Monday, December 01, 2014

TurboSwap MB171SP-B review - posted by storagereview.com

Icy Dock TurboSwap 3.5" Tray-Less Mobile Rack Review

IcyDock has designed the TurboSwap to retain all the advantages of the tray-less mobile racks but improving on their build quality, cooling efficiency, and equipping it with a shock absorbing functionality that promotes maximum stability. In addition, the TurboSwap has rugged, all metal design making it idea for environments where bumps and bruises are a give in and can fit into virtually any standard 5.25” bay. The hot-swappable TurboSwap also includes individual drive power buttons so users can turn off their HDD without much effort, SATA III support, an ultra-slim 80mm cooling fan, and fan speed controls as well as optional screw holes for a 120mm cooling fan add-on. This extra fan may come in handy for users with resource-heavy workloads that create a lot of heat.........Read More

TurboSwap MB171SP-B Product Page: http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=169

EZConvert Air MB382 Series review - posted by storagereview.com

Icy Dock EZConvert Air HDD/SDD Converter Review

Icy Dock has recently released the EZConvert Air converter/mounting kit, which consists of two cost-effective products that are designed to maximize airflow while mounting a 2.5" HDD/SSD into a 3.5" bay (the MB382IP-3B and MB382SP-3B respectively); the only difference between the two products reviewed herein is that one serves SATA drives and the other serves SAS drives. The EZConvert Air is comprised of the same form factor of a 3.5” hard drive, such as the outer dimension, location of the SATA connector, and the mounting holes. This allows users to fit it perfectly inside any standard 3.5" SATA/SAS drive bay. Icy Dock indicates that any system that uses 3.5” SATA HDDs is compatible with the EZConvert Air.........Read More

EZConvert Air MB382 Series Product Page: http://www.icydock.com/ezconvert_air

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

ICY DOCK Giveaway! - Hosted by Eli the Computer Guy


YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsYGAnSbwEQ

Description:

ICY DOCK has given us 5 items for our first TWITTER Contest!!!

To enter this giveaway:
-You MUST have a US Shipping Address
-Tweet one or more of the following quotes as many times as you like (See Below)
-Winners will be picked at random
-Eli will then contact you asking for your shipping address
-We will then send the items out to UNITED STATES shipping addresses
(Please note only 1 item per person will be sent)


@IcyDockUSA @EliComputerGuy I really want an Icy Dock ICYCube! http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=33

@IcyDockUSA @EliComputerGuy I really want an Icy Dock SATA SSD Converter! http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=80

@IcyDockUSA @EliComputerGuy I really want an Icy Dock Hot Swap Drive Caddy! http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=141

@IcyDockUSA @EliComputerGuy I really want an Icy Dock SATA Mobile Rack!http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=150

@IcyDockUSA @EliComputerGuy I really want an Icy Dock Blizzard External HD Enclosure! http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=147

Friday, November 07, 2014

Introducing the ICY DOCK ToughArmor MB994SK-1B 4 x 2.5" SATA 6Gbps/SAS HDD/SSD Mobile Rack / Cage with key lock in 1 x 5.25" bay


Data security is essential for any business. For military and medical settings, both software and hardware security is necessary to protect sensitive data. The ToughArmor MB994SK-1B is the first ToughArmor cage that features individual steel locking mechanism for each bay. You'll put your mind at ease. knowing that your data has extra layer of the protection, and safe inside an strong full metal enclosure. The ICY DOCK ToughArmor MB994SK-1B takes 4 x 2.5" SAS/SATA HDD/SSD from 7mm to 15mm height, and supports Hot Swap for quick and easy drive replacements. The unit is constructed of robust metal to survive the most demanding conditions, dual 40mm cooling fan with ventilate slots on the front/rear help to cool your drives 24/7. The MB994SK-1B is commercially designed for Medical & Military systems, IPC, enterprise, and industrial settings.
Indestructible and secure

