I have a 5 drive 4 TB unit and a 5 drive 8 TB unit running Raid 5. One is for continuous backup of my servers and the larger one is for media and video content. All drives are Seagate and are identical across the arrays. I bought a few spares of the same drives to make sure they were compatible if and when I have a drive failure. They both run 24/7. Certainly not too noisy for an office but not a living room device for sure. I use the rocket card supplied which is used to increase the transfer rate. It's not for software raid. I recommend loading 5 identical drives, setting the switches to Raid 5, plug in the card and power on. Nothing to do after that except format the array. I added a cheap handle to the cases to make them easy to carry around and all my servers have Esata so I can move the arrays around and plug them in and go for instant redundancy. Just like any portable drive except for the 8 TBs. I also have a JBOD version without hardware RAID that I use for removable backup that goes in a fireproof safe. The handle on the case is very useful to allow me to carry them with one hand. I now plan to build a 12 TB version which right now costs $80/TB in Raid 5 configuration.

Cons: On off switch on one unit needs to be pushed hard to operate but then I don't turn them off anyway.
Manual is just OK. Not for low tech customers.

Other Thoughts: Extermal and portable hardware raid. Not a lot of choices in this category except for SANS Digital and I am pleased with their product.

Pros: Easy installation. USB 3 and eSata work fine.

Cons: Its the loudest thing in my office. Not terrible, but I am thinking of exchanging the fan.

Manufacturer Response:

Thank you for purchasing our products.

This model is equipped with low-speed cooling fan to min. the noise level. Unless the cooling fan is defective, you should not have a noise issues.

If you are having problem on the unit, please contact us by calling 1-800-980-1988 for technical support and our engineer will try to resolve it over the phone. You can also contact us at tech@sansdigital.com for e-mail supports.

Pros: *Easy to setup.
*Drives and bays are aligned well with minimal effort adding and removing drives.
*The power button is beveled so you don't accidently turn it off.
*Supports 110v 220v in case you need to take it internationally however it is not auto switching.
*Good fan
*Rubber feat on the bottom reduce vibration and noise.
*The Hardware Raid Manager supports a mixture of RAID setups. This means you can have more than one raid array. So if you want 3 drives in raid 5 and 2 drives in raid 1 or perhaps as 2 simple independent drives you can. All the possibilities you can think of in a 5 bay RAID system. Not many brands are as flexible as this.
*Supports changing the priority of a RAID rebuild
*Passes all SMART data to your computer so programs that support reading smart data can see temperature and other data of ALL drives even when it is in a RAID state.
*Speed is about 220mb/s with USB 3 with included TURBO software. I wish I knew what the software did on the technical standpoint but it works alright.
*I'm happy it's not tool-less. I think most tool-less designs are usually poorly designed and don't secure drives firmly. This is solid as a rock screws and all.
*Supports 2.5 drives

Cons: *The documentation is poor and I will go over this machine in better detail then the manufacturer provided.

*I am still trying to figure out if this system supports the TLER command or just ignores it. This is an important detail when trying to decide if it is worth the extra money to purchase drives with TLER support.
average
*The USB 3 is quite flakey. You may need to reboot the machine a few times for it to be recognized. I think this might be a Renesas issue with my onboard USB 3 controller but I am unsure. After downgrading my Renesas controller firmware it was able to detect the device every time.

*I am severely disappointed with the lack of RAID customization options.
The software has no support to select a strip or the sector size. I understand not many people need to play with these options but I like to optimize the settings for my unique usage. The controller on this board supports online data integrity check so why doesn't the manufacturer take advantage of ALL the options that the RAID controller. I paid for a hardware RAID now where is the bells and whistles?

*Now I understand that it is marketed as SATA2 but they should really discontinue this and produce a newer model with SATA3. This is a huge bottleneck for power users. When they do release a SATA3 model it will be a chore to move my drives into it along with 11 TB of data.

