SABRENT 4-Bay USB 3.2 Gen 2 SATA Docking Station for 3.5” HDD/SSD, 10Gbps USB-C DAS, Tray-Less Hot-Swap, Aluminum Enclosure with Cooling Fan, Individual Power Switches, No RAID (DS-SC4B)

[Overall:] If you are looking to get mechanical drives out of your system but want still use them due to their high-capacity and/or performance (in the case of my WD Black drives), this was the best quality solution. As I stated in my original review in 2020, if anything changes with my experience with this, I'll be sure to update (as long as I'm still alive for it). My experience didn't change 5 years later, my love for the drive just increased. I honestly do not expect any issues going into Year 6 (2026). [Initial/Updated Thoughts after 5 full years:] I bought the Sabrent USB 3.2 5-Bay in Jan 2020 and all bays have been in DAILY use for a full 5 years (Dec 2025). Surprised the enclousure or the drives haven't failed (especially the drives, they are well past their intended lifespan--still...don't forget to backup your drives). I dislike that all the reviews for each bay type is consolidated into one listing, but that's an Amazon problem. When I bought this in 2020, the packaging for the 5-bay stated USB 3.1 GEN 2 but the listing was for USB 3.2, which was confusing because of the USB naming schema provided by the "USB Implementers Forum". At the time, USB 3.1 GEN 2 was renamed to USB 3.2, and provided 10Gbps (which USB 3.2 [GEN 2] is and such was the case under the former name [USB 3.1 GEN 2]). Most SATA III cables are 6 Gbps, so this item was perfect for what I intended to do. Not sure what the packaging says 5 full years later, but I didn't have any major issues to warrant buying a new one (although I did think about the 10-bay several times). [Usage:] In 2020, I upgraded my PC with. I did not want to cable manage SATA cables in a smaller case and didn't want to move/copy everything to the smaller capacity NVME or SSD drives offered at the time. On the PC before it, I had many media files, documents, and games on multiple WD Black HDDs. I wanted a bay that can give me the same performance of having a SATA cable--and 5 years later, it still does so. While I don't play games off it anymore, technology as evolved, it does still store a backlog of games, media, documents, backups, etc. For 5 years, I was able to use the drives exactly how I wanted to and am getting the same performance as SATA III (especially without the internal wiring). I can seamlessly use the drives between PCs with the caveat of making sure the drive lettering is set up consistently with each machine (i.e. to avoid having to reinstall games, rewrite any hard-coding, file path shortcuts, etc.). [Quality:] This 5-bay has solid construction and is very well designed. Cool to the touch and manages power based on drive usage--but is always in the ready. The locks for each bay and the clear labeling was a very easy plug-and-play situation. While it does accumulate dust within the enclosure, a quick blow of an air compressor gets it back into looking "new". After 5 years, the only issue I had with the enclosure was that the board/circuit of the unit started making an indiscernible noise. It's not the fans or the drives, but something else. I honestly could not pinpoint it, but there hasn't been any performance issues at all. It just works. [Additional Thoughts:] 1. If you have more than 5 3.5" HDDs to use but don't want buy more bays? You can hot-swap. 2. The provided USB cables (USB-C to USB-A and USB-C to USB-C) did it's job, but were too short and thus I needed longer cables. Finding USB 3.2 cables for 10 Gbps for over 3ft wasn't the smoothest shopping experience because longer lengths have a bit uncertainty (due to how they are listed), but they are there and have worked to expectations. 3. Pretty much your own external drive solution...just have to have your own drives. :)

This is absolutely one of the best tech purchases I've made: I can't recommend it highly enough. I purchased this because I needed an easy-to-use external storage device capable of handling both 3.5" spinning platter HDDs and 2.5" SSD drives. The 2.5" drives need a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter, which can be had for $7 to $20-ish depending on the materials used. I'm a hobbyist photographer and I wanted an easy way to share digital images between macOS and Win10 computers. This completely fits the bill. Here's what I love about this device: - It is absolutely built like a tank - all metal, heavy, great construction - small footprint - it's roughly the size of a small toaster - no crazy or irritating drive brackets needed - you just pop open the drawer, slide the drive in, and close the door - viola! All set to use - individual power buttons! This is huge. I can load up the device with five separate drives, and select which ones I want to be active - under macOS or Windows 10, the drives are automatically detected when powered up, and it's easy to eject / unmount them when done and shut power off to the drive - the USB 3.2 Gen 2 connection provides full drive speed for HDD and SATA3 SSD drives - access is just as fast as connecting the drives directly to the SATA connectors on the motherboard - the unit also provides a USB-C connector on the back of the unit, so it's possible to attach a second device if needed All in all, I'd recommend this external enclosure without hesitation. Granted, It's a bit on the pricey side and the small, single drive external USB enclosures are much less expensive. Also, given the size and weight, it's definitely designed to be a desktop unit - you're not going to throw this in your laptop bag or take it on a flight with you. There are much better options if that's what your need is. Keep in mind that this the connection speed for USB 3.2 Gen 2 is a maximum of 10 Gbps, or 1250 MB/s, which is absolutely more than enough for SATA3 drives. This speed is ample for digital photography needs. I've used the lastest versions of Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, ON1 Photo Raw, and the DxO NiK Collection apps without hiccup. If you're a videographer, however, this likely will not give you the speed you'll need, particularly if you're shooting in large format (e.g., 4K or greater) and/or RAW formats. In this case, a Thunderbolt 3 or 4 type drive would be a far better choice. If you're on the macOS platform, your iMac or Macbook should support these connections if you're using anything reasonably current. If you're on the PC platorm under Windows 10 or 11 and a PC builder, then your choices are a bit more constrained - Asrock has licensed Thunderbolt from Intel and several of their motherboards support TB 3 or TB 4. Alternatively, some Gigabyte MB's have a TB 3 header, which can connect to their PCIe expansion card ($89 as of the time of this review). A quick search on the internet should give you an idea of what your options are. BTW, this drive enclosure does NOT support hardware RAID. If that's what you need, you'll have to look elsewhere. Under both macOS and Windows 10, there are software RAID-ish options available - I haven't had the need or desire to attempt these, but in theory, they are possible. Good luck and hope this helps!

