Mobile racks and trays systems

[ken k]

I have been thinking about using a mobile rack and tray system to swap
out hard drives which store data, such as my music and video DVD
collections. One such system is this: http://kingwin.com/mobileracktrays.asp

Does anyone have any experience with these systems for home use? Do
the drives cook? Do the rack components (plastic) hold up over time?
Who makes a good one?

Thanks
Ken K

 

[Arno Wagner]

I have been thinking about using a mobile rack and tray system to swap
out hard drives which store data, such as my music and video DVD
collections. One such system is this: http://kingwin.com/mobileracktrays.asp

Does anyone have any experience with these systems for home use? Do
the drives cook?

I had a parir in a server that despitea 80mm fan and air-conditioned
server room did not cool the disks well at all. I think there was
not enough of an air-path in there. So be skeptic, even if there
is a seemingly large enough fan.

Do the rack components (plastic) hold up over time?

Depends on the quality of manufacturing.

Who makes a good one?

Currently I don't have a source. Maybe someone else here knows.

Arno

 

[Arno Wagner]

Actually, those are just the trays for the mobile racks. The entire
assemblies are here: http://kingwin.com/mobileracks.asp .
I've had a KF-101-IPF (with the 60mm cooling fan in the bottom of
the tray) for about 4 years, now. It has held up fine, but I admit that
I only use it for backups. They are all-aluminum except for the locking
handle, and the bottom fan really keeps the hard drive cool and the fan
is quiet. Unfortunately, the concept of a bottom fan has not sold well,
and the bottom fan version has been discontinued in the IDE line and
not carried over to the SATA line. What remains in the mobile rack
line-up are the ones with 1 to 3 fans that blow straight through - a
pleasingly intuitive concept, but a noisy one as the fans are only 40mm
in diameter so they spin fast. I've heard that the plastic mobile racks
made by Athena have bottom fans, and those are an alternative.

From personal experience I agree that bottom fans are the better
solution.

A poster in a microsoft NG swears by Athena, and she says that
being plastic doesn't reduce the cooling or longevity.

This would mean that the cooling is mainly by airflow.
Not surprising.

Arno

 

[Squeeze]

Arno Wagner wrote in news:[email protected]
Especially on the multiple fan concept, if one fan dies the drive is still
reasonably protected against overheating.

Well, at least it's a cheap and cheerful indicator that they are still working.

as the fans are only 40mm in diameter

Which is quite enough.
I have one 40mm fan blowing on top of a 10K SCSI and it's running
on 7 Volts which is available in any tray suited for 3.5" drives

so they spin fast.

There is no 'so' about it.
I have one 40mm fan blowing on top of a 10K SCSI and it's running
on 7 Volts which is available in any tray suited for 3.5" drives.
That's on top, where as the temperature sensor is on the bottom of
the drive. It runs at a nice 33C at 20C ambient.

If memory serves me right it runs somewhere in the high 40ies without it.

I've heard that the plastic mobile racks made by
Athena have bottom fans, and those are an alternative.

From personal experience I agree that bottom fans are the better solution.

Silly you.

This would mean that the cooling is mainly by airflow.
Not surprising.

Pity then when that *single* bottom fan fails and the
rack has no protection against it, the drive cooks itself.

Personally I would look for a tray with a front air intake and back-half
bottom-and-top air outlets, so the case fan(s) can serve as alternate tray
fans.

 

[Arno Wagner]

Tony:
Take a look here...
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16817123302
the model we use.
and here...
http://www.athenapower.com
and click on "Mobile Rack"

You might also want to access the alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt newsgroup
and access the recent thread on "Re: Mobile racks and trays".
Anna

I have to say that I had 2 of these for 4 drives each. The cooling
was completely insufficient and the backplane was manufactured
shoddily enough that I got SATA bus errors because of imprecise
trace lenghts. This was admittedly 3 years ago. I take it these
two issues are fixed in the 1 drive variant?

Arno

 

[Andreas M.]

Am 30.04.2008 00:48 ken k wrote

I have been thinking about using a mobile rack and tray system to swap
out hard drives which store data, such as my music and video DVD

You may also want to check out these:

1)
http://www.raidsonic.de/en/pages/products/mobile-racks.php?we_objectID=4686
and
2)
http://www.raidsonic.de/en/pages/products/external_cases.php?we_objectID=4589
or
3)
http://www.raidsonic.de/en/pages/products/external_cases.php?we_objectID=4255

I have (1) and (3) in use and am very satisfied. They are compatible to
each other, meaning, that you can swap the disks between the internal
swap-frame and the external enclosure. Build quality is high. The
external is aluminium without fan at all, the internal has a small fan,
which I, surprisingley do not really hear (in my pretty silent case).

