TowerRAID TR4UT-B - 4 Bay SATA to USB2.0 / eSATA Hardware RAID 5 Enclosure (Black)

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Price: $289.00 $287.27   

Product Feature

• Hardware RAID, supporting RAID 0, 1, 10, 3, 5, JBOD, Clone and hot spare disk.
• Over 200MB/s read and 170MB/s write performance.
• eSATA and USB 2.0 interface.
• Bundled SATA 6.0Gbps PCIe 2.0 x1 controller card, support PCIe 2.0 with over 200MB/s performance. (Highpoint R622).
• Backward compatible with PCIe 1.0 slot is supported.

Product Description

The TowerRAID TR4UT-B is a 4-bay RAID enclosure that utilizes the widely available USB 2.0 and performance orientated eSATA to provide over 200MB/s in performance. With built-in support for RAID 0, 1, 10, 3, 5 with hot-spare support and JBOD, the TR4UT-B provides hardware RAID redundancy protection against hard drive failures. A brand new RAID mode, CLONE or N-Way Mirror, is introduced to replicate the saved data throughout each installed hard drive. The RAID engine is embedded within the enclosure, where all RAID parity calculation will be offload to the unit, instead of the controller card or computer, to achieve high performance. The unit's hardware RAID capability also helps to eliminate OS compatibility issues where installation software is unnecessary. To satisfy the need for performance hungry applications, each unit is bundled with a 2-port PCIe 2.0 x1 eSATA controller card with SATA 6.0 Gbps (6G) support (Highpoint Tech R622 Controller card). PCIe 2.0 provides twice the bandwidth of PCIe 1.0 unit, allowing over 200MB/s in performance. The unit is backward compatibility with PCIe 1.0 slots, to provide eSATA connectivity without eSATA built-in. Designed with easy installation in mind, the trayless TR4UT-B allows effortless installation by simply inserting the hard drive after opening the protective ventilating cover.

TowerRAID TR4UT-B - 4 Bay SATA to USB2.0 / eSATA Hardware RAID 5 Enclosure (Black) Review

I am very impressed with this unit. I was worried from some of the other reviews about fan noise, and while it's not silent, it is a quiet, high quality fan. Paired with my Western Digital 2TB Caviar Green drives, it makes for a compact, quiet unit that doesn't generate too much heat.

Putting the drives themselves into this unit is a simple matter and doesn't require a screwdriver or mounting brackets. However, to securely mount the drive to the unit the manufacturer recommends sliding the external housing off and screwing the drives in with supplied twist screws. This would obviously make it hard to pull drives out later. However, these extra screws are basically extra security and are not completely necessary (be careful though!). In my case, I have 3 drives screwed in that I don't move, but I left the fourth slot unscrewed so I can slide a drive (for making backups etc) into that slot easily.

I loved how easy set up was. You adjust a few dip switches to tell it what mode you want to run in, plug it in to your computer, and set it up with Windows' built in drive management tools. No clunky web interfaces, no software to install.

I had never used a SATA connection before, but I bought a Syba Expresscard SATA card for my laptop and it functions beautifully with this unit.

Everything you need, including both SATA and USB cables, comes with the product. I had no use for the PCI card as I don't have a desktop PC, and I'm not quite sure why it is bundled with this.

Before you buy this, take a careful look at all of the Towerraid products as there are quite a few on Amazon. In retrospect, I am realizing that I probably didn't need to get the unit with RAID capabilities - I am beginning to think that life is easier if you just keep each disk as an individual volume and keep a physical backup elsewhere, so that's what I'm doing. It seems like RAID creates as many complications as it potentially eliminates.

Also, this unit is so small, I feel like I should have bought the 5 bay version.

Finally, Towerraid has a USB3.0 product as well, and frankly that is somewhat tempting as it feels like the days of eSATA are probably numbered, whereas all new PCs will come with USB3.0 built in.

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