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

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.