DIY 5.25" SATA backplane 4-bay drives + Multiplier/bridge questions

[Sesame]

Hoping I'm in the right forum I'm wondering if someone can help me figure out how to set up a 4 bay removable hard drive (JBOD=4 individual drives) system with a SATA (and hopefully also Firewire) interface.

I've looked into various solutions, but they're either very expensive or limit themselves to which drives you can use (only up to 2TB, only SATA II etc.) so I found a 5.25" "backplane" unit with four drive bays: the Orico 6204ss.

I assume these are "bare bones" hardware devices (i.e. just the mechanical bay mechanisms, cooling fan and power/SATA connectors but no interface electronics) so any size/type SATA drive will work as long as the host interface supports it, correct?

I'll be using the drives with a Mac computer (one has an external SATA interface while another has Firewire 800) so I'd need to put the backplane unit in an enclosure with a power supply and I'm guessing I need to get a SATA multiplier/bridge board, something similar to this one from Addonics (but with Firewire 800 as well):

If my assumptions are correct, that would mean I wouldn't have to scrap the whole device if newer SATA drives suddenly become incompatible with it, as I'd just replace the multiplier/bridge board with a more up to date one.

So in conclusion I'd need:

• The Orico 4-bay backplane unit
• A suitable 4x Multiplier + Firewire (and possibly USB 3) bridge board
• An external 5.25" enclosure
• A suitable power supply for the drives/interface board which fits inside the enclosure
• an eSATA cable which goes to the Mac and/or a Firewire 800 cable going to the Mac

So would this work? Has anyone here got any experience with the Orico device above (or similar -they also have 3- and 5-bay units)? I can't seem to find many online reviews.

 

[denis280]

give all system spec.

 

[Sesame]

I've already specified everything as far as I know, but I'll try to make it clearer:

The Orico 6204ss provides 4 removable SATA drive bays (5.25" optical drive sized, fitting inside a standard PC enclosure) like this (5-bay unit from Orico pictured here):

I want to use these drives with two computers (not at the same time). One has eSATA and Firewire while the other computer has only got Firewire (hence the need for eSATA and Firewire external interfaces. USB 3.0 could come in handy for later).
I assume I would need a multiplier board for allowing just one eSATA cable to be connected to the Mac (instead of 4 cables), and for Firewire and USB 3.0 I would need a bridge board, correct?

The closest I've found to such a board is the one I showed in my previous posting except it doesn't have Firewire. I know there are boards like this around because several hard drive enclosures/docks have them, such as:

OWC Mercury Pro rack

Orico 9648rusi3

Orico 9649rusi3

RAIDage GAGE104U40SL-SAUF

Newertech Voyager Q3

So specifically, my questions are:

1) Is my assumption correct that a 5.25" backplane unit (such as the Orico6204ss) is a "dumb" device (basically just four SATA connectors inside mechanical bays, so that compatibility issues (max. drive size etc.) depends on the multiplier/bridge board alone?

2) Is my setup correct? Is this the way to do it?

3) Does anyone know where I can find an interface board (4x SATA multiplier + eSATA/USB 3.0/Firewire 400 & 800 external ports) and who makes them, such as the ones pictured above?

4) Are there small enclosures available with just 5.25" bays (to fit the Orico 4x removable SATA drive backplane unit)? It doesn't have to fit a PC motherboard inside, so a complete PC enclosure might be a bit too much.

 

[denis280]

I understand what you mean.and it will be better to move your post in · General Hardware

 

[Sesame]

Thanks for your suggestion.
I've moved the thread to here.