Everything looks awesome just that they use stupid china fan which is totally crap. So I swapped in the famous and very expensive Noctua fan.

To start I wish Sabrent would spend some more time providing detailed and correct specs about the unit. I say this because the box and the instructions say that it has a 120mm fan? Yet on other areas of that same box and online it says 90mm? Which is it? Guess you need to buy it to find out huh? Also, I asked a question here about whether this unit supports the UASP protocol. The answer I recieved here was "No, it uses the older USB3.0 BOT transfer method which is still plenty fast." This is incorrect information. This unit in fact DOES support UASP which stands for USB Attached SCSI Protocol. I was SHOCKED and DELIGHTED to have discovered this when hooking up the unit to my PC. This allows for faster read/write data speeds to and from storage devices. Compared to traditional USB 3.0 BOT, UASP performs up to 70% faster read speeds and 40% faster write speeds at peak performance. It has to be the FASTEST unit I've ever used when accessing information off of a hard disk drive. I'm very impressed with the build quality of this unit and ease of installation when placing drives in the tooless bay slots. I have installed 4x 18TB Seagate Exos @ 7,200RPMs. Drives at idle are 29C and when under load don't go over 40C. Lastly, don't know what all the fuss is about over the loudness of the fan? It's very quiet, and doesn't bother me at all. The unit sits on top of my tower right on on my desk about 3-4 feet away from me. The only thing I hear are the low noise fans comming from my PC case. The Sabrents fan on the enclosure when I place my ear near it is quieter than my PC, and I have a quiet PC. So, I suspect one of two things in regards to the popular "the fan is too loud" postings: Either people got a defective fan from the get go, or Sabrents quietly released a new revision of the unit with a much quieter fan. I was researching ahead of time about possibly replacing the fan as others have when the unit arrives, but there is no need as it's whisper quiet. This is a fantastic enclosure. A bit on the pricey side but I got the bonus of finally having a unit with UASP.

Ciężka, solidna i działa bez problemu. Wentylator trochę słyszalny, ale nie przeszkadza. Łatwa i szybka instalacja dysków.

Able to take my drives from old computers and just plug them in and they were a Mix of old and new drives and SSDs everything worked

Le poids considérable du boîtier est immédiatement perceptible à la livraison – presque tout ce que l'on touche est en métal(Aluminium). Le boîtier dispose d'un connecteur d'alimentation 230 V direct, ce qui élimine le besoin d'une alimentation externe. Chaque Rack logement HDD possède son propre Interrupteur et de plus possibilité de le verouiller individuellement avec la clé fournie. J'ai ensuite testé sa vitesse avec un disque dur de 10 To tournant à 7 200 tr/min. J'ai obtenu un excellent débit de 285 Mo/s, à condition d'utiliser le port USB C adéquat. Mes ports USB 3.0 intégré n'offrant qu'environ la moitié de cette vitesse, j'ai ajouté une carte PCIe USB C 3.2 gen 2. (x2=10Gbps chacun) Avec cette carte, le boîtier est nettement plus rapide. De plus chaque Boitier possèdes un deuxième port USB C pour le montage en Série de 3 boitiers Maximum. (limitation Max de votre system windows). La température du disque dur est restée à un maximum de 38/40 degrés Celsius en fonctionnement et à 28 degrés Celsius en veille. Tous les disques durs installés dans les baies sont gérés individuellement par le système d'exploitation ; il n'y a pas de RAID matériel. J'ai pu aussi installé des SSD et HDD 2.5" avec l'utilisation de ""rack SABRENT 2.5" HDD to DESTOP3.5" BAY CONVERTER"" disponnible pour un prix résonnable. Concernant le bruit : j'ai les 2 boitiers juste à côté de moi sur le bureau, il n'est pas plus gênant. Le bruit de fond provient surtout des certains vieux HDD de récup. La possibilité d'entendre les disques durs dépend de leurs modèles et de leur age. La qualité de fabrication est irréprochable. Les disques durs 3,5 pouces s'insèrent simplement dans les baies sans vis ni autres fixations pour les 3.5" et un rack dispo pour les 2.5"; le système fonctionne parfaitement. Théoriquement, il serait possible d'insérer et de retirer les disques durs pendant que le système est en marche ; cependant, je le déconseille fortement, car le retrait du disque risque de l'endommager (surtout s'il est encore en rotation=DANGER). En conclusion : un boîtier élégant, une excellente qualité de fabrication et des performances rapides. Son prix est tout à fait justifié. Je le recommande vivement. C'est un boîtier fantastique.