Sabrent DS-SC4B Review - 4 Bay USB 3.2 Hard Drive Dock Reviewed. The Speed!
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- Опубликовано: 28 июн 2020
- It's everything I expected and more. Truly a no-compromise 4 bay 3.5" HDD docking station that allows you to run all 4 drives to their maximum potential (all at the same time). Links below!
Amazon Links:
4 Bay Version: amzn.to/3g9dFQH
5 bay Version: amzn.to/2CSpi0e
Sabrent E-Store Link: www.sabrent.com/product/DS-SC...
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Yes yes yes, This is what i need. Planning to move standard tower to a Mini-ITX and the case im looking at doesnt have lots of bay storage spaces, this should do the job.
I looked at other similar clips but your one was the only one which was properly done and done in-depth, keep it up!
Awesome review! Thank you. This is exactly what I'm looking for. Your explanation is the clearest most concise I've found on this topic.
Thank you for this exceptionally good review with relevant tech info about the functionality (which isn't always obvious in the product specs). This is perfect for me since I want to be able to control the drives individually in Linux.
You bet! Thanks so much, and I'm glad it could help you.
Thank you for the review, for someone like me who doesn’t know much about computers and accessories in general, this was very helpful in deciding on a hard drive docking bay!!!
Thanks for the thoughtful review. I just ordered one to try with 4-drive sets of drives that I have laying around and Storage Spaces (which has improved after its initial flop 10 yrs ago). I am trying to get away from my rack of beefy servers and SAS controllers, expanders and enclosures - software raid is the future with dumb enclosures. I am trying a nice NAS unit for 6x10TB (that can cook dinner and wash the car) and then I am wanting to use these cheaper 4-bay (USB Gen1+) or 8-bay (USB Gen2+) type units with various 4-drive (up to 8-drive) arrays in Windows Storage Spaces. The Sabrent [$200] looks nice and is tool-less compared to the OWC, etc. I have noticed that QNAP has a nice 4-bay (USB Gen1) [$200] and 8-bay (USB Gen2) unit as well [$650].
I think I'm gonna buy this, I have a ton of data, 4 8tbs, and 1 2tb, and I want them out of my pc and into an enclosure, I believe this will fulfill all my needs. I have USB 3.1 type c, on my x570 board. Great review!
I still use it every week and it’s been rock solid.
This seems like the perfect solution for migrating my SATA drives from my hackintosh to my macbook pro, especially with usb-c functionality. Thanks!
Dude thank you for this!!!
Thank you for your thorough explanations!
Anytime, thanks for checking the video out!
I like this. Simple way to consolidate internal drivers into a single external powered drive cage. For a media cage this would be super sweet for accessing thousands of movie & music RIPs.
Considering this as the Flashpoint flash game archive is starting to get out of hand for downloading the whole project.
awesome review! I love the real world enthusiasm and not just trying to review something for the sake of reviewing it.
What a great review.
Yes......order a 3 or 6 foot USB cable. The included one is about 20 inches. So far a like my 4 bay unit, however the fan is loud and thats under a desk. Eject and move drives around is a breeze, love it. The front latch is not a problem to push on at all, it holds the drive in nicely.
Can I use this 4 bay docking station with my iPad Pro since I edit my photos and videos on my iPad? Also, which hard drives work best for “reliable” and fast storage for my large 4k videos if I want to by 5 hard drives? WD black or red...?
Thank you so much. Going for it now.....after reading for days.....after my IcyDock ate 3 drives at once.
What a great review! I am buying it based on this review.
I have 4 external HDD drives (2 WD and 2 Seagate). In theory, as long as my drives don't have encryption, I should be able to shuck them and just plug em all into this and have no data loss?
In video at 9:55, thank you for showing your speed test results.
thank you for timestamping it
Thanks, that was really helpful!
I'm using 4 of these and they are great and certainly beat the heck out of the Mediasonic or Orico units I've had in the past.
