Icy Dock MB971SP-B 5.25″ Hot Swap SATA Caddy Review

It has only been a short time since we had a look at our last Icy Dock product, the MB994SP-4SB-1 Quad Bay SATA backplane, and like that, our next product that we're looking at is a hot swap drive bay, but this time with a bit more functionality to what we have seen before. We know Icy Dock products and even their packaging to be clear and straight to the point which, as I've probably mentioned before and will again anyway, is nothing to be afraid of. Not everyone out there wants something that is covered in flash packaging and more importantly a product inside that is more worried about its looks than how it functions and this is typically where Icy Dock shine through. Similarly to the quad bay backplane that we looked at back in May, the MB971SP-B that we're having a look at today fits into a 5.25" drive bay and gives the user quick access for plugging in and removing SATA drives, but this time, not just 2.5" drives. Now we see capability for connecting both 2.5" and 3.5" drive simultaneously. Lets take a look at the product in some more detail and then see how it performs with our benchmark suite with a variety of drives. If we can imagine this box without any wording on it, by now we can instinctively say that this is an Icy Dock product. Similar to what we've seen before, we find the product name printed along the top of the box, with a picture in the middle of the product and then a few select features at the bottom. Over on the other side, its business as usual with the product name in a number of languages and its specifications listed below. Inside the packaging, when taken out of the protective bubble wrap, we find an installation guide with a French version printed separate and four mounting screws. With the caddy out of its bubble wrap, the first thing we notice is the hole in the top of the casing that allows for access to the insides. Why exactly this is there I don't know but part of the reason I guess is for fitting the two dust covers to the front of the bay and also to allow heat from a hard drive ventilate out of the caddy. The front frame of the bay is made out of black plastic with the remainder constructed out of SECC Aluminium. The two dust covers are slightly recessed into the bay to allow for easier insertion of drives with the 3.5" bay at the top and the 2.5" underneath. We do note that 2.5" drives that are 7mm thick are not supported when a 3.5" drive is already inserted due the the limited height available. If this is the only drive that is to be inserted then there should be no problems on its own. To the left of the bays we find a power button for each drive and to the right we find a power light for each bay and an eject button. Looking into the caddy, we can see at the back of each drive slot above the power and data connections is a bar, which pushes the drive back out when the respective eject button is pushed. Round on the rear of the bay, power is supplied via a single SATA power connector, with a SATA data header for each bay to the side. We do note that the 3.5" header is upside down in relation to what we would expect so this is a little thing to watch out for when installing, however this mean that the caddy allows for the use of two 90° SATA cables. Test system: Gigabyte Z77-UD5H Intel Core i5 3750k Kingston HyperX 2133MHz 16GB Gigabyte GTX 580 SOC Antec Kuhler 620 Antec Hich Current Pro 1200W Seagate Barracuda 3TB Patriot Wildfire 120GB SSD 3 x AOC E2795VH We would like to thank AOC, Gigabyte, Antec and Kingston for supplying us with our test system components. Many different software applications are also used to gain the broadest spectrum of results, which allows for the fairest testing possible. Software used: AIDA 64 Extreme Edition AIDA64 Extreme Edition is a streamlined Windows diagnostic and benchmarking software for home users. AIDA64 Extreme Edition provides a wide range of features to assist in overclocking, hardware error diagnosis, stress testing, and sensor monitoring. It has unique capabilities to assess the performance of the processor, system memory, and disk drives. AIDA64 is compatible with all current 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows operating systems, including Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. With the caddy supporting both 2.5" and 3.5" drives, we first recorded a baseline speed for one of our Patriot Wildfire SSDs when directly connected to the systems motherboard via SATA. Similarly we also took one of our Seagate Barracuda 3TB drives and recorded the baseline performance result. In both cases this is done to see if there are any major bottlenecks when using the hot-swap bay. When we compare the speeds achieved by our SSD, there are a few that record slightly faster speeds than before, and we do note that the block size is different. When testing AIDA tests through all the block sizes and then displays the best result that it found throughout the benchmark. Similar to our SSD test, we found that our hard drive performed to its best when installed in the hot-swap bay with no interference. When it comes to the need for one of these bays, certain users will see the need more than others. Take myself for example, in my spare time I maintain and repair computers and on quite a number of occasions I have the need to take a drive out and insert it into another system for testing. Whilst there are USB3.0 and eSATA equivalents on the market with their own advantages, having another dock sat on the desk is not always the preferred option and/or the most practical. Having a bay such as this allows me to quickly plug in a drive without having to open up my case and get going with what I need to do. Like any other Icy Dock product that I have handled, the MB971SP-B is very well built, however I do find that there is potential for one slight improvement on this model. The two dust covers in the front of the bay are affixed from the rear and I feel that the lower of the two is a bit loosely fitted and whilst taking a look it fell off in my hand. Whilst it was easy to reattach, perhaps a longer set of pins on the hinge could be used or even a slightly wider spring that closes the flap to stop this from happening. I did spend some time repeatedly inserting and removing a drive to see if the same would happen here, but thankfully this wasn't the case. Once everything is installed, connecting a drive is as simple as pushing it into the respective tray and pushing the power button to turn it on. This is particularly beneficial for hard drives as anyone who has picked one up that is either spinning or spinning down would know, the centrifugal force from the spinning platters can have a slight gyroscopic effect and whilst this may look fun, it can in fact damage the platters if the read head is moving across them at the time and there is enough shock. This is that last thing anyone wants to find has happened. Performance wise; well both of our drives performed just as though the caddy wasn't there which is a great sign to see when testing this sort of product. I'm aware that some will note the different block sizes in the results, however I did repeatedly test the drives to try and get the same block sizes in the results, but this is the best that it found and is thus what we go by. As with all things Icy Dock, you don't get a good product for cheap, but you're also not paying top dollar for it either. Retailing for around the £30 mark, the price point is bang on for what you're getting and is worth the investment if you have the need for something like this. So the bottom line - there is the niggle with the dust cover that could be attended to by lengthening the pins on the hinge by a couple of mm on either end and perhaps a slightly wider spring, but without being able to get the flap to come off after repeatedly inserting a drive, I don't see this being a real issue in the bays operation once installed into a case. This is an item that I'm glad has come about combining both 2.5" and 3.5" hot-swap capabilities in one as until now, it has been the case that you need two bays to do the same job as this does. The power button for hard drives is also a nice touch and is one that some may overlook. Setting the little niggle aside, which I'm sure Icy Dock will attend to, I'm more than happy to give this our Editor's Choice award.