SABRENT USB 3.0 4 Bay 2.5” Hard Drive/SSD Docking Station with Fan (DS-4SSD)

Great little unit. Hold four SATA drives and ports through one USB 3.0 port. Works flawlessly. Well built, nice magnetic top. The cooling fan is helpful, and you can switch it on/off independently. I read complaints about fan noise -- I don't think its too bad at all. Just a slight white noise, almost like one of those white noise sleeping machines. About 55db. Makes me feel like a nap. Have dropped 5 different SATA HDs in there of different ages and sizes, current to 10+ years old, 240GB to 1 TB, all recognized and working flawlessly. Sometime a little tricky getting odd-thickness (too thick or thin) drives to seat, just be cognizant. Great value too. Clone drives, or group them to increase storage size. I'm storing old movie clips on them.

I needed a better storage option than a NAS, we were hitting the road fulltime in our RV and a NAS just was not logicalLooking for in purchase:-Sturdy-Value-Multiple drive bays-Power through USB (not mandatory)-SSD compatible-CompactDesign: The Sabrent USB 3.0 nailed almost all the boxes. Small, compact, great price, 4 drives, had a fan (which you could turn off) and it looked good. It has a separate power cord, which was not a deal breaker (and actually I liked that after I thought about plugging it into my UPS)Issues: The fan is a bit loud, but honestly I don’t even turn it on unless I am writing a significant amount to it.Positives:++Material++Look++Design++Build Quality++Cost++Transfer speeds++Fan (when needed)Negatives:--NoneFinal Thoughts: I love this it is exactly what a person needs, if you don’t need the NAS for distributed use or a security system. The product looks great and performs perfectly, transfer speeds are not limited to the 1Gig network line anymore, they are limited by the drive space. The other advantage is you can swap out drives as you need them, it works as if it is four separate portable SSDs. This is really a great option to a NAS and I pleased to downsize while upsizing my transfer rates.Would I recommend: Absolutely I would. Buy this now

The docking station works really well and it is very snug, my SSDs fit in there perfectly and doesn't wiggle at all, very secure and very affordable for a 4 slot docking station. The only kind of downside is the fan is incredibly loud. Like it is loud enough that I can hear it from a different room with the door closed. So to me the fan is unusable.

Add on slots not available in new computer system and have 3 ssds from dead system. This works great and have access to all my data and software installs. The fan is loud but only use in afternoon as drives get warmer over time used. Personally researched shutting down computer daily. So now I shut my system off at night, as was told better for the new systems (heat related). So just turn off the Sabrent as well. Fast load when I turn it on and just jump back into my work. Highly recommend Sabrent docking station and, as I used several products, Sabrent for any of your needs. Great company and feel secure in using their products.

I bought this unit to repurpose several SSDs from an older tower computer. It does its job well enough, but the design of the unit isn't very sturdy.It comes in rather fancy packaging - a "book wrap" printed box with a hidden magnet closure, with foam inserts. The unit is smaller than it looks in pictures, about the size of a zoom camera lens or a medium old-style thermos.It is molded in a slightly cheap-looking black plastic, particularly the top vent grille that houses the cooling fan which has ripply mold lines. It is very lightweight, which means it will easily fly off a desk if you accidentally hook the cables, which seem sturdier than the actual device.The top part which houses the fan is secured to the bottom by a single magnet along the front edge, which presumably also passes DC current to the fan as there are no other connectors. This is semi-clever until you discover, as I did, that if you pick the unit up from the top, it will come apart instantly. My unit hit a thankfully carpeted floor, but as it did the SSDs flew straight out.That brings me to the second issue: the SSD slots. They are made to accommodate 2.5" SATA III hard disks or SSDs. As these come in various thicknesses depending on the device, the slots are over-large to accommodate them, with a flimsy-feeling spring-mounted half-door that I presume is to keep dust out of it when a drive is present.The SATA data and power connector at the bottom of each slot is hard to align properly - it takes several tries to get a drive seated, and you don't want to force one in.All that said, once you have drives in, and hook it up to your computer, the drives appear in the system as they should. I did not test transfer speeds. It is important to note that this is NOT a RAID enclosure, it is 'just a bunch of disks' or JBOD.Another design quirk are the power and fan buttons, which are labelled very dark grey on black. There are no temperature sensors or variable speed controls, it's just unit on/off, fan on/off. I guess you'd need SMART monitoring software on your computer to warn you if a drive is overheating, so you can manually turn the fan on. It is not a quiet fan, either. The LEDs are bright blue (in case you want to avoid blue light for sleep purposes) and shine through the vents at the back of the case, which is... cool looking?In total:This is a somewhat unique product that solves a unique problem - if you have a bunch of SSDs or 2.5" hard drives you want to repurpose and hook up to a new computer. It seems to do that bit fairly well for the price. But I'd definitely not swap drives in and out of it too often, or try to take the unit on the road or move it too much. It will definitely look nice next to your 2013-vintage Mac Pro cylinder.If I were to make recommendations to Sabrent, I would say:• Invest in better quality plastics or make it from metal instead..• Redesign it with a weighted base that has a non-marking, nonslip foot, maybe of a natural material like wood or cork?• Retool the SATA connectors to be more solid.• Maybe include drive caddies that slide in on rails, to ensure proper alignment?• Magnets alone cannot secure the top - maybe, like a thermos, make it like a screw cap?• Use quieter, magnetic bearing fans, at least 120mm to move more air at lower RPMs• Control the fan on/off and speed automatically with a temperature sensor• Move the power switch to the back• I'm not sure if there are individual drive activity lights, but they'd be welcome.UPDATE DEC 7 2020:One other thing you'll want to note is that the fan button is unlit, and at the top of the front panel. You might accidentally hit the power button, which *is* lit, when you're trying to turn the fan on, which will disconnect all your drives.Another thing to redesign - give it a solid physical power switch located on the back, and make the fan control lit, properly labelled / iconned, and far away from the power switch.