 

[Ken]

Andreas M. said the following on 5/2/2008 5:40 PM:

Am 30.04.2008 00:48 ken k wrote


You may also want to check out these:

1)
http://www.raidsonic.de/en/pages/products/mobile-racks.php?we_objectID=4686
and
2)
http://www.raidsonic.de/en/pages/products/external_cases.php?we_objectID=4589

or
3)
http://www.raidsonic.de/en/pages/products/external_cases.php?we_objectID=4255


I have (1) and (3) in use and am very satisfied. They are compatible to
each other, meaning, that you can swap the disks between the internal
swap-frame and the external enclosure. Build quality is high. The
external is aluminium without fan at all, the internal has a small fan,
which I, surprisingley do not really hear (in my pretty silent case).

I have recently seen Icy Dock on sale. It is apparently made or
distributed by the same company. Do you have any experience with the
Icy Dock brand with relation to reliability and durability?

Thanks
Ken K

 

[Ken]

Anna said the following on 5/3/2008 9:09 AM:

Ken:
I believe the mobile rack (removable HDD device) Andreas mentions is the Icy
Dock model available here in the U.S.

When we were experimenting with a variety of makes & models of mobile racks
designed for SATA HDDs a few years ago we did use a couple of Icy Dock
models - the MR123 SK-1. It's all-aluminum with a small (about 38mm) fan in
the rear. It was well-built (as Andreas has mentioned) and performed quite
well as I recall, however, the Icy Dock was equipped with the usual keylock
affair and we were particularly seeking a mobile rack device preferably
*without* a keylock mechanism (because of our work we're more-or-less
constantly inserting/removing the HDD trays to & from the rack) we
eventually settled on the Athena MR-125 (all-plastic) model which has a
sizeable 80mm fan bottom-mounted on the rack. The Athena has a simple
push-button lever device that makes it very simple for inserting/removing
the tray as well as activating/deactivating the HDD from the system.

We eventually sold the two Icy Dock models to one of our customers and AFAIK
he was quite satisfied with the device which I believe is still in use
today.

If I'm not mistaken, haven't I responded to one of your queries in this or
another newsgroup re mobile racks?
Anna

Yes, you have. I posted either here or pc-hardware, did not receive a
response initially, posted in the other group, and then received
responses in both places.

WRT the lock, a friend has just tied a key onto the handle of each of
his Kingwin trays so that they are handy. I think I will purchase teh
Athena. The price is difficult to beat and I can use the "extra racks
in other computers to allow for easy transfer of large files.

Thanks again and apologies about the double post,
KK

 

[Poky]

This would mean that the cooling is mainly by airflow.
Not surprising.

Arno

I had LianLi plastick racks and they did have a small fan at the back
of the cage to help cool but the fan was so small that I doubt it
helped much. I disabled the fan and still had no issues with any of
the HDD's I installed into them and I used them as main OS drives too.
LianLi has aluminum racks too and I suppose they might be better as
the aluminum acts like a heatsink.

 

[Poky]

I have to say that I had 2 of these for 4 drives each. The cooling
was completely insufficient and the backplane was manufactured
shoddily enough that I got SATA bus errors because of imprecise
trace lenghts. This was admittedly 3 years ago. I take it these
two issues are fixed in the 1 drive variant?

Arno

Lian LI makes good HDD racks. They make good computer cases too. Like
I said in my previous post, I used Lian Li racks for quite some time
(IDE and not the ones listed below) and never had an issue with them.
I don't use them any more because I used them as a trade with a
friend, but he is using them with no issues either.

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=23602&vpn=38SAC-V-B&manufacture=LIAN-LI

 

[Poky]

Personally I would look for a tray with a front air intake and back-half
bottom-and-top air outlets, so the case fan(s) can serve as alternate tray
fans.

Yea, like tyhe Lian Li racks. I disabled the fan on mine and still
never had any heat issues and they were used as main OS HDD's too and
not just for back up. I checked the temp on tyhem and they were a few
degrees hotter than if they were installed with no rack but nothing
critical.