Connectland External USB 3.0 Enclosure for 3.5" SATA III Hard Drives, USB 3.0 to SATA HDD, Support UASP, Tool-Free Installation

I bought this planning to connect it to my server for backup storage. I put four 4TB hard drives in this thing, it immediately began smoking and resulted in burning and ruining 3 of the four HDDs. These were HGST and Seagate NAS and Enterprise HDDs, so they were much more expensive than a regular desktop HDD. DO NOT BUY THESE.

I purchased this as a replacement for another product that fried my brand new drives after 24 hours. So far so good. I have a few complains, though. First, the main reason I got this was because it says on the box: Individual Power Switches per hard drive. I was expecting a power button per drive so I could turn off and on each one as needed, for example during swaps. This is not the case. The individual power switch is actually one of those DIP switches on the back that you have to move with a tiny screwdriver. It is more of a 'disable bay 1-4' function rather than power on off. I don't see why I would want to disable a bay at all.Second, the hot swap capabilities are poor. I am using a mac, and when you eject a drive on the OS it does it correctly. However, when you pull that drive out, the device disconnects ALL drives giving you the error of improper removal of the other 3 devices plugged in. So, in order to remove a single drive, you need to eject ALL four drives to protect your data. Thats a bummer, but in fairness is something I have seen in most external multidrive enclosures.Third, the power button is a soft-button, which means that in a power failure the device won't turn back on again. You need to re-start it. Again, I chose this over the more popular brand here because that brand has this dreadful feature as well.So overall: I paid $30 more because I was expecting more. In return, I got a device that seems to be feature identical to the Mediasonic one -- except that is uglier, but maybe sturdier. Time will tell.

Have a pair of these in a 4U enclosure. Disassembled both, removed the backs, drilled out the holes slightly and fit through the back rubber mounts to replace the stock fan (Young Lin Tech Co., Ltd. DEC802012M 80x80x20mm) with Noctua fans (NF-A8 FLX 80x80x25mm). Had to clip the wires off the original fans, as the connector is smaller than typical. I expect the original fans to be around ~2.5mm H20 @ ~40CFM @ ~38 dBA @ 2 watts, Noctua fans are 2.0mm H20, 30 CFM, 16.1 dBA @ 0.9 watts, so lower performance (particularly airflow), but a lot quieter and lower power usage.Some notes on the fan operation: there is an internal, red, power light on the left side of the lower drive bay (it's not an error light! :) ). On applying power, the fans first go maximum speed for 10 seconds, then will stop until internal temperatures exceed 30C (in either auto or high mode). Auto mode ramps up from 30c to 40c. I had emailed tech support for clarification on these points, and received a prompt reply which neatly explained in detail the fan operations - so 5 stars for their support folks also.The ventilation holes on the back are a bit small relative to similar drive caddys, consisting of 3 slots around the middle 3 drives. The front doors are pretty good, compared to alternatives. It could be a bit less restrictive, but in practice have not had any problems, even with 5 drives full-swing. Have not had any issues hot-swapping drives with this either.The case itself is nicely weighted, metal, well made with a nice brushed finish. The drives slide in and out smoothly. Each bay has an individual illuminated power button, hold down for a few seconds to power up the drives and good to go. I have a mix of 15k SAS and 3-4Tb SATA drives fed through a combination of an intel SAS expander (RES2SV240) and an LSI HBA (9300-8i). This has been active 24/7 for ~4 months at this point without issue for me.Oh, also, there is an internal temperature alarm with multiple setpoints, I did test it, will be heard over the noise of a modest rack but might be difficult to pick out in a high-density operation. 5 stars! :)

There are NO instructions included; nothing about the dip switches (probably those who do RAID a lot would know anyway), nothing about the Power Switch and how to use the "individual on/off switches per hard drive" I did recollect some other reviewer on probably another Syba case saying that the power switch has to be held down for about 6 seconds in order to bring up additional drives (it will grab the top one by default)... but I'd like to have the 'official' directions on this (how are they powered as an 'individual?).With no included data, I didn't know if the internal fan was thermally activated, regardless of what speed you have set?I also had some issues with removing a drive/tray - - had to pry it open - this shouldn't have happened....Bottom line: 4 stars, as this is generally well-built, it's easy to put the HDD in the tray, and you have the USB 3.0 (fastest) and Sata options, plus 3 speeds on the fan from which to choose. And a great price!I mean, really - - - instructions/information should have been included!