*Airflow... What airflow? Open it up and tell me how the air reaches the harddrives. They have a decent fan in it but it doesn't help when the fan is completely separated from the drives by a large metal encasement. My drives run between 45 - 49c in this unit, just 5c below the max operating temperature. The fan is replaceable but I don't know if I can find a reasonably quiet one that can beat out the OEM specs listed below. The drives are also less than an eighth of an inch apart. That's right I measured. For a visual understanding how small this is that's a little more than half the diameter of a standard case screw. I almost want to make a video review because this is unbelievable.

*I wish the door was removable. I'm not a fan of doors because they do nothing but restrict. If I had to have a door I wish it was simply a mesh grate then it would serve a purpose of cooling and dust filter.

*A better hardware RAID controller would support RAID 6.

*It includes a SATA3 card. I'm listing this as a con for the manufacturer's sake because this probably caused more issues then helped. People have been installing this card and used its raid function with the enclosure in clean mode. I'm sorry but a lot of people are not educated in the difference between their newly purchased XXX$ hardware RAID and this X$ highpoint card. People just pop a CD in and just follow whatever prompts they see.They don't properly instruct people not to use it for the raid feature and thus it probably caused more headache then it was worth. Thanks for the free card anyway.

Other Thoughts: Information OVERDRIVE!

My current setup is 5x Western Digital RE WD3000FYYZ 3TB 7200 RPM SATA3 hard drives in RAID 5
My raid array is quite expensive

Because there is little detailed information regarding this enclosure here is a complete breakout of all the important components in it. It's a shame they don't list this information because it all a good selling point.
The raid controller is the JMB394 a Fully hardware-accelerated RAID Engine
JMB394 Features:
*Raid 3 / 5 write-back cache
*Supports spread spectrum clocking (Important feature for a RAID system in a telecommunications environment or perhaps a lab where EMI can be an issue.)
*Supports staggered spin-up
*Supports Native Command Queue (NCQ)
* Supports asynchronous signal recovery
* Rebuild speed: 200GB/hour
* Rebuild proceed continuously between power cycling
* A lot more Refer to the jmicron website for more details.
The chip supports on-line read data integrity check however the sans digital software does not take advantage of this. Perhaps they can add support in the future.

It also contains the JMS539 bridge controller which translates the communication between SATA to USB

JMB320 Port multiplier

The fan included is a standard 120mm fan by Comdell model DF1202512SELN. I believe Comdell is the offshore Taiwan fan manufacturer for Cooler Master. It is easily replaceable / upgradeable by a qualified computer tech.
Fan Specs:
Size: 20x120x25mm
Voltage: DC 12V 0.16A
Speed: 1,500 rpm
Airflow: 50.4 CFM
Pressure: 1.93 mm H2O
Noise: 25.6 dBA

Not much to say about the PSU. It is a compact 220watt PSU with a tiny fan.
It uses standard 12v rails to power the system. If you are in an emergency situation in which the PSU fails you could in theory rig a standard PSU to this unit.

Overall I would recomend this unit to others. It is a good hardware raid for the price. I deduct 1 egg because it runs hot and has no detailed raid customization. The raid controller is also considered low grade but it beats software fakeraid. The documentation issues should not stump a qualified system admin.

Pros: Cheap cost compared to Drobo

Cons: First the instruction manual PDF or writen is just pathatic. Instructions with pieces missing is all I can say. This will take you hours to set up, and if you due anything wrong like turn off the power switch before unmonting you will have problems.

Other Thoughts: I installed five brand new sealed Seagate 3TB. ST30000DM001. All the formating then Raid 5 now reformat again. Then I shut off the power switch on the unit and it would not mount so delete Raid 5 Re format all drives reset Raid 5 re format the raid 5. Its working now but its fragile. I own 10 Drobos. Drobo Pro 8 bay and Drobo S 5 bay. Yes the Drobos cost more but the ease of using them. This unit I will keep and play with to see if it is reliable. I am now transfering video from a Drobo S 5bay firewire 800 to this unit USB3, both units have the same Seagate drives and I see my transfer rate is 22.8MB/second hey I'm impressed. Nothing else is running on my computer Intel i5 16GB RAM Windows 7 64bit
CONCLUSTION: If you want a $250.00 toy then buy this if you want a real raid backup then don't buy it.

