ICY Dock 5.25″ Hot Swap Drive Caddy for 2.5″ and 3.5″ Drive Review

Rating: 7.0.

Today we are looking at a slightly different device from the ICY Dock line of products. The ICY Dock MB971SP-B is a hot swap drive caddy that can fit both a 3.5″ and a 2.5″ drive at the same time.

ICY Dock's reasoning for creating a product like this is more often than not people have a spare 5.25″ bay. Therefore, instead of having two docks residing on your desk (one for 3.5″ drives and one for 2.5″ drives) you have this device installed into your chassis. This gives the flexibility to use 1 x 2.5″ drive or 1 x 3.5″ drive, or both.

The advantage of having the ICY Dock Hot Swap Drive Caddy installed into the chassis is that it plugs directly into your SATA ports and doesn't use an interface such as USB 3.0 or eSATA. As such, the performance is likely to be less restricted.

As the ICY Dock MB971 features two data channels it can transfer data between both the 3.5″ drive and the 2.5″ drive at the same time, giving you (in theory) the perfect external solution.

Specifications:

• Model Number: MB971SP-B
• Color: Black
• Drive Fit:
  • 2.5″ SATA HDD or SSD x 1
  • 3.5″ SATA HDD or SSD x1
• Host Connection: 7 pin SATA port x 2
• Device Space: 5.25″ half height device bay
• Transfer Rate: Up to 6 Gbit/s. (depending on hard drive speed)
• Structure: Metal body w/ partial plastic
• Power Connector: 15pin SATA Power
• Power Indicator: Solid Green LED
• HDD Access Indicator: Flashing Amber LED

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