I know this is an older video ... but thank you - you was a big help I use Photoshop and my files builds up I need storage I did not want Raid or anything fancy I just wanted something to use on my desk tby he computer to put my files on and be able to swap disk when disk is full and need new drive, and I was debating between this one and another and your review helped allot now I know to order extension cord to hook to computer
Hi 👋🏻
Thanks for this great content 🙏🏻
What would be the speed loss if I had to plug it in a usb 3.0 port instead of a usb 3.2 ?
Hi Gadgetry can you tell me if the disks in the station are going in sleep mode thanx
You think Stablebit drivepool would allow you to pool multiple disks together from that enclosure? I have 4 x 8TB WD disks laying around and I'm looking at a similar enclosure (Orico 3549C3 also is USB Gen2 but has an internal power supply). I want to do something like a RAID 0+1 with a bunch of 4k movies but I don't think Windows will let me do that. I'm pretty sure Stablebit drivepool doesn't care if the drives are internal or external, as long as it can see the volumes you should be able to create a pool.
Good info - thanks.
Is there a mounting/conversion bracket for this SABRENT Docking Station to work with a smaller 2.5” SSD?
Can the fan be changed? Is it what size, did you say 90mm?
JBOD perfection. Awesome review, thank you 👍.
This DS-SC4B Sabrent 4-bay drive enclosure still tops my list 👍
PSU being external makes replacing easy if it fails. However 12V/6.5A/78W delivers up to 1.625A per drive in a scenario where all four drives are pulling at the same time (assuming no efficiency loss). While fine for keeping started disks spinning, it is a bit tighter power budget to simultaneously spin up all four disks from an initial standing start.
One wonders whether the individual drive power buttons were added by the engineers to mitigate possible over-current risk to the PSU; i.e., mayhaps Sabrent cleverly included the power buttons so that users would eventually realize that _at least one if not two_ of the four drives must be *off* before starting up, to limit PSU over-currenting. So are the individual drive power buttons a feature or a bug?
I previously stopped looking at multi-bay drive enclosures but am reconsidering them. Makes a passable makeshift NAS paired with a sub-$150 mini PC and 10Gbs USB 3.1 Gen 2.
I am trying to learn more about the PSU ratings for Sabrent's 5-bay DS-SC5B. Unfortunately it's an internal psu, making it harder to service or replace.
The 4- and 5-bay offerings from Yottamaster (FS4C3 and FS5C3) both have beefier 150W internal PSUs, but ironically those may be on the other side of the spectrum: (1) too strong with risk of frying any too-weak componentry of the backplane (ICs, capacitors, PCB); and (2) harder to replace if it fails.
Kindest regards, neighbours and friends.
Great review. After watching your review I bought this... only thing that bother me is that as u said the fan is kind noisy though it is more quiet than most other similar device. Do u think I can change them to something like Be Quiet fan? the question is that is there any way to open the box to replace the fan ? wonder u may have tried
Sometimes the feet cover up key screws. I don't know if they ever use locktite, etc either. But I'd like to replace the fan also. It may also be a 2 pin fan given it is one speed so you might have to chop off a 3-pin fan's third pin and wire. Many of these budget enclosures feature a 2 pin fan header which I think make some sense as they often include multispeed fans for $$$ more.
Great video! Do you know if it supports 16TB HDD? I'm thinking of getting a Seagate Exos 16TB and I just have to know if it supports it lol
Thanks! At this moment I see no reason why it shouldn't support any SATA drive due to how it works. I do not have a drive that large to test/confirm however.
A question: if connecting to a Windows machine, does each drive inside the enclosure get it's own drive letter? Or is it one drive letter for the whole enclosure, and when another drive is added...poof, the capacity increases? I asked this same question to Sabrent and still haven't heard back. Hoping you might know. Either way, thanks for the video...very helpful.
I fear we may not know. I have the same question.
Hello men, can i use that HDD Box to install teo HDD 18 Tb? Thank u
Does anyone know whether performance cuts by 50% if copying or rsync from one bay to another possibly due to using a shared single cable? Looking for your real world experience with this enclosure. Thank you.
