Review: Addonics MOBILE RACK SNAP-IN SERIES Drive Enclosure
The Addonics MOBILE RACK SNAP-IN SERIES ($29 USD) is an internal hard drive enclosure designed to accommodate BARE hard drives (no carrier tray required):
Off-line storage is important for archiving video assets, and removable enclosures that require a tray or carrier for each drive cause more expense:
External portable drives are also not cost effective, as you are buying an entire enclosure with each drive. Additionally, they typically connect via FireWire or USB which is much slower than the drive's native SATA interface:
Enclosures that accept bare drives seem rare. I have yet to find one that is of industrial quality. Perhaps because professional data centers wouldn't buy a storage product that is less than 100%. And let's be clear---all of the units I've seen are less than 100%.
There are a number of reason for this. First, there is no standard dictating the exterior surface of a hard drive (other than overall size). Hence, some drives won't work well in a bare-drive enclosure. Also, some manufacturers seem to deviate from the existing standards slightly--putting cable connectors a little bit this way or that way. Such drives won't work either.
Perhaps a greater reason NOT to use one of these types of removable enclosures: the SATA connector on the back of every hard drive is only specified and designed to positively withstand FIFTY insertions and removals. Not that it will break upon hitting fifty-one, but it is certainly not designed for repeated use and may become unreliable over time.
Knowing a bit about connectors, the main factor in lifetime has to do with the thickness of any gold or metal plating on the contacts. Each time a contact is inserted it wipes against the other contact and scrapes some metal off. More durable connectors have thicker plating. I question the durability of the SATA connectors built into these removable enclosures, and the durability of the connectors on the drives as well.
However, humans being cheap and all... these products exist anyway.
The Addonics unit appears better built than other units I have seen and boasts a number of decent features:
The suspension mount and power LED seem to indicate the Addonics unit is thoughtfully designed; however, I was immediately turned off at the sight of a cooling fan! Yuck! I already have seven or eight of those in my system, and I spent quite a bit extra buying quiet fans. Yet, the design of the Addonics enclosure puts your hard drive inside a metal tube, so a fan does seem like a necessity. More about the fan later...
Addonics shipped straight away and I received the unit overnight via UPS Ground since I am only a couple hundred miles away.
Again, the unit's closed chassis appears more sturdy than other open-frame units I have looked at. This is a StarTech enclosure for comparison:
A look at the back side reveals the layout of the connectors (both SATA and Molex power connectors are provided):
Looking inside, we can see that a drive simply slides into the C-rails and engages with the rear SATA connectors. There is also an ejector tab (bottom middle) that pushes the hard drive out when the enclosure door is opened:
I slid in a 1 TB Western Digital WD1001FALS Caviar Black:
The feel of the drive sliding in was not quite precision, but nice. It felt a bit mushy closing the door (which pushes the drive into the rear connectors), but again not bad; just less than the solid industrial feel I look for. The door latches shut with an audible click.
A slight tug on handle opens the latch and the door can be pulled open. This takes a bit of force as you are also moving the internal ejector tab that forces the drive off the connectors and slightly out of the enclosure so that you can grasp it.
Finally, I powered up my system...
Nothing happened.
Hmmm, okay. It turns out the front key lock needs to be locked as well. Another minus in my opinion. I would never bother locking this thing with a key otherwise. The key is really cheap and fits loosely, and certainly I will lose it soon. Maybe I can override this later with the old soldering iron!
Success! The drive whirred to life! My Intel motherboard with ICH10R controller immediately responded: "Disk on port 5: Detected"
Other enclosures also include the dreaded key lock--the difference being the key on these enclosures appears to be the only thing that holds the front door closed:
Burly:
Icy-Dock:
At least the Addonics has a latch besides the key; therefore, it might be possible to disable the key with a bit of re-wiring.
Unfortunately, the enclosure's built-in fan also whirred to life. Don't get me wrong, it's not "noisy". But it's not what I would call a low whir either. Maybe a medium whir. In any case, I can hear it, which is saying something considering the other seven or eight fans in my system and seven hard drives (okay, so two of them are SSD's, so call it five).
Therefore, I pulled the unit out to take a closer look at its back-side. I removed the electronics cover and fan screws. The fan is a Power Logic PLA04010S12M. It is a standard 12 VDC 40mm x 10mm fan. It has a sleeve bearing (not ball or ceramic bearing) which is the cheapest type. It connects to the electronics board with a tiny connector.
It would certainly be simple to swap this fan out with another of higher quality for those who are interested in absolute silence. Alternatively, if your chassis has strong front-to-back cooling, you could simply remove the fan from the Addonics unit and allow your existing system fans to pull the air through. Also, you probably don't need a fan at all if you are swapping 5400 rpm "Green" drives.
Conclusion
I look forward to the convenience of using the Addonics MOBILE RACK enclosure. I have a few bare drives laying about for backup, and this enclosure will certainly make backup more convenient--as if backup is ever "convenient".
The quality is pretty good, but less than excellent; however it should hold up to low or moderate use. In any event, it's cheap to replace at under $40 USD.
Pros:
- convenience
- cheaper than buying trays or stand-alone external drives
- good looks (for plastic)
- power and activity LEDs
Cons:
- key lock required to activate
- fan slightly noisy
- could be more rugged
- likely limit to internal connector and drive connector reliability
I will recommend this Addonics product to friends and clients.
