Best 3.5" RAID 1 external enclosures?

[Hi-Fi Man]

Not sure what to get but all I need is eSATA and USB 3.0 for only two drives.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

What RAID tech are you expecting to use? Just OS-controlled software RAID, (in which case you need a JBOD enclosure) or are you expecting the enclosure to "handle" stuff for you?

 

[Hi-Fi Man]

What RAID tech are you expecting to use? Just OS-controlled software RAID, (in which case you need a JBOD enclosure) or are you expecting the enclosure to "handle" stuff for you?

Most of the ones I've seen have the enclosure handle it which is probably preferred for me.

 

[Elixer]

How much you willing to spend?
What kind of features are you looking for? (Hot swap, LCD display, cooling fan... and so on)

 

[Hi-Fi Man]

No need for an LCD but definitely hotswapping. ESATA and USB 3.0 are the main musts.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Most of the ones I've seen have the enclosure handle it which is probably preferred for me.

Something like this then. IcyDock has been around for a while. Personally wouldn't bother with eSATA, although if you hunt a little on newegg's site, you shouldn't have any trouble finding it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817198063

If you look on newegg more, you'll find a lot of stuff from StarTech. They're cheap. Their stuff usually works as advertised, though, it's just not fancy.

"Preferred" is relative. Most people would be better served by a JBOD enclosure that they turn into a RAID using their operating system's built-in tools. (Makes the array easily portable.) Relying on some software/hardware combination from the enclosure manufacturer puts you at their mercy for updates.

 

[Hi-Fi Man]

Something like this then. IcyDock has been around for a while. Personally wouldn't bother with eSATA, although if you hunt a little on newegg's site, you shouldn't have any trouble finding it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817198063

If you look on newegg more, you'll find a lot of stuff from StarTech. They're cheap. Their stuff usually works as advertised, though, it's just not fancy.

"Preferred" is relative. Most people would be better served by a JBOD enclosure that they turn into a RAID using their operating system's built-in tools. (Makes the array easily portable.) Relying on some software/hardware combination from the enclosure manufacturer puts you at their mercy for updates.

So using the OS to create the RAID instead of the enclosure makes it more portable?

I've been looking at this enclosure, https://www.owcdigital.com/products/external-storage/mercury-elite-pro-dual-esata-usb-overview

It seems pretty good especially for the price.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

So using the OS to create the RAID instead of the enclosure makes it more portable?

More portable and more recoverable. Basically, if you create it with the box, or with the box manufacturer's proprietary software, if the box dies, you will usually have a pretty hard time getting the data back. (Best case scenario is you find out that their RAID tool is just a front-end for the OS. Most likely scenario involves tracking down and purchasing an identical controller/enclosure.) However, if you're using JBOD mode and letting Windows do the RAID implementation, then if the box dies, you swap the drives into any other enclosure(s) and keep on chugging. Also fairly easy to take your array and plug it into other windows computers. (OS X and Linux also have their own RAID software built in that operates similarly.)

It's also more likely that the RAID will have continued OS level support. (Drivers, etc., for a third-party enclosure may not be compatible with Windows Server 2020, but Windows Server 2020 will more than likely work fine with an array created by Windows Server 2016.)

I've been looking at this enclosure, https://www.owcdigital.com/products/external-storage/mercury-elite-pro-dual-esata-usb-overview

It seems pretty good especially for the price.

I'm an old OWC fanboi, from when they mostly did Mac upgrades. Their stuff is usually pretty nice.

 

[Hi-Fi Man]

I'm an old OWC fanboi, from when they mostly did Mac upgrades. Their stuff is usually pretty nice.

Same here, I remember when they sold PowerPC G4 upgrades!
I'll probably go with that one.

 

[grimpr]

Something like this then. IcyDock has been around for a while. Personally wouldn't bother with eSATA, although if you hunt a little on newegg's site, you shouldn't have any trouble finding it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817198063

If you look on newegg more, you'll find a lot of stuff from StarTech. They're cheap. Their stuff usually works as advertised, though, it's just not fancy.

"Preferred" is relative. Most people would be better served by a JBOD enclosure that they turn into a RAID using their operating system's built-in tools. (Makes the array easily portable.) Relying on some software/hardware combination from the enclosure manufacturer puts you at their mercy for updates.

Would you trust a Windows 10 ReFS mirrored storage space on that Icydock enclosure?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Would you trust a Windows 10 ReFS mirrored storage space on that Icydock enclosure?

Trust? No. "Trust" for me is a higher bar than "works fine, I guess." Trust means "always works, often in spite of my stupidity." Using ReFS, or some other file system, doesn't change the math much either.

For "works fine, i guess" I would tend to prefer USB over eSATA, since I've personally had trouble with eSATA connections getting knocked loose too easily. Which, as you might imagine, can cause data loss. I would expect the IcyDock to work fine in that scenario, although I don't own one.

But I've also had my share of oddball spin-down / power-saving behavior with USB devices too, which isn't bad data-integrity-wise, but can cause spin-up delays and other performance issues. (You can theoretically solve those problems with the right enclosures, I know, but they bugged me enough that I gave up and built a server with all-internal HDDs instead.)

Also, the SATA port multipliers in a lot of those enclosures do have a little bit (or a lot) of a performance penalty, depending on the number and type of drives/controllers/expanders in question. (For two drives it generally doesn't matter. W/ a four-drive enclosure you notice the difference.)

My threshold for "trust" as far as external storage goes would honestly be an external SAS enclosure and appropriate controller card. Although it is a lot more expensive. You can save money on controller cards and cables by buying used. (They're usually data center pulls, were fairly well-treated and the new ones are scary-pricey.)