IcyDock MB994SP-4S Four-bay 2.5-inch SATA/SAS Hard Drive Rack Review

Unless you have a swanky PC case, it's usually not very easy to install a couple 2.5" notebook-sized hard drives into a desktop computer system. Desktops were made with 3.5" HDDs and 5.25" optical drives in mind, you see. Short-sighted, that, particularly as SSDs are fantastically popular now. Yet when it comes time to install a 2.5" drive into a desktop, the exciting world of PC tuning may leave you scratching your head....

Given that the majority of PC cases are ill equipped for 2.5" drives, many enthusiasts commit the mortal sin of letting the hard drive flop about inside their case all willy-nilly like, or screw it to one side of a cavernous drive bay. Sure there are inexpensive 2.5"-to-5.25" metal brackets that do the job, they also waste space and tend to be overpriced for simple stamped sheet metal.

Instead of slap-hazzard approaches and cheap brackets, consider a hard drive rack that squeezes several small 2.5" drives into one single 5.25" bay slot.

The IcyDock MB994SP-4S is just such a unit - it packs four 2.5" HDD/SSD drives into the space of a single 5.25" DVD drive and provides unified power and supported SATA hook ups at the rear. On top of its high density convenience, all four SATA drive bays are hot swappable; without popping a side panel off , without unscrewing anything and without connecting any cables.

A pair of 40mm fans built into the rack even ensures a modicum of airflow to keep drive temperatures in check.

More technically put, the IcyDock MB994SP-4S supports (4) 2.5" SATA I / II / III and SAS HDD / SSD / SSHDs of up to 15mm thickness in the space of one single 5.25" drive bay. The IcyDock MB994SP-4S is made from extruded aluminum and each drive bay slide from SECC steel. Painted black with bright green status lights at the front, the MB994SP-4S looks nice and should stand up to repeated use in a desktop, home theatre PC or even 1U server chassis.

The ICYDock MB994SP-4S retails for about $60 USD.

IcyDock MB994SP-4S 4-Bay 2.5" Hard Drive Rack Model: MB994SP-4S Dimension: 146x41x170mm Cooling: (2) 40mm fans MSRP Price: $60 USD Capacity: (4) 2.5" SATA or SAS Notebook HDD / SSD / SSHD I/O Interface: (4) SATA and (2) 4-pin Molex power conn. Bay Size: Occupies (1) 5.25" chassis bay (Includes instructions and mounting screws)

To use, install a 2.5" SATA drive into one of the four metal brackets with the supplied screws.

(supports 15mm thick 2.5" SATA drives)

Then, slide the drive in to the ICYDock MB994SP-4S unit and push the front metal locking door closed.

The drives' SATA data and power connectors automatically engage with the hot swap SATA backplane at the rear of the IcyDock MB994SP-4S. Provided the SATA ports are set to AHCI in the motherboard BIOS, the drive will momentarily become available as if you had plugged in a USB thumb drive.