Buy yours from the manufacturer here:
Addonics MOBILE RACK SNAP-IN SERIES ($29 USD)
Kevin R
Tek4 - IT Consulting, Design, Sales
San Luis Obispo, CA
The Addonics MOBILE RACK SNAP-IN SERIES ($29 USD) is an internal hard drive enclosure designed to accommodate BARE hard drives (no carrier tray required):
Off-line storage is important for archiving video assets, and removable enclosures that require a tray or carrier for each drive cause more expense:
External portable drives are also not cost effective, as you are buying an entire enclosure with each drive. Additionally, they typically connect via FireWire or USB which is much slower than the drive's native SATA interface:
Enclosures that accept bare drives seem rare. I have yet to find one that is of industrial quality. Perhaps because professional data centers wouldn't buy a storage product that is less than 100%. And let's be clear---all of the units I've seen are less than 100%.
There are a number of reason for this. First, there is no standard dictating the exterior surface of a hard drive (other than overall size). Hence, some drives won't work well in a bare-drive enclosure. Also, some manufacturers seem to deviate from the existing standards slightly--putting cable connectors a little bit this way or that way. Such drives won't work either.
Perhaps a greater reason NOT to use one of these types of removable enclosures: the SATA connector on the back of every hard drive is only specified and designed to positively withstand FIFTY insertions and removals. Not that it will break upon hitting fifty-one, but it is certainly not designed for repeated use and may become unreliable over time.
Knowing a bit about connectors, the main factor in lifetime has to do with the thickness of any gold or metal plating on the contacts. Each time a contact is inserted it wipes against the other contact and scrapes some metal off. More durable connectors have thicker plating. I question the durability of the SATA connectors built into these removable enclosures, and the durability of the connectors on the drives as well.
However, humans being cheap and all... these products exist anyway.
The Addonics unit appears better built than other units I have seen and boasts a number of decent features:
The suspension mount and power LED seem to indicate the Addonics unit is thoughtfully designed; however, I was immediately turned off at the sight of a cooling fan! Yuck! I already have seven or eight of those in my system, and I spent quite a bit extra buying quiet fans. Yet, the design of the Addonics enclosure puts your hard drive inside a metal tube, so a fan does seem like a necessity. More about the fan later...
Addonics shipped straight away and I received the unit overnight via UPS Ground since I am only a couple hundred miles away.
Again, the unit's closed chassis appears more sturdy than other open-frame units I have looked at. This is a StarTech enclosure for comparison:
A look at the back side reveals the layout of the connectors (both SATA and Molex power connectors are provided):
Looking inside, we can see that a drive simply slides into the C-rails and engages with the rear SATA connectors. There is also an ejector tab (bottom middle) that pushes the hard drive out when the enclosure door is opened:
I slid in a 1 TB Western Digital WD1001FALS Caviar Black:
The feel of the drive sliding in was not quite precision, but nice. It felt a bit mushy closing the door (which pushes the drive into the rear connectors), but again not bad; just less than the solid industrial feel I look for. The door latches shut with an audible click.
A slight tug on handle opens the latch and the door can be pulled open. This takes a bit of force as you are also moving the internal ejector tab that forces the drive off the connectors and slightly out of the enclosure so that you can grasp it.
Finally, I powered up my system...
Nothing happened.
Hmmm, okay. It turns out the front key lock needs to be locked as well. Another minus in my opinion. I would never bother locking this thing with a key otherwise. The key is really cheap and fits loosely, and certainly I will lose it soon. Maybe I can override this later with the old soldering iron!
Success! The drive whirred to life! My Intel motherboard with ICH10R controller immediately responded: "Disk on port 5: Detected"
Other enclosures also include the dreaded key lock--the difference being the key on these enclosures appears to be the only thing that holds the front door closed:
Burly:
Icy-Dock:
At least the Addonics has a latch besides the key; therefore, it might be possible to disable the key with a bit of re-wiring.
Unfortunately, the enclosure's built-in fan also whirred to life. Don't get me wrong, it's not "noisy". But it's not what I would call a low whir either. Maybe a medium whir. In any case, I can hear it, which is saying something considering the other seven or eight fans in my system and seven hard drives (okay, so two of them are SSD's, so call it five).
Therefore, I pulled the unit out to take a closer look at its back-side. I removed the electronics cover and fan screws. The fan is a Power Logic PLA04010S12M. It is a standard 12 VDC 40mm x 10mm fan. It has a sleeve bearing (not ball or ceramic bearing) which is the cheapest type. It connects to the electronics board with a tiny connector.
It would certainly be simple to swap this fan out with another of higher quality for those who are interested in absolute silence. Alternatively, if your chassis has strong front-to-back cooling, you could simply remove the fan from the Addonics unit and allow your existing system fans to pull the air through. Also, you probably don't need a fan at all if you are swapping 5400 rpm "Green" drives.
Conclusion
I look forward to the convenience of using the Addonics MOBILE RACK enclosure. I have a few bare drives laying about for backup, and this enclosure will certainly make backup more convenient--as if backup is ever "convenient".
The quality is pretty good, but less than excellent; however it should hold up to low or moderate use. In any event, it's cheap to replace at under $40 USD.
Pros:
- convenience
- cheaper than buying trays or stand-alone external drives
- good looks (for plastic)
- power and activity LEDs
Cons:
- key lock required to activate
- fan slightly noisy
- could be more rugged
- likely limit to internal connector and drive connector reliability
I will recommend this Addonics product to friends and clients.
Buy yours from the manufacturer here:
Addonics MOBILE RACK SNAP-IN SERIES ($29 USD)
Kevin R
Tek4 - IT Consulting, Design, Sales
San Luis Obispo, CA