IO Crest 8 Bay Tool Less Tray Hot Swapable 2.5" and 3.5" SATA Hard Drive External USB-C 3.2 (10Gbps) Hard Drive Enclosure. Support up to 8X 22TB Capacity.

I bought one of the 8-bay USB4 enclosures used since it was significantly cheaper than new and could be easily returned if broken. My gamble paid off, this worked perfectly when plugged into a Windows 11 machine. (I've actually never gotten a used product that didn't work from Amazon Resale). However, it did not work on my Proxmox 9.1 (Debian) node, and surprisingly Google did not have an answer right away. After installing the bolt package and running "boltctl list" I could see the ASMedia 2464 controller but still could not see any of the installed disks. It turns out that status connected doesn't mean the controller is working, you have to run "boltctl enroll <uuid>" to get the controller to be permanently authorized (or boltctl authorize for temporary authorization). In order to get the authorization to work I also had to install the pkexec package in order to get the correct policy kit installed. I'd add more but I have no idea what a policykit is. After enrolling the controller all the disks became visible! Hope this helps someone using this in the future. I'm using this as a DAS to a mini PC (GMKTec k8+), the mini PC acts as a NAS. It's a more compact, less power-hungry replacement for an old gaming system I had running as a NAS.

I have the new 8 disk USG 3.2 DAS. It works well, but please note that in my testing, drives larger than 20TB will only read/write at 40 MB/second (USB 2.0). Smaller drives run at normal speed but for whatever reason larger drives cannot go faster. I've tried different trays, different ports, different cables, even different PC's all together. No matter what, my 22TB and 24TB drives flatline at exactly 40MB/sec. I think it's due to the DAS not providing enough power to the drive but that's just a guess. They do work but they are slow (and I'll admit the product description does not say it'll support the larger drives). I'll also say that the build quality is pretty decent as long as you don't plan on moving it around the house or constantly swapping the internal drives. The ability to individually power on/off each drive is awesome; you can either physically click the button on the DAS for the drive you want to turn on/off, or do the traditional Windows method of right clicking on the "safely remove hardware and eject media" icon and select the drive. Likewise, you can power up any drive at any time while Windows is running and it behaves just like you plugged a new external USB drive in. I've seen some complaints about the plastic tabs that hold the drives in the trays. I agree that they are not very sturdy and really hope the manufacturer will offer replacements should mine snap. I have found a trick that works well to get them to snap out without putting much stress on the plastic: On either end is a circle/dot to is for alignment rather than "snapping" in. Gently pull this back with either your thumb or a finger, and then the part that does snap in will easily release. Then repeat on the other side. Do not try to unsnap both ends at once - if you do this the two dots will both be out and both snap sections will be stuck to the caddy, bowing the plastic in the process. Also, as many others have said, the USB cable is hilariously short so if the DAS isn't right next to your computer, buy a decent cable (generally recommend 3ft or shorter unless absolutely necessary). Overall, I give it a 4/5. It does everything it says it would. I wish it'd handle larger drives at full speed but it never claimed to so I can't take a point off for that. The plastic tabs holding the drives are more of a concern long-term. The manufacturer should put a couple of extra tabs in the box as an unsecured drive could potentially have its pins permanently damaged when sliding the filled tray into the DAS. Also a slightly longer cable should be provided.

It does what it says and works great, the two main fans are dead quiet even at high speeds but the small PSU fan is super noisy and unfortunately this fan runs constant as long as the box has power even if your PC is off. I ordered another in hopes I just got a lemon, it’s the PSU fan is just as loud I might take a chance on another media sonic bay (old one crapped out after 5 years).

