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

[Sesame]

I'm looking into various solutions for a 4-bay removable hard drive system and believe I've found something which will work but need some pointers from those more experienced.
I've found this 4-bay trayless 5.25" backplane rack; the Orico 6204ss:

It's meant to fit inside a standard PC's 5.25" optical drive bay as shown here with the 5-drive version, also from Orico:

Obstacle 1: I hadn't heard of "backplane" drive racks prior to stumbling across it recently but I believe these are "dumb" drive units not containing any interfacing electronics but basically just the SATA connectors and mechanical drive bays, right?
If that's the case this unit should also be compatible with ANY SATA drive regardless size and type (SATA II or III) unlike limitations of many drive docks or ready made enclosures (most likely because of the chipset in the bridge boards) -correct?


OK, assuming the above works the way I described it and I want to set this up as an external enclosure I believe I'd need an interface board for connecting a single SATA cable externally from the enclosure in addition to adding Firewire (USB 3.0 might be nice for compatibility reasons as well) and I'm guessing this would be a 4 port SATA multiplier board with Firewire 400 & 800 as well as USB 3.0 bridges. More about this later. For now, a diagram explaining my intention:

Note: the computer will only use one type of connection at a time (eSATA, Firewire or USB). Firewire is useful because I have another Mac which doesn't have eSATA support but Firewire. USB 3.0 can come in handy for other computers.



Getting back to the interface board....
I've found this one from Addonics (alas lacking Firewire 400/800 and only with USB 2):

Is this what I need for my setup?
If so, does anyone know where I can find one which in addition to eSATA has Firewire (and possibly also USB 3.0) connectors?
I know there are boards like this around because several hard drive enclosures/docks have them although I haven't been able to pick up any information on the bridge boards used inside. Here are some of those enclosures:

OWC Mercury Pro rack

Orico 9648rusi3

Orico 9649rusi3

RAIDage GAGE104U40SL-SAUF

Newertech Voyager Q3 (SATA hard drive dock)

Will my setup work the way I intend it to?
Suggestions, comments anyone?

 

[mfenn]

Why not just buy a unit that has 4 bays and an interface board already integrated for you? Here are two Mediasonic units that would work for you:

HF-SU3S2 $120 - eSATA, USB 3.0
HFR-SU3S2FW $200 - eSATA, USB 3.0, Firewire, onboard RAID

Buying the bay and controller separately isn't really saving you any money over the $120 box and that doesn't include the cost for a power supply, cables, etc.

 

[Sesame]

That is indeed a very nice enclosure but unfortunately doesn't meet my requirements:

- removable, trayless hard drive bays (I constantly switch drives for file storage. This enclosure allows for exchanging drives, but certainly not made for doing that on a regular basis)
- JBOD (as in single, individual drives -not RAID)
- allowing for the bridge board to be replaced if newer SATA drives are no longer supported by it

 

[mfenn]

- removable, trayless hard drive bays (I constantly switch drives for file storage. This enclosure allows for exchanging drives, but certainly not made for doing that on a regular basis)

Not sure what to say here.

- JBOD (as in single, individual drives -not RAID)

It does support JBOD, check the detailed description.

- allowing for the bridge board to be replaced if newer SATA drives are no longer supported by it

You're reaching with this one. It will be a very long time before a normal spinning disk will consume more than SATA 6 Gb/s and yet a longer time before new drives are no longer backwards compatible. At the end of the day, the controller board is a significant portion (more than half) of the cost, so you're not saving much by upgrading it individually.

 

[Sesame]

According to the manufacturer's product page, by "JBOD" they mean creating a huge drive out of several individual ones.

Yes, I'm aware that the bridge board contributes a lot to the total cost, but having bough several 3TB drives which didn't work with my existing external enclosure I'm more interested in investing in something new which actually does support all SATA II/III drives including the latest 4TB types.
That's why a backplane unit in an external enclosure with a bridge/multiplier board appeared to be a good and more lasting solution. But I'd like to hear from others if this would actually work the way I intend before parting with my cash