You've helped me make a decision - I looked at a Mediasonic and an Orico but both had more issues. I may take a crack at installing a Noctua 90mm fan in place of the existing one because it is designed for quieter performance. I like nothing in my system to exceed 42C and less if I can manage. I do like the locking bays, just because some other enclosures can see a drive slide out if the unit is inclined. Also like the power button for each drive and the eject->shut down the drive.
I have two questions:
1) Does it have a idle sleep function for the drives? If so, how long until it kicks in? And can it be disabled for full time spinning?
2) I have yet to see a picture from underneath. How hard does it look to remove the casing so I could replace the fan? I know some companies stick feet over there screws or suchlike...
The idle sleep function is controlled by windows, and this memory controller will pass those controls through. You can define the sleep time in Windows.
I'll have to take a look at it tomorrow if you could comment then to remind me, I'd appreciate it! I'm moving so the enclosure is in the garage at the moment but it's easily accessible.
Were you able to replace the fan? Curious how it went
Great vid, 10x! Do you know if this gadget supports 14TB of HDD?!
There should be no reason it would be limited to 14 TB per drive. It is an external drive cage essentially.
"you don't have to read the directions". I like your style. ;)
I'm totally confused. You mention JBOD, fine, I understand that. BUT using ONE USB 3.2 cable, can I map each drive as a different letter? Say tray 1 = E: , tray 2 = F: , tray 3 = G:, tray 4 = H:? We need to be a bit more technical in what the computer OS sees. I would be using Win 10 Pro and running all the tray/drives at once. Thank you for the clarification. I need to attach 4 Drobo drives for recovery with UFS Explorer. So either to the MB bus or the Sabrent box. I just can't wrap my mind that USB 3. can talk to 4 distinct SEPARATE drives, each with it's own letter.
What about thunderbolt?
Can I use this with a 2.5” SATA SSD? Is there an adapter that would work with this?
They make enclosures designed for 2.5" sata. You could technically try to make this work if you found a good 2.5" to 3.5" drive enclosure for internal use but it likely will not insert and eject correctly. With the cost add of those adapters, I would just consider a different enclosure meant for 2.5".
Hi, does it have auto sleep mode? or what happen when will be power cut off do i need to manually push the button again when is power loss?
It passes through smart control to Windows, so Windows can and will still put the drives to sleep if your power profile is configured to do so, just like the internal drives. Hope that helps!
Will the drives or (enclosure) shut off when you power off your PC or will it keep running unless you manually power off the device?
Sorry I missed this - Shutting down your PC will also power down the drives automatically.
Is the fan temperature-controlled i.e. variable speed? This looks pretty perfect for my needs but I worry about noise....
return it to where you purchased. sabrent is ripping you off by 50% i weighed the features startech and econodupe offer in comparision and sabrent falls flat. i really need to suggest predatory video in this case.
So in other words, if i put 4 drives into the dock, windows would read it as 4 separate drives?
Yes
Ah!, so this is the answer. Windows 10 sees each dock/tray as a separate drive, each with it's own assigned letter.
Thanks alot for the review. Purchased one myself, but my only issue is the fan noise. Would like to replace the stock fan with a Noctua one, but can't seem to figure out how to disassemble and replace the fan. You got any experience with doing so? And if so, any pointers?
Did you try it? I want to do the same when I get one and replace it with a noctua fan.
@@ghandimauler I ended up returning it, the whole thing in general was so loud. Instead I opted for the QNAP TR-004 (installing Noctua fan), and I'm really pleased with it
@@thorup1984 Was the QNAP much quieter than the Sabrent to start with? The Sabrent is pretty perfect for my needs but I worry about the noise. Also, I've used QNAP NAS but not DAS.. does it take time to start up?
@@occamsrazor000 Hi Ben. I'm VERY happy with the QNAP DAS (TR-004) and would recommend it over the Sabrent. It just feels like a better product overall and with far better noise levels. Personally I went with setting up a RAID5 configuration, but it can obviously also do JBOD or individual disks.