My purpose for this unit was to use it as "just a bunch of drives" and clean up the 6 external enclosures, usb hub and repurpose some old SSD's. I have no intention of swapping drives on a regular basis. I don't have experience with server grade trays and enclosures. So I can only assume server grade is more heavy duty and uses more metal in the construction. MY SETUP I am on a Mac and I attached the 8 bay via the thunderbolt 3 port which also acts as USB 3.1 Gen 2 (up to 10Gb/s), for what that is worth. Currently I have the unit fully loaded with three 8TB, three 2TB rotational drives & one 256GB mSATA & one 120SSD. I will eventually swap out the smaller SSD's & 2TB drives with larger when needed. My backups are handled with Goodsync Software - I run non-critical backup jobs monthly, or when I remember ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and automate the import data more frequently. The speed of my backups has not changed and may actually be faster since some of these drive were on USB 3.0 ports. Like I said I am on a Mac so if you are on PC your results may be different. TRAYS: I saw reviews about the cheapness of the trays and plastic drive clips. All I can say is for my purposes it is completely acceptable. The 3.5" drives clipped in very easily and held firm, for the 2.5" drives, you remove one of the blue plastic clips (the plastic is flexible enough and you don't feel like your going to break it when you pinch the clips) - then you place the 2.5" in place and use the provided screws to hold the drive to tray. The trays click into place with a nice clicky sound. Probably not like super expensive metal trays but I still has a satisfying click. POWER BUTTONS: I was concerned about the power buttons to the left of each tray, would I accidentally power a drive off if I bumped into it. But I was happy to find when the power in engaged the button pushes in and stays recessed and to power off you need to use your finger to poke it. So no worries about accidentally hitting power with your foot if the unit is under your desk, or your cat rubbing up against it. I took a photo of the buttons from the side, pictures from the front are deceiving and you can't see the recess when the button is pressed. SPEED: I tested all my drive speeds with Blackmagic Speed test Tool before removing them - then I re-tested after, and all were within fractions of percentage higher or lower (the test never seems be exactly the same on each run) so if a rotational storage drive was about 112MBs average write before the swap and after the new enclosure was 106-116MBs, I considered that the same. I do audio work and I kept my higher speed drives with my sample libraries, audio read/write drives etc. on their own usb buses. (I actually don't know how Apple shares the ports across my computer) But I wanted to keep the 8 bay for backups and my daily everyday coding files that don't need SSD or high speed drives. My fastest drive in the new enclosure is an old mSATA SSD I had lying around, it does 475/515MBs read/write. NOISE: My Intel iMac fan is so much louder when it kicks on. I wouldn't worry about the sound + there is a dial to slow the fans down to a crawl if you want it even quieter. I have the fans set full up and like I said earlier, my computer and my keyboard typing is much, much louder. I suppose if you need ABSOLUTE dead silence in a recording environment, your computer is already out of the room. I would still record in the same room with it and not be concerned unless it was a voice over with no other tracks. Then I would need to re-evaluate. SLEEP/WAKE: The hard drives seem to sleep and wake properly. I saw that this was an issue with a competitively priced brand so I gambled with this company instead. I have no sleep/wake issues. FINAL All in all I am pleased with the unit so far. It does exactly what it says on the tin. If you are an IT specialist used to working with full metal trays and that is important to you then you will need to pony up another couple hundred dollars and buy one of the big boy brands. For me this was perfect. I still thought it was expensive when I first started looking, until I dug deeper and the other name brands can be double this price. For my use I didn't need the name brands and besides my wife would've smacked me across the back of my head.

Excellent price and value. I shoot large 12k and 17k video files daily. A day's of raw 12k raw video is about 16-20 Tb. Add that over a week and month. It is large and petabyte scale is common. My storage needs is huge. I spent thousands on hdd storage monthly. Having an economical usb 3.2 @10Gb/s enclosure is a must have. This enclosure works well. Plug it in and it remembers the last power state on all of the 8 bays. Great for remote power on/off use. Getting decent 500 MB/s sustain transfer rate when 2 Seagate Barracuda 24 Tb used in Raid 0 setup on a Mac Studio M2, MacBook pro. When drives fill up, i swap out the trays. It is not 100% toolless like with the Sabrent. You have to remove the 4 plastic notches to mount onto the 3.5" hdd. Use it on a commercial van. After 2 months, still working fine in hot and snowy climate. Don't drive and copy the files as it may damage the hdd due to road shock. When van is parked only then it will copy without worrying about shock damage. I will be getting 25-30 of these enclosures within the year. Saved about 55% over true toolless brand. Ssd cannot compete in raw capacity and price. Everything transferred is checksum verified. No errors found yet.