ICY DOCK FlexCage MB973SP-2B Tray-less 3 Bay 3.5" SATA Hard Drive Backplane Cage with 2 port USB 3.0 Hub in 2x 5.25" Bay

This unit is installed in an older Dell Dimension XPS PC by no means the fastest computer but it serves my purposes. I needed to upgrade from Win XP to Win 7 and decided to significantly expand storage capacity at the same time. There was an available 5.25" drive bay but I had to remove a factory installed CD drive to get additional space for this device. The PC came with both, a CD drive and a CD/DVD RW drive though. So, I still have an optical drive. There was a thin plastic divider between the two drive bays that had to be removed by cutting it so the FlexCage would fit. In addition to the FlexCage, I installed a PCI eSata expansion card (a older Siig PCI 4 internal port SATA expansion card), a PCI IDE to Dual SATA Converter (StarTech PATA2SATA2), a PCI USB 5 port expansion card (3 external, 2 internal). I also replaced all the factory installed internal HDD (2-120GB SATA RAID-0 configuration and 1-80GB IDE) with Western Digital Black SATA HDD (1-1TB and 2-2TB). The FlexCage has the same drive configuration. These changes were not without some minor issues like Win 7 drivers, BIOS setting changes, etc. But, I now have a PC with a safer, supported operating system and much greater storage and backup capacity (from 320GB to 10TB). I use the HDD in the FlexCage as boot drive clone and backup for the internal drives. Western Digital has a fairly good free version of Acronis that may be downloaded from their website for use with WD HDD. If this seems like overkill for an old PC it probably is but I had a 2TB HDD crash several years ago and had the unfortunate experience of having to pay a company to recover the files --- never again better safe than sorry! For my application I could not be more pleased with the FlexCage. My intention is to build my next PC in a few months and I should be able to use the FlexCage and all the drives in the new computer.

ICY DOCK FlexCage MB973SP-2B is the best, I've tried others but this model has worked the best. I have 2 now and they are all working great. Easy to install. I use them with the ICY DOCK EZConvert PRO MB982SP-1S , easy in and out.

great fit. works like its supposed to work.

i like it

my PC is in 24/7 environment, and this product is superior because of the individual power switch.

The three SATA drives I have installed are all recognized, and function normally. I have the fan speed set to automatic, and I can't hear it over the sound of my other case fans. The USB 3.0 ports are a very welcome addition for me, as I had an available USB 3.0 header on my MB, but previously had no USB ports at the front of my case. Both ports work.My disappointment is this: the product description and documentation implies that each of the recessed power buttons/lights should illuminate to indicate when the corresponding drive is installed and powered on. However, only the bottom-most light remains on, even when all drives are powered. The drives themselves function normally, and the top lights will even flash to indicate activity when there is data moving around, but when idle the top two lights are completely dark, and only the bottom light remains illuminated to show, at a glance, that the drive bay is powered up.With all the major functionality working normally, it has not been worth my effort to RMA the device over this relatively minor problem (which in a way, makes it more annoying). I just wish that either the drive presence/power lights all worked, or that Icy Dock augmented their documentation to clearly indicate that normal behavior is for only one of the lights to power on even if all three bays are occupied.

I have been using these since they came with a 2.0 USB and a fire wire port on the front so that has been a while! I do a lot of experimentation with various disks, SSD and operating systems and this is a perfect way to put a disk in, test it or install a system without having to crack the case. I have also used them for additional back up off the system but mostly for temporary use of various disks. Icy Dock makes a plastic tool-less conversion kit to convert an SSD to near identical dimensions of a hard drive so they can used as easily as a normal hard drive. The construction is brutally simple really. Basically the back plane just a connector for the power and SATA data cables from the back of the drive to connectors on the back of the unit. The fan control and front USB ports are probably more complicated the SATA interface. Just slide it in and carefully close the door.