ICY DOCK 2 Bay 2.5 SAS/SATA HDD/SSD Mobile Rack + 3.5" Slot for External 5.25" Bay | ExpressCage MB322SP-B

This thing is really handy. Mounts in a 5.25" bay, maximes use of space by offering another 3.5" bay (which I populated with a USB 3.0 hub). And there's a lot of different uses to having two hotswap 2.5" drives. What I've done is kind of unconventional, but really handy for what I need.The problem stems from dual-booting not being a perfect solution to having two frequently used operating systems. Sometimes dual-booting just causes problems. So, what I've done is invested in a second, small SSD for my second OS. Windows 7 is my daily driver, and I occasionally need to use Windows 10 for other things. I've had W7 installed on an SSD for years now, so I picked up a small SSD to install W10 on. This device has two SATA data ports, one for each SSD. I've simply left the second port disconnected, so my computer only sees one boot SSD at a time. If I need to switch operating systems, I power down the computer, I swap the SSDs to the opposite bays, and suddenly my computer is running the other OS. So handy.I wish that the device had separate SATA power connections for each drive, as well, but it doesn't. So even though one of my SSDs in this scenario is going unused, it's still using power. But, I'm sure I'm using this in a very esoteric, unintended way, so I can't fault them too badly for that design choice. Besides, it's not all bad having the unused SSD powered on. Data degradation can occur over time if an SSD (or any storage media for that matter) isn't receiving power, so since this remains powered on, the SSD's error checking systems are always working preventing any data degradation.It's also worth noting that I saw no performance impact between SSD directly connected to my motherboard versus an SSD in this device connected to the motherboard. I ran a CrystalDiskMark test before and after installation, and the results were well within typical variability. So, it's safe to assume that the SATA connections are just simple passthroughs and there is no signal manipulation occurring.Since my boot SSDs are now accessible from the outside of my computer case, I was worried about the possibility of accidentally ejecting them during use by bumping my knee into the computer or something, but that's not an issue. You need to press pretty firmly on a really particular spot for the SSD to eject. I'm not concerned about it.

I finally went ahead and purchased 1 of these mobile hot swap racks after a long time (1-2 years of eagerly wanting it, when listed price and my own budget constraints finally aligned. My expectations for it were very high, building as time passed and I kept revisiting online listings for it. I installed it in one of my older LGA1366 workstations without any issue or complication. It adds cosmetic appeal to the workstation tower, and more importantly has functioned flawlessly - without any issue so far, whether HDD or SSD, for common drive operations/file transfer or when hot-swapping. I like the additional benefit of freeing up one SATA power connector (this uses 1 to power both 2.5" drive bays). My only criticism of this and other Icy Dock products would be the pricing - normally too high given the materials and estimated overall costt per unit to produce - but as mentioned, with patience and good fortune, I was able to buy one of these finally at a price that was affordable to me. Emphatic 5 stars for this 2+1 mobile rack by Icy Dock.

It's cheap plastic but, they work. I haven't had any connection issues with these yet (unlike other brands that I tried). Completely worth the money.I will say that the more expensive metal versions of these are ALOT better built.

I was replacing an older system containing an SSD and 3 x 3.5 HDDs with a Dell Optiplex with 2 x 3.5" bays and 2 x 5.25" bays. The 2 BAY HDD CAGE cage converted the unused 5.25" bay to the perfect format to house the SSD operating system drive and the 3rd 3.5" HDD, and still leaves me with an open 2.5" bay for easy expansion.I bought a second 2 BAY HDD CAGE for another system that I had already put a plain 3.5 to 5.25 adapter into. The 2 BAY HDD CAGE makes so much more efficient use of the 5.25" bay.The only complaint (or more accurately, warning ) I have is that right-angled SATA power and data cables wouldn't connect to the connectors of the 3.5" HDD housed in the 2 BAY HDD CAGE because the 5.25 bays in both of my computers were deeper in length than the ICY DOCK, leaving a .5" lip of sheet metal sticking out behind the HDD and preventing right-angled cables from having room to connect. So if you plan to use the 3.5" bay, make sure you have a straight ended SATA power and data cable available to plug into the HDD.

I have multiple ICY DOCK products and I like virtually all of them. I tinker with hardware setups and run all kinds of off-the-wall stuff. I have a bunch of old hardware and it is nice to be able to eject an SSD or HDD and plug another one in. I also like being able to store my files on the HDD and then plugin various SSD with different Linux Distros and still be able to have all the files in the same structure. Maybe this is not how others use this, but it works great for what I need it to do.

UPDATE:Reviewing the 2x2.5" + 1x3.5" enclosure.Purchased for the drive slides to add 2 SSDs. This is used for an unRAID build for 2 SSD cache drives and a large (6TB) backup drive so it only takes up one 5.25 bay (all other space is dedicated to array drives so something that was combined was needed). Doesn't run hot and has easy to connect connections but, when backing up to the 6TB drive it causes all 3 to get hot because of the heat that backup drive puts out (Seagate Ironwolf) . It doesn't run hot because of how unRAID will sleep the drive outside of the array. I would expect this to stay hot if the drive was always active. A heat shield between the upper and lower halves should resolve this issue and better protect your SSDs. The small fan is adequate for just the SSDs but not including another drive. Downgraded to 4* because of the lack of heat dissipation measures or shielding. Overall, I love this device and it still fits my needs perfectly.