Ensuring drive protection and longevity are the foundation of a good system design/build. The MB994SK-1B is capable of withstanding the harshest environments due to its heavy duty full metal construction from the outer shell to the inner trays. The ToughArmor's full metal design is also perfect for industrial, military and medical systems that require a flammability rating as the full metal design is considered to already comply with most requirements. The metal construction dissipates heat from the hard drives to the backplane cage essentially acting as a heat sink to keep drives cool. We've also added a new locking mechanism that provides an additional layer of security by preventing drive access from unwanted intruders or meddlers. In order to keep it compact, we have embed a custom made steel lock mechanism to the EZ Slide Mini tray, so each bay has it's own individual lock allowing the user to lock only certain desired drives. Best of all, the EZ Slide Mini tray with lock is backward compatible with any ToughArmor uses EZ Slide Mini tray system, so compatibility will not be an issue.
EZ Slide Mini Trays for EZ accessibility

Using the EZ Slide Mini trays makes drive interchangeability and maintenance completely hassle free. The EZ Slide Mini trays are designed to accommodate 7mm to 15mm height hard drives and SSDs. The built-in drive protection cover added stability during the drive insertion and provides extra protection to the drive.
Interchangeable hard drive tray with:
Huge capabilities in a small form factor

Utilizing the standard 5.25” bay form factor, the compact design allows the enclosure to be used in various applications, catering to a wide audience. The MB994SK-1B can be setup as JBOD cage or in a RAID configuration with RAID card such as a high performance RAID 0 array for maximum capacity and IOPS, RAID 10 for both safety and performance, or using RAID 5 for data protection, all while taking up just a single 5.25” device bay. The Tougharmor MB994SK-1B supports both SATA and SAS interface, and supports both hard drive and SSD, so whether you want to run four 2TB SATA HDD in RAID 0 or four 15k rpm SAS HDDs in RAID 5 you wouldn’t be limited by the drive selection, that's the beauty of the ToughArmor MB994SK-1B.
Made for Builder

The MB994SK-1B is perfect for use in industrial PCs, servers, or any small form factor case where 5.25” bays are limited and large drive capacity is needed, especially compact RAID systems. It is built to function in the most demanding environments including military, medical system and law enforcement deployment, as well as manufacturing conditions such as embedded control systems and factory automation systems. The heavy metal design with key lock function makes it ideal for placement in rugged environments.
Drive Tray
EZ Slide Mini Tray MB994TK-B Drive Tray with Key Lock for ToughArmor MB991, MB994 Series
Key Features

* Heavy duty full metal construction with suggested applications in Imaging, Medical,
   and Military systems, Media servers, and IPCs.
* Supports up to 4 x 2.5" SATA/SAS HDD/SSD into a single 5.25" bay
* Support SATA 6Gbps or SAS single channel
* Accommodates 2.5" drives with 7mm, 9mm, 12.5mm & 15mm Height
* Active Power Technology (APT) - only powers up if there is drive installed in the drive bay
* Eagle-hook lock system & custom made steel key lock keeps drives secure within the enclosure
* Full Metal EZ Slide Mini Tray System with built-in drive protection cover and lock
* Removable EZ Slide Mini Tray system for easy maintenance
* Perfect for rugged applications and complies to flammability requirements
* Indicator LED provided for each bay
* Dual 40mm Cooling Fans

Quick links:

MB994SK-1B Product Page

MB994SK-1B Product images
MB994SK-1B Datasheet

ICY DOCK

Tel: 626.956.8800
Fax: 626.956.8811
11740 Clark St.
Arcadia, California 91006
Sales e-mail: sales01@cremax.com
Support e-mail: tech@icydock.com