Startup takes about 40 seconds (with 4 drives installed) as it boots one drive at a time. Not a big deal when manually turning it on and off when needed, but it can be an annoyance if you have it turned on per default. It automatically goes to sleep mode when the computer is shut down, and it automatically wakes up when turning on the computer. Which is good, BUT it extends the boottime of the computer significantly as it'll need to initialize the DAS during boot before launching the OS. Which also makes a simple reboot a pain. But I guess that's an issue no matter which DAS you go for.
Maybe there's a setting/fix to have the computer not initialize/activate certain USB ports until after booting the OS, though I haven't figured it out. But please do let me know if you do though ;)
@@thorup1984 Thanks, I have a QNAP 4-bay NAS so I'm fairly familiar with their hardware. Shame the drive insertion isn't tool-less like Sabrent but I could live with that. Does it have some kind of operating system interface like their NASes do? Or it's just like a hard-drive DAS enclosure in those terms? Thanks.
What happens when you push one of the power buttons while the drive is still mounted? Does it just straight cut the power or will it safeley eject/dismount the drive?
I'd guess it would just chop. It's like if you have a single external drive and flip the power off... it just goes away immediately, no graceful shutdown. This is a dump box. If you want to ensure it is not doing any data exchange, you can look at the LED and see what the attached computer is doing. Then decide if you want to drop it just then. Or use the front case button for the particular drive to trigger an 'eject' which will dismount from windows (maybe from other OSes) gracefully. Then turn off the back power switch.
@@ghandimauler Oh yeah, that's what I meant, the front case buttons. If those eject nicely I guess I'll save up and get one.
You said you cannot use Dynamic Discs ... but will it work with Windows Storage Spaces ?
Yes it will. Storage Spaces works with external drives.
@@GadgetryTech Some external drives
The latest Windows 10 does have a function known as storage pools. It is possible to combine 2 or more drives into a single volume for better performance and to have that seen as a single large volume. Just FYI and heads up as I am currently using the Storage Pool function to combine two 10TB drives into a single storage pool volume. Essentially it is a RAID 0 setup. Risky with no redundancy but doable.
I am more interested actually in the 5-bay model. I would love to order it and give you the credit via your link. Unfortunately, and irritatingly, Amazon US will not ship to Japan and the product is not available in the Japan market. So unless I use some forwarding service, and then double shipping has to be taken into consideration. Anyway, not only does the 5-bay model provide a 5th bay but the power supply is internal avoiding a power brick. It also has two USB-C ports for pass-through to another external hub, SSD, HDD, etc.
Is there some sort of adapter included such that I can use a 2.5" SSD 2TB I have in one of the bays? I realize it's screwless and cartridge-less, but I think there should be something on the market that would give a 2.5" SSD/HDD the shape of a 3.5" and make said drive usable in a device like this one.
BTW, In the interest of complexity reduction, rather then using extension cables and USB-A to C conversions et el, (12m30s) Just use a single, longer USB-C to USB-C. Done! C to C should theoretically be better performance. 'Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication'. (Davinci).
I was wondering if you can use this with Windows Storage Pool with the 5 bay. It looks like you can based on your comment.
@@strawberrymochiiz Personally I have not tried to do it. In theory, it should work. 'Storage Spaces' (not Pools, sorry).
"You need at least two extra drives (in addition to the drive where Windows is installed). These drives can be internal or external hard drives, or solid state drives. You can use a variety of types of drives with Storage Spaces, including USB, SATA, and SAS drives."
So, it's been almost 2 years now, are you still using this and any long-term thoughts?
I don’t use it daily but I use to back up all my old reviews and it’s always been rock solid! I can’t imagine needing to replace this for a long, long time. Even the fan is working well
does this thing show the hardrive smart status over usb?
I was able to see SMART info on Windows.
Because they all show as individual drives (not like a RAID or a JBOD done with raid), they appear just as separate drives to Windows. So in that case, SMART data ought to be availble (as GadgetryTech indicated).
Anyone know how to increase the fan speed? Ive read you can replace the 120mm with something quieter
Do you have heat issues with your drives? Hard drives can operate safely in higher temps than I was able to generate under extreme stress testing. Curious what temps you're seeing.
