Concept Product - CP097 Discussions

[CynthiaWang]

: Product Page: https://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=362
Any product suggestion or new idea will be highly appreciated!

Key Features

• Installs into any standard 5.25” drive bay
• Fits 8x 2.5” U.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7mm drive height)
• Removable drive tray supports U.2 hot plug function, offer easy drive maintenance
• Uses 8 x OCulink port to connect (requires NVMe host), compatible with SFF-9402
• Supports the full PCIe 4.0 x4 bandwidth specification of 64GB/s(per drive bay)
• Ruggedized full-metal enclosure, meeting flammability requirements
• High performance 40mm fan keeps your drives from overheating
• Eagle-hook tray latch securely holds the tray inside of the enclosure
• EMI Grounding – protect drives fro m electrical damage
• Anti-Vibration Technology (AVT) – reduces noise and protects against environmental damage
• Active Power Technology (APT) – saves power by shutting down the device when no drive is installed

[saya6k]

I don't think this product can handle heat. Besides, U.2 up to 7mm? There are several product up to 15mm. I think In 5.25 form factor, 6 drive is maximum.

[Icydock_Tech]

Hello saya6k

Thank you for your specific concern on this concept product. This product is mainly for 7mm U.2 drives, which there are some out there. 15mm U.2 drives are currently supported with the MB699VP-B. Heat is a concern, especially if there are multiple drives in a small space. There is a fan in the rear of the unit and other factors such as case cooling, chipset of the drives in use, and drive activity are all factors in overall heat. We will continue to test this concept product regarding heat and performance.

Please let us know if you have additional thoughts or concerns on our concept products.

[ICYJeff]

Hi Saya6k,

Thank you for submitting your feedback! Besides the concept product, we plan to make two removable NVMe enclosures from the near future - one fits 2 x 7mm U.2 SSD in a 3.5" floppy bay, and one fits 2 x 15mm U.2 SSD in a 5.25 optical bay. Could you share your insight about which enclosure has higher market demand and why?

[saya6k]

It's hard. But I guess since there are not many product with 5.25 optical bay these days, and already MB699VP-B (4 U.2 SSD in 5.25, which I am currently using right now!) exist, I think 2 U.2 SSDs in 3.5" will have better result. Latter one should compete with MB699VP-B.

[ICYJeff]

Thanks for your feedback! The dual-bay 5.25 is specifically designed for system builders/prosumer who tend to install 2 x 15mm U.2 SSD in a 5.25" drive bay and wants better cooling ability. In some cases, the customer can't use MB699 as they must follow the required specifications that can't leave empty bays there. However, if there's no advantage of using the 15mm height U.2 drive over 7mm U.2 drive and no heat concern when squeezing 2x U.2 in a 3.5" bay, then I agree that people would choose the 3.5" version over the 5.25" bay.

[beardie2]

Would the OCulink connections allow the bays to be configured to allow SAS/SATA too? There are plenty of MotherBoards out there now with the OCulink/SlimSAS connectors to support 1 or 2 NVMe or 4/8 SATA ports. This would allow the unit to support/transition from SATA/SAS to NVMe or allow both primary and secondary drives in the one enclosure.

[Icydock_Tech]

Hello beardie2

Thank you for your inquiry. While it is possible for the OCulink connections to accept SAS/SATA connections, there are two factors in terms of usage with our products. One factor, especially for our current PCIe products and this concept product, is that these specific drive cages are designed with use of PCIe NVMe drives, not SAS/SATA. The other major factor is the setting on the controller that has the OCulink connection. Some controllers have settings that either choose between SAS/SATA or PCIe NVMe drive connections. The cabling can allow both types of drive connections to go through but the host and the drive would determine the connection type the OCulink would be.

If you have additional thoughts or comments on our concept products, please let us know.