Thursday, October 16, 2014

ICY TIP: Prevent Personal Photos and Videos Leak with ICY DOCK Storage Solution

Prevent Personal Photos and Videos Leak with ICY DOCK Storage Solution

As the latest generation of Smartphones become unveiled to the public, we can see that each replacement model boasts more powerful specs than the previous generation. Processing power increases, phones become thinner and lighter, and camera quality improves. Phones like Apple's iPhone 6 and the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 can snap magnificent quality photos and video with the ability to take slow motion videos. Because of this, smartphones have become the main device for snapping photos on the go. The drawback of these high quality photos and videos are that they require large storage space and the default capacity a phone provides can quickly fill up. One method to overcome this limitation is through cloud storage programs such as Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive and iCloud. These programs provide a means to backup your data and access it anywhere, which could be convenient but may be slow and bandwidth intensive. One big issue with cloud storage is privacy --can we really trust these programs with our sensitive files? In recent news, "The Fappening" or an event of celebrity nude leaks of several artists and models including: Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, Ariana Grande, and others, were taken from their personal iCloud accounts and posted on the image-based bulletin board 4chan. The images spread like wild-fire across the internet on social media, which led to the distrust of cloud storage by many of its users.
A great way to backup your personal photos is to save them locally with encryption software and to set it offline when not in use. This provides a great deal of protection since the files cannot be accessed when they're offline, and they're encrypted even if the storage is physically broken into.
 
How do you easily create an offline storage locally?
 
It's simple to create an offline storage locally and it doesn't require much in terms of effort. There's a few things you'll need though in order for it to work smoothly.
 
First, find a high capacity hard drive
Make sure you have a hard drive with high enough capacity to accommodate all the files that you'll be backing up. Backblaze.com has great information of reliability of hard drive brands, click the following link for detail info: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-reliability-update-september-2014/
 
Second, choose the type of storage
 
It's simple to create an offline storage locally and it doesn't require much in terms of effort. There's a few things you'll need though in order for it to work smoothly.
 
*
If you decide to go with an internal computer case data storage solution, you can choose between a variety of multi bay or single bay enclosures with support for all types of drives from new SSDs to traditional sized Hard Drives.
 
Encryption with Windows EFS
Offline back up
With ICY DOCK
 
*
If you prefer to go with an external desktop data storage solution, or if your all-in-one computer doesn't have the ability to add extra hardware, you can choose one of our external enclosures.
 
Encryption with Time Machine
Offline back up
With ICY DOCK
 
Lastly, transfer the data, encrypt, and remove from the system
 
Backing up is quite easy for both PC and Mac. Using PC, all you need to do is drag the photos and videos to the storage drive and run Windows EFS, or Encryption File System, for data encryption. Using Mac, you can transfer the photos and videos via iPhoto and then backup the files with Time Machine with Encryption. Once you're done, you can turn off the enclosure and/or remove the drive to create an offline backup for an added layer of protection.
 
 
More info about Apple's Time Machine:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427
 
Recommend products:
 
External Docking Stations
 
External HDD Enclosures
 
2.5” SAS/SATA Cages
 
3.5” SAS/SATA Cages
 
SSD/HDD Mobile Racks
 
 
ICY DOCK USA

11740 Clark St.
Arcadia, CA 91006
Tel: 626.956.8800
Fax: 626.956.8811
 

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

ICYCube MB561U3S-4S review - posted by PureSolidness

ICY DOCK ICYCube MB561U3S-4S 4 Bay External HDD Enclosure Review

Published on Oct 14, 2014

"The ICY DOCK ICYCube is a quad bay USB 3.0 enclosure with fully loaded functions and eye-catching design. It is perfect for media professionals, and people who need a high quality HDD enclosure for their storage needs."

ICYCube MB561U3S-4S Product Page: http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=172

Thursday, October 09, 2014

ICY News: Some hard drive failure rates are rising, according to Backblaze

"The first hard drive reliability report was released by Backblaze in January of this year, revealing that Hitachi and Seagate drives are the most and least reliable respectively. Since then, the team at Backblaze has been testing more and more drives, updating their reliability report for September 2014...Read more

Wednesday, October 08, 2014

Introducing the ICY DOCK EZConvert Air Lite MB482SP-3B Top-Free Open Air 2.5” to 3.5” SATA Hard Drive or SSD Converter / Mounting Kit


