Does such an animal exist?
- Thread starter Fritz
- Start date
Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.
Sure, but I hesitate to recommend it unless you can find a used one for an impossibly good price: Industrial Chassis | iStarUSA Products | DAGE208UTL-2MS - 2U 8-bay 3.5" SAS/SATA 6.0Gb/s miniSAS SFF8088 JBOD Trayless Rackmount Chassis
It was a special order through an iStarUSA reseller (no refunds, no returns) and took nearly five weeks to arrive. The first day, I noticed it kept turning itself off. Cracked open the chassis and found the power leads were sloppily hot-glued to the power switch
After I fixed that, one row of drives stopped responding - bad SAS expander. Then one of the fans started making noises like a bad bearing.
I eventually replaced all the guts with my own hardware selections and am happy with it now. Slick chassis and drive mechanism, but an absolute nightmare inside
It was a special order through an iStarUSA reseller (no refunds, no returns) and took nearly five weeks to arrive. The first day, I noticed it kept turning itself off. Cracked open the chassis and found the power leads were sloppily hot-glued to the power switch
After I fixed that, one row of drives stopped responding - bad SAS expander. Then one of the fans started making noises like a bad bearing.I eventually replaced all the guts with my own hardware selections and am happy with it now. Slick chassis and drive mechanism, but an absolute nightmare inside
In addition to the hacked up iStarUSA storage chassis, my main server is housed in a Norco 4U chassis. I tore out the fans in the front and replaced them with two 5-bay Icy Dock cages that have their own fans: MB155SP-B_3.5" EZ-Tray Cages_3.5" HDD CAGES_ICY DOCK manufacturer Removable enclosure, Screwless hard drive enclosure, SAS SATA Mobile Rack, DVR Surveillance Recording, Video Audio Editing, SATA portable hard drive enclosure (total of 8 + 5 + 5 = 18 drive capacity)
I know you said you want a caddyless enclosure, so maybe these single-channel cages would work? MB975SP-B R1_3.5" Tray-Less Cages_3.5" HDD CAGES_ICY DOCK manufacturer Removable enclosure, Screwless hard drive enclosure, SAS SATA Mobile Rack, DVR Surveillance Recording, Video Audio Editing, SATA portable hard drive enclosure
Hey, if you want to play, you gotta tray!
In all seriousness, I have used the "EZ-Tray" system for, well, about as long as they have been available. The only problem I had early on was drive vibration, which they fixed with a tray design update.I am not aware of any other solutions off-hand... I am sure CRU (RAX - CRU) has something, but now you are talking big-boy dollars
Those listed above appear to have a serious design flaw. They used plastic where they should have metal. I have a 4 drive Icy Dock bay that works as advertised but it's not trayless. It will also cook any drives installed in it which is why I'm not using it.Hey, if you want to play, you gotta tray!
I am not aware of any other solutions off-hand... I am sure CRU (RAX - CRU) has something, but now you are talking big-boy dollars
What I'm looking for is an enclosure I can quickly plug a drive into to transfer data, troubleshoot, etc. Caddyless SATA enclosures are a dime a dozen.
Not exactly sure where you are seeing plastic - CRU specifies metal:
| Construction material(s) | Rugged all-metal construction |
They specialize in digital forensic applications, so their products have to withstand more drive remove/insert cycles than you will probably perform in a lifetime. Imaging a drive generates a lot of heat for a long time and each enclosure includes multiple fans.
Here is a link to all of their trayless SAS/SATA enclosures: RAX - CRU and if you do not find something there to your liking, it probably does not exist.
PROBLEM SOLVED !!!!!!
I have an Enermax caddyless drive bay in one of my desktops. i peeked inside with a flashlight and the connector looked like an SAS connector. So I put a Dell PERC H310 IT in and plugged it in. Lo and behold it worked. I now have a caddyless SAS enclosure. Haven't tried it but I assume it also works with SATA drives.
I have an Enermax caddyless drive bay in one of my desktops. i peeked inside with a flashlight and the connector looked like an SAS connector. So I put a Dell PERC H310 IT in and plugged it in. Lo and behold it worked. I now have a caddyless SAS enclosure. Haven't tried it but I assume it also works with SATA drives.