INTRODUCTION

   Because as you all know data storage needs increase each day that goes by (when 8k content becomes available things will really get funny) we're always looking for new ways that people could further expand that without having to choose one of the ready solutions by the major players in the market (namely Seagate, WDC and Toshiba). That's not to say that these manufacturers don't have some very reliable, fast and versatile solutions because they obviously do (they are leading the storage industry after all) but when it comes to wealth of features third party manufacturers tend to be far more creative (although not always). ICY DOCK is one such manufacturer an after their very good ICY CUBE and Black Vortex quad-bay solutions today we're going to be testing their brand new ICYRaid Dual Bay 3.5" USB 3.0 External RAID Enclosure (MB662U3-2S R1).

   ICY DOCK is a privately held company with more than 22 years of experience in designing, manufacturing, branding and distributing computer data storage and enclosure peripherals especially in industrial and rugged computer data storage. Headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, ICY DOCK became a global computer data storage solution provider utilizing their manufacturing facility located in Shenzhen, China since 1997. Adhering to strict ISO9001 manufacturing guidelines, ICY DOCK delivers high quality products at a competitive price, allowing our customers to create a cost effective solution and help them to become successful in the competitive marketplace.

   The brand new ICYRaid by ICY DOCK is a plug & play tray-less and tool-less external enclosure that features two 3.5" SATA I/II/III drive bays (you can probably use 2.5" to 3.5" adapters need be), USB 3.0 connectivity (UASP is fully supported) and a manually speed adjustable 40mm rear exhaust fan. Its primary selling point however is neither of the above but rather its internal RAID controller chip thanks to which both mounted drives can be configured in JBOD, BIG/LARGE, RAID 0 and RAID 1 modes at the push of a button allowing the ICYRaid to cover the needs of pretty much every single user out there. Other features include an aluminum body (the bay covers however are plastic), individual activity LEDs for each drive, rear LED RAID rebuild activity light (all LED lights can be turned on and off) and compatibility with both Windows and MAC OS systems (Time Machine is fully supported).

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

All of the product features are listed at the front of the box right next to a 2D barcode and beneath two product pictures and the company logo.

The rear of the ICYRaid and its various switches are showcased on both sides of the box.

ICY DOCK has placed the specifications table at the rear of the box.

The bundle is placed inside a second cardboard box while the enclosure is wrapped inside a plastic bag and placed between two thick foam spacers.

Along with the ICYRaid enclosure and its power adapter and power cord you will also get a USB 3.0 host cable and the user manual.

THE ICYRAID (MB662U3-2S R1)

The brand new ICYRaid MB662U3-2S R1 measures roughly 205mm in length, 134mm in width and 61mm in height.

Both drive doors feature eject/release buttons right over them.

Unfortunately these doors are made out of plastic and not aluminum as the main body of the enclosure.

Mounting drives is easy just push the doors all the way down and slide them in as seen above.

Everything else is placed at the rear including the 40mm exhaust fan with its speed controller, raid mode switch with its rebuild LED and reset switch (to use a specific mode select it via the switch and then press the reset button while the device is turned on), LED indicators on/off on/off power button, DC in and an Kensington lock.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   Complicating things is not really our way so once again our testing procedure will be almost identical to the one we use with external docking stations. However since we are talking about an multi-bay 3.5" external enclosures this time over we will be using one or more (depends on the mode) Seagate Constellation ES.3 4TB SATA III hard disk drives since mechanical drives are obviously what people will use more with such devices (besides in quad+ enclosures these should pretty much max out the performance of the onboard controller). Our standard selection of benchmark suites is used here as well for both single and RAID 0 testing including the famous HD Tach RW (Long Bench 32mb Zones), HD Tune Pro (read/write -when possible- speeds), Sisoftware Sandra Pro (Read/Write -also when possible- speeds), AIDA64 (Linear Read/Random Read), Crystal Disk Mark x64 (100MB/1000MB read/write speeds) and finally the quite outdated yet highly reliable ATTO 2.47 (Max Read/Max Write speeds).

   Temps as usual were recorded using the latest version of Hard Disk Sentinel along with the sensors provided by AIDA64 while noise levels were recorded using our HD600 dBA meter placed just 10-15cm above each unit. Every test was repeated for a total of 6 times and after that the average (not peak) performance numbers were recorded into our graphs. As always every test was performed in a fresh installation of Microsoft Windows 10 Pro with every update installed up to February 16th 2018.

* For this review we used 2 Seagate Constellation ES.3 4TB SATA III drives.
** Since March 2017 we also started recording noise levels.

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK

TEST RESULTS – NOISE LEVELS / TEMPERATURES

CONCLUSION

   ICY DOCK may not be the most popular name in the data storage industry but they’ve released quite a few interesting products in the market over the years and the ICYRaid MB662U3-2S R1 is certainly among them. True it’s not as impressive to look at as for example the Black Vortex quad-bay enclosure again by ICY DOCK but thanks to its number of features and surprisingly good performance (best one so far in our charts – even compared to quad-bay enclosures in RAID 0) it’s a great little enclosure. Noise levels with the speed of the fan turned all the way to max are the 2^nd highest in our charts (idle result is with the fan at its minimum speed) but that also means that temperatures are the 2^nd lowest so do keep that in mind. My only concern is with the enclosure’s tray-less system since it takes quite a bit of power to close the front doors and since these are made primarily out of plastic we were worried (still this could be an isolated issue with our sample).

   ICY DOCK products have always featured a very good price/performance ratio and the ICYRaid (MB662U3-2S R1) is no different since it currently retails for just USD105.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 136Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk). Of course if you’re just looking to get your hands on an dual-bay external USB 3.0/3.1 Enclosure and you have no need for RAID then you can find many models that cost a lot less than the MB662U3-2S R1. Still if RAID is something you definitely need and you prefer hardware over software configuration the ICYRaid MB662U3-2S R1 is among a very small number of models that offer that and since it also excels in performance and also has a manually speed adjustable fan it’s certainly worth our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Top Of The Charts Performance
- Two Tray Less 3.5” Bays
- Hardware Drive Mode Selection
- Fan Controller
- Drive Temperatures
- Price (For Some)

CONS

- Noise At High Speed
- Plastic Bay Doors