Manufacturer Response:

Thank you for purchasing our products.

ST3000DM001 is a desktop grade hard drives and they are not design to run in RAID application. The performance on the unit also should reach over 150MB/s in USB 3.0 instead of 22MB/s. For your setup issues, please contact our technical support and we will be able to resolve your issues.

Please contact us by calling 1-800-980-1988 for technical support if you have further questions. You can also contact us at tech@sansdigital.com.

Pros: Small package, easy to set up, easy to use, and unobtrusive. It's quiet, seems to run flawlessly, and was super easy to kick into RAID 5 and forget it.

Cons: Bay 3 has no drive activity lights, to RMA or not to RMA... One screw hole, on each drive sled, on corner nearest SATA power connecter is a bit off kilter. I had trouble getting the supplied screws through it on all 3 of the sleds i used, but after careful work, It goes in. It's probable best to put that screw in first, as the other 3 seem centered nice.

Other Thoughts: It works, but with one drive bay's activity lights out, what else may be lurking? I don't have 2 more drives to test the other 2 bays. What if they are dead next year when I expand? BUT, I hate to spend almost $20 to send it back for a replacement. I think when you get defective junk, they should send a prepaid label or a new one with a return prepaid.

Pros: Can put 5HD in it. in RAID 5.

Cons: My 12TB raid5 storage worked fine for exactly 40 days.

Then the array crashed and i lost all of my data... everything is gone... Hope newegg gives me my money back.

Manufacturer Response:

Thank you for purchasing our product.

Data lost could due to various reason, including file system corruption, sudden lost of power or multiple hard drives failure. In order to further diagnosed the root cause, please contact us for detail trouble-shooting, and we will have solution for your issues.

Please contact us by calling 1-800-980-1988 for technical support and our engineer will try to resolve it over the phone. You can also contact us at tech@sansdigital.

Pros: WOW Very fast USB3 performance 230MB/s+ write. Faster USB performance than ESATA.
Been using for the past 5 months with 5 drives.

Cons: Price

Pros: Overall great hardware raid box. Speeds are exceptional and eazy to manage once you understand the instructions. I have this for my HTPC running in RAID5.

Cons: PSU fan is awfully noisy! It is a small fan meaning it needs to run fast in order to have ample air flow. Since i have this unit connected to my HTPC in my home theater, I could not stand the noise. I rigged it up to operate off my HTPC PSU and completely bypassed the stock PSU. There is a 120mm fan to cool the HDs which is ample and quiet.

Other Thoughts: I originally had WD green drives, which are not recommended. I had one drive keep dropping out of the RAID. The drive still works, but not at a performance level the RAID accepts (Search WD TLER for more info). Note: this is a HD issue and not an issue of the unit.

I decided to bite the bullet and bought 5 new WD Red drives (which are meant for home NAS) - been working fine for 2 weeks now.

Pros: Have been running two of these in a Windows Server environment for 1 1/2 years 24x7 with absolutly no issues. They were easy to load with the slide out carriers and easy to configure using the rear mounted dip switches. eSata is the primary connection, but one unit gets used in USB3 every now and then.

Cons: Only one cable (USB or eSata) may be connected at a time.

Other Thoughts: I have not used the RR622 controler, but, have not heard good things about it. Some appear to be using this unit with the 622 (must still be including it). WHY pay for the hardware RAID of this unit and not use it?

Pros: I got this as a RAID backup for my Mac Pro w/ OSX 10.8 mountain lion. I do video editing so I have a lot of data that needs backed up. I wanted something that was stable, more than something that was fast.

I got this unit along with four Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EARX 2TB drives. Because the WD-Caviar Greens are consumer grade, they're not great for the built-in RAID 5 on this unit.

Instead, I used ZFS (MacZFS) to link the four units into a single ZFS RAIDZ1 pool. This gave me a 5 TiB (4,995,229,672 bytes) partition. It's not terribly fast but it's rock solid.

Cons: So far, I'm happy. The front panel of the unit is a bit flimsy but that's to be expected. So far it works and that's all I wanted from it.