@@GadgetryTech I would presume the fan could (should) be replaceable to a quieter fan of one's own choosing. Have you checked out if the fan can be replaced in the event the existing one dies or for want of a quieter fan? Does the switch on the back turn off ALL powered-on drives in one go? Or, is that a switch dedicated only to the fan? Maybe you mentioned it but am still unclear on that point. Thanks.
@@tokyojerry I think the power button is a power shutoff for the entire unit. But not graceful. You want to use your computer's eject function (maybe the buttons do that too if you press them or maybe that's a hard stop... but I'm sure the rear panel switch is a hard stop).
@@ghandimauler Powering off the individual drive bay power buttons do eject the drives from the system as the drives disappear from the listing in File Explorer (Win11). Just FYI.
I bought one a few days ago and it died yesterday. It won’t power on at all. Sabrent tech support said I needed a replacement. I looked at other brands but decided to give Sabrent another chance. The replacement arrives today and I really hope it works this time!
Hopefully! Mine has been working for a long time
@@GadgetryTech good to know thank you!
Hey! I know this is an old comment but mind if I ask a question since you own one? What happens after a power outage, do you need to go turn it or the drives on manually (push the buttons) or is it fully automatic?
@@maskettaman1488 I don’t know. I haven’t had a power outage. Give them a call.
I'm curious if we can use drive spindown with this thing
Yes you can
Would this work with FreeNAS?
Yes it will once the drives are set up.
when the computer is shut off does the HDD Station fan still run?
No it shuts off automatically. The status lights in the front switches to red and everything spins down. When you boot your machine up again, the drives will wake and the fan will automatically turn on again.
@@GadgetryTech Let ask a related question: If I use the buttons on the front to turn off the drives, is it a handshaking 'eject' from the PC at the same time? Or is it just 'taking away the power from that drive'? (Or do the front power buttons ONLY power on drives?)
@@ghandimauler You have to software eject through PC. Pressing the front power button once will not do anything, as the main function is to power cycle it on. I believe pressing and holding will force a shutdown but I would advise against that for obvious reasons.
I bought one. It was EXTREMELY slow. After much cable swapping, debugging, etc., I found that Sabrent uses a USB2.0 hub in the unit. Sabrent advertises this unit as being capable of USB3.2 speeds, up to 10Gb/sec. Instead, it's only capable of USB2.0 speeds, which is up to 480Mb/sec. That's 4.5% of what's advertised. Returned. No more Sabrent products for me.
lame, it's not like it's super cheap
are you sure? I mean, if they lie why nobody says that?
Can you turn all 4 drives on at once with one buton, or do you have to press all 4 buttons
You have to press each one individually after using the main power switch.
@@GadgetryTech thanks
Hi Gadgetry Tech, first time here...nice channel.
I have a question: I read this on Amazon review :
"This is a sold JOBD enclosure that has several critical design flaws. The worst is that the unit shuts down my drives after less than 30 seconds of inactivity. That is just crazy. The constant power cycling will shorten the drives' lives considerably, and absolutely kills performance, and may endanger RAID integrity. I have not found any way to disable this horrible "feature" other than using VOVSOFT's Prevent Disk Sleep program to force out a write operation to each drive every 25 seconds. Really stupid design."
Have you noticed this? I'm worried about this.
Thank you
If you only see one comment like that, don't take it too seriously. Not saying it couldn't be true, but there is a lot of trashing done from company to company to downplay the others. If you see a pile of them, worry. If you see one or two , maybe don't worry so much. 30 seconds would be a silly threshold. 3-10 minutes would make more sense.
I just checked this and it's way expensive for what it is in Australia. I need something that can do JBOD/RAID 0/RAID 1/RAID 5 so I suppose it's not the one for me. But I was surprised at how expensive it is.
Hilarious, I just picked-up an imo absolutely gorgeous $5,000 Canadian small ff microwave with a handle Lenovo Legion Cube with 33 terabytes of on-board storage but days-later I want even more, problem-is of mine an extra 14 terabyte drive that was ahead of it's time, yeah I can research it but does anyone know if this Sabrant model has a particular terabyte per-drive limitation? I'm seeing 20's being sold now and with 8k video it only goes up from there... 🤗
ok
This memory controller shouldn't care what's in it but I did just pick up a 14TB drive. Depending on your time frame I'll eventually test it out and can report back.