The EZConvert Air Lite MB482SP-3B ICY DOCK SATA 2.5" to 3.5" HDD/SSD converter is specifically designed for builders who prefer to mount their hard drive or SSD with screws for maximum stability. The EZConvert Air Lite MB482SP-3B features a top-free open air design with exceptional cooling and converts any 2.5" SATA HDD/SSDs into an exact 3.5" hard drive form factor with SATA 6Gbps speed. The entire converter is made of robust stainless-steel that is perfect for the most demanding applications. The perforated vents, top-free open air design, and metal construction all work synergistically to keep your drives as cool as possible.
2.5" Drive Support for All 3.5" Bays

SSDs are becoming more common in the average household, but most computer cases still don't have support for 2.5" drives. Since these chassis' don't normally have built in 2.5” SSD/HDD bays, a 2.5” to 3.5” HDD/SSD converter is an absolute necessity when purchasing 2.5” HDDs/SSDs. For enterprise, it’s valuable for upgrading 3.5" HDD file servers to 2.5" HDD/SSD file servers without paying a tremendous amount for an entire system upgrade.
The EZconvert Air Lite MB482SP-3B accepts 2.5" SATA SSD/HDD of any height from 7mm to 15mm. The bottom mounting screw holes allow you to mount your 2.5" hard drive or SSD firmly into the converter and mount your converter firmly into your chassis with provided screws. Securing your drives in place is critical for rugged system builds.
The EZConvert Air Lite MB482SP-3B has exact 3.5" SATA HDD dimension and specification, and is compatible with any computers, devices, servers and HDD enclosures that use 3.5" SATA hard drive.


The built in SATA PCB bridge protects your HDD/SSD connector from wearing out during the insertion and removal cycle, and it delivers the full speed of SATA 6Gbps without any speed reduction due to it's pass-through design.
Advanced Cooling Design

The foundation of the EZConvert Air Lite stems from it's ability to rapidly cool drives. A top-free open air design quickly disperses heat away from drives by allowing it to 'breathe' instead of fully enclosing it. This is crucial during intense applications and may lead to better performance since it's well known that excessive heat can interfere with your system's ability to perform optimally. We've strategically placed ventilated slots around the converter allowing heat to escape from all sides and angles, while the metal frame acts as a giant heat sink to quickly cool your hard drives. The open air design, ventilated slots, and metal frame combine to produce an advanced cooling system to put your mind at ease.
Key Features

* Converts 2.5” SATA HDD or SSD to 3.5” SATA hard drive
* Built in SATA bridge delivers full SATA 6Gbps speed
* Heavy duty stain-less steel exterior helps heat dissipation
* Top-free open air design for rapid heat dissipation
* Ventilated slots allow air to flow through converter
* Exact 3.5" HDD specification with universal 3.5” HDD mounting holes
* Fits all 2.5” SATA drive heights from 7mm to 15mm
* Fits every system that accepts 3.5" SATA hard drive
* Supports SATA and SATA power cables with locking latch design

Quick links:

MB482SP-3B Product Page

MB482SP-3B Product images
MB482SP-3B Datasheet

ICY DOCK

Tel: 626.956.8800
Fax: 626.956.8811
11740 Clark St.
Arcadia, California 91006
Sales e-mail: sales01@cremax.com
Support e-mail: tech@icydock.com

Monday, October 06, 2014

ICYCube MB561U3S-4S review - posted by thinkcomputers.org

ICY DOCK ICYCube MB561U3S-4S 4 Bay External HDD Enclosure Review

Storage, it always seems like we need more of it, especially with file sizes increasing for media and more importantly games. While some of you may have cases that give you ample space to load them up with hard drives there are others who have small form factor system or even work from a laptop where storage space is limited. There is where external hard drive enclosures come into place. Today we are taking a look at a pretty awesome 4-bay external hard drive enclosure that supports 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch SATA hard drives and has both USB 3.0 and eSATA connections. The enclosure I am talking about is ICY DOCK’s ICYCube MB561U3S-4S. Let’s load it up with drives and see what we can do with it.........Read More

ICYCube MB561U3S-4S Product Page: http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=172

Wednesday, October 01, 2014

TechRadar ICY DOCK Giveaway ~ MB074SP-1B & MB981U3S-1S

 
This week ICY DOCK and TechRadar are working together to host giveaway sweepstakes event. One lucky winner will be receiving ICY DOCK’s Black Vortex MB074SP-1B 3.5” SATA HDD 4 in 3 Hot-Swap Module Cooler Cage and the EZ-Dock MB981U3S-1S 2.5”/3.5” USB 3.0 & eSATA HDD Docking Station, a total value of $133.50 ($86.50 for the Black Vortex and $47.00 for the EZ-Dock).
 
To enter the Giveaway Event, go sign up here:
https://www.facebook.com/TechRadar/app_308756149278956
 
Prize Description:
 
The Black Vortex MB074SP-1B is a hot-swappable 4 bay 3.5” SATA HDD cooler cage built robust from durable metal. The Black Vortex was designed for gamers and has features including a blue LED 120mm fan combined with all metal web-like cross pattern for a cool look while keeping your drives cool. It also has many configurable options such as fan speed control, fan LED brightness control and power buttons for each of the drive bays. For more details: http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=175

The EZ-Dock MB981U3S-1S is an external USB 3.0 & eSATA docking station for your 2.5” and 3.5” SATA HDDs and SSDs. The EZ-Dock comes with several unique features such as the 2 part anti-dust cover to protect internals even when 2.5” SATA HDD is used and a large eject button for hassle free drive removal. The multi-interface allows universal adaptability with various PCs or Macs, whether they are the newest MacBook with lightning fast USB 3.0 interface or your 2 year old desktop PC with eSATA interface or even with a 90s computer with a USB 2.0 interface. For more details: http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=152
 
 
The ease of removing and replacing HDDs for these two products make it easy to swap hard drives between the Black Vortex and the EZ-Dock. Effortlessly access a HDD with all your applications and/or games from your laptop to another computer or even a PlayStation. HDDs are easily removable from the Black Vortex and the data can be read on a secondary system using the EZ-Dock. The interchangeability between these two devices is simple and easy.

*Fields marked with an asterisks are mandatory. Sweepstakes open to legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and District of Columbia, except where prohibited or restricted by law.
 
See official rules for prize details and exclusions.
 
Start Date29 Sep 09:00am PT
End Date05 Oct 23:59am PT
Future US, Inc.’s computer will be the official time clock for the Sweepstakes.
 
 
ICY DOCK USA

11740 Clark St.
Arcadia, CA 91006
Tel: 626.956.8800
Fax: 626.956.8811
 

Friday, September 12, 2014

ICY TIP: Optimize Storage Space and Access Speeds with 2.5" and 3.5" HDD/SSD Combinations using the MB561U3S-4S with New EZ-Tray System

Optimize Storage Space and Access Speeds with 2.5" and 3.5" HDD/SSD Combinations using the MB561U3S-4S with New EZ-Tray System
With the rapidly dropping prices and growing popularity of solid state drives (SSDs), many media professionals, power users, gamers, system builders, and average computer users are picking up SSDs to speed up their systems. However, even with the increases in storage size for SSDs, it is still not a viable solution for most storage capacity demands. And that is why 3.5" hard disk drives (HDD) are still the way to go for main data storage. A single HDD can hold as much as 6 terabytes (TB) of data, such as the Western Digital Green 6TB SATA 3.5" Hard Drives, which is six times more storage capacity compared to the max 1TB storage for SSDs, such as the Crucial M550 1TB 2.5" SSD in the market currently.

This means if users opt for faster data access speeds with SSDs, they lose storage capacity. If they choose to use HDDs for greater storage capacity, they do not gain the increased I/O speeds that is important for intensive applications such as file servers, photo and video editing, gaming, and media streaming.

However, currently, ICY DOCK's products that utilize the EZ-Trays are currently transitioning to a new and improved EZ-Trays design that will provide the best compatibility for both 2.5” SATA HDD/SSD and 3.5” SATA HDD of all heights, ranging from lightning fast 2.5” SATA III SSD to 3.5” SATA 6TB HDD. This ability provides great flexibility for many users who require large storage capacity while having fast read/write speeds for intense applications.
 