@@GadgetryTech I was looking at an Orico 5 Bay unit, looks good but bad reviews, I'm pretty-sure I read somewhere that one was limited to I think 4 terabytes per drive, I didn't think it would matter... curious how yours turns-out... 🤔
@@GadgetryTech OK I looked-into it, the model you have ls limited to 10 terabytes per drive, a slightly more expensive Orico model than the first one I saw does 16 per drive, I presume the newest models have the largest capacity just like the drives...
@@BubbafromSapperton which external housing took the 16tb drives? Orico website gives conflicting information
I think you made a big mistake hooking the extension cable onto your USB-C cable. You should set your 4 bay tower up on a box and use the enclosed USB-C cable (10 GIG) and try the same transfer. I bet you will be surprised. I know I was.
Can you show example of that you mean by this? Cuz I’m hooking up my usb c to my mac mini
@@redesignedlife777 The best USBC cables come in 10" lengths because more length slows down their speed. Adding any extension or connections along the way only hurts your data transfer rate. I hope that explains my statement.
I really enjoyed your review of this DAS unit but I'm totally confused why we're saying this is a USB 3.2 device? The port on the back shows USB 3.1 Gen2 which means we're looking at 10Gbps. USB 3.2 offers double that so we're clearly talking about very different things. So just to be clear, this is a 3.1 Gen2 device, right?
You are correct. Before true USB 3.2 came out, USB 3.1 Gen 2 was often referred to as USB 3.2 The USB consortium is a mess which led to a lot of confusion for companies and consumers. This is definitely USB 3.1 Gen 2.
@@GadgetryTech In any case, unless you load all the drives with SSDs, you're never gonna come close to saturating even a 3.2 gen 2 10Gbps port.
@@ghandimauler10 Gbps (theoretical) = 7.2 Gbps (real world) = 0.9 GB/s = 900 MB/s = 225 MB/s per drive. Meanwhile, Sustained transfer speed of popular 7200rpm drives (i.e.: Seagate Ironwolf Pro 18TB) is 260MB/s. You're not wrong in most real-world scenarios but "never gonna come close" is actually "is probably the right-sized connection" for most uses.
Can you use this to download steam games?
I absolutely LOATH modern computer cases, because they have "basically zero" HDD storage capable (usually 2 or less for 3.5 drives). I need to find an external where I can put (4?) 16tb drives and have them spanned, so all 4 look like one giant drive.
Just a little info: I use a 4 bay MediaSonic ProBox which had a very loud fan. I swapped it with a slim 80MM CoolerMaster fan and the noise is nonexistent.
The Mediasonic (at least the one I just asked the manufacturer about) enclosure I looked at (a 4 bay) said it had a 2 pin fan connector. Did you buy a single speed 80mm fan with a two-pin connector? Or did you just plug a 3 pin onto a 2 pin header in the box or what? I'm curious about that detail.
@@ghandimauler After looking at some pics, I bought a Slim or low profile Cooler Master 3 pin fan along with a 3-2 adapter. I connected them and plugged the 2pin adapter into the Mediasonic header. It worked perfect. There is no fan noise.
Can I access these drives by connecting them to my phone or tablet?
I will mostly be using these with a windows machine but would like transfer files to phone and tablet sometimes.
It's very loud.. :/
its Sabrent not Saybrent
I'd have thought so... then again, the first part of the name is 'sabre' and we say that with the long A....
Old info that is not correct anymore. Windows does the raid equivalent easily with this.
...but for the 200+ price, which is for me, outrageous.😞
i could probably search through high price tag listings and find a better product than Sabrent.also depending on how much Econodupe and Startech are making of their duplicators cloners they both completely outweigh the features sabrent offers. almost i want to say video is quite predatory to those on a budget cause what are you taking home a non-variable raid-capable (empty) accessory. if sabrent sees my comment consider dialing down the price PLEASE