MB561U3S-4S - Quad Bay USB 3.0 and eSATA Enclosure with New EZ-Tray System
External enclosures make great storage solutions for users with fixed type systems, such as the iMac, MacBook, laptop, ALL-IN-ONE PC, NAS, Media player, DVR system and gaming console, or for the users who like the ability to take their data on the go.
 
The ICYCube MB561U3S-4S 4 Bay USB 3.0 & eSATA External HDD Enclosure is the first ICY DOCK enclosure that employs the new EZ-Tray system. The MB561U3S-4S equipped with USB 3.0 interface, which allows users to easily expand their storage capacity and supports SSD's fast access speed. As stated in our previous ICY TIP article (How to Affordably Maximize Time Efficiency for Media Professionals with USB 3.0 Interface), USB 3.0's excessive benefits -- blazing fast, widely available, and easily affordable -- compared to other types of interface, it is the best option out there for most users (including Mac system users), especially those that perform intense applications such as video editing.
 
With 4 available hard drive bays, the MB561U3S-4S allows for different combinations of 2.5"/3.5" SATA HDDs/SSDs to be used for the desired result. For example, a media professional that uses a MacBook Pro to edit videos can use one bay with a Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSD or SanDisk X210 256GB SSD for processing video edits and can have Seagate Enterprise 6TB SATA 3.5" Hard Drive or HGST Ultrastar 4TB SATA 3.5" Hard Drive in the remaining bays for general video data storage.
 
Additionally, with multiple hard drives, users have the option of creating RAID for even faster performance speeds and/or added data protection. Apple's Disk Utility provides Mac users the ability to create software RAID. Two SSDs can be placed together in RAID 0 for maximum performance speed and two HDD can be used to create RAID 1 for data security.
 
MB561U 3S-4S Product Features:
 
*
Plug and play installation, no drivers required
*
SuperSpeed USB 3.0 with up to 5Gbps transfer speed
*
Backward compatible with USB 2.0 interface
*
eSATA connection with up to 6Gbps transfer speed (port-multiplier required)
*
New EZ-Tray system supporting both 2.5” and 3.5” SATA HDD/SSD of all heights
*
Adjustable cooling fan with 3 speed settings (low, high, and auto)
*
Support largest capacity drives available on the market (6TB)
*
Removable EZ-Tray design allows you to quickly swap out drives
*
Moderately illuminating white LED for power & drive activities
*
High grade aluminum alloy frame with detailed matte finish
*
Include 4x EZ-Trays which features shock absorbing technology to help protect your drives
*
Detachable 80mm ball bearing rear cooling fan provides easy maintenance
*
Integrated power supply, so big power bricks aren’t necessary
*
Rubber padded soles for enhanced stability
 
 
Interchangeability
ICY DOCK's new EZ-Tray design not only adds configuration options to internal and external storage solution designs, but it also retained the previous interchangeable functionality. Users have the ability to have two or more set ups with different products but use this interchangeable tray to swap the same hard drives between them. A user can easily take a the hard drive from a MB455SPF-B cage at work and take it home to be used in the MB561U3S-4S.

This system can allow for cross-platform usage as well. For example, a person who favors a Mac OS platform can use the MB559U3S-1SB at home and be able to take their hard drive to use with a friend's Windows PC system with a MB153SP-B.

The New EZ-Tray brings novelty, creativity, and flexibility. The user can be a Mac or PC, media professional or system builder, professional gamer or average computer user; they will be able to use the trays to their needs. The users have the ability to use the hard drive of their choosing in external or internal enclosures and with or without RAID functions. No other products have the interchangeability and adaptability between a range of products as wide as ICY DOCK's EZ-Tray products. And on top of all that, all of ICY DOCK's products are backed by a 3 year warranty and global customer service, so users can rest assured that they will have the best support for quality products!
 
Other ICY DOCK EZ-Tray enclosures:
 
External HDD enclosures:
 
HDD mobile racks or cages:
 
Note: Currently, the new EZ-Tray system only available with selected products. Please contact us for more information.
 
 
ICY DOCK USA

11740 Clark St.
Arcadia, CA 91006
Tel: 626.956.8800
Fax: 626.956.8811