Removeable hard drive racks offer users a convenient way to move lots of data around. The emergence of Serial ATA now allows users to hot-swap hard drives like SCSI. Finding a quality hard drive rack can be quite a task, however. The drive enclosure should support cooling the drive, should be lockable, and should be pleasing to look at, without visually distracting from your custom rig.
One of the most useful server features is a hot-swappable drive bay. Some entry-level servers do not include this feature, or you may have a PC configuration that makes uninstalling hard drives a time-consuming process. Vantec has answered the call with their EZ-Swap2 hot-swappable drive bay. It supports SATA and SATA 2 drives. These can be useful for the desktop user who wants to physically swap out their boot drives, take data with you, or can be used in a RAID array to support hot-swapping of naughty drives.
The EZ-Swap 2 Serial ATA version is as convenient as a mobile rack can get. It allows hard drives to be directly connected without going through additional circuits, thereby reducing the potential for performance loss. The drive is secured inside a cartridge, which is then inserted into a bay chasis. The EZ-Swap 2 SATA also features a clever keylock mechanism to safeguard the drive physically and electronically. Since it uses SATA technology, the EZ-Swap 2 SATA is also hot swappable.
Features
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Specifications
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The Ventec EZ-Swap 2’s package is rather attractive, and is covered with all the specifications and features of the product. Inside you’ll find a custom-molded plastic blister pack, which is easily opened to allow access to the drive cage and quick-install manual. Inside the drive cage is the actual drive “cartridge” that actually houses the hard drive, and within this cartridge is a little plastic bag containing 2 keys and all the mounting screws you need for installation.
The rack is made of thick aluminum and black plastic, and feels rather heavy and sturdy. This extra sturdiness should help protect the drive in case of accidental droppage, and should also help wick heat away from the drive. The aluminum is acid-dipped and anodized to help prevent scratches, and is well machined. All corners and edges have been rounded off, so you’re unlikely to hurt yourself when handling the drive (although you might be able to give someone a concussion with this big block of metal).
The back of the cage hosts a 40mm fan and permanently-attached SATA and activity LED leads. There are no master/slave settings, as SATA technology communicates directly with each device over a single channel.
The hard drive LED activity lead is permanently attached to the drive cage. You must make the choice of how to connect this lead. Most motherboards only have one hard drive LED lead, so if you use it on this device, then this unit will show all activity from all your drives. If you leave the motherboard lead connected to your case, then the EZ-Swap will not indicate drive activity, in which case you cannot tell if the drive goes bad or stops responding. Some RAID controllers have multiple leads for multiple channels, and this is really the only scenario in which you can see the true activity for each individual drive. It would have been better if the cage had some intelligence to determine the installed drive’s activity.
The power mechanism on this bay is rather clever. The key mechanism doubles as a power switch, so power is switched on only when the drive is secured and locked. Alternately, power to the drive is cut when the key is turned to the unlocked position, which also allows you to remove the drive cartridge. This extra feature ensures your data will not be damaged. The unit is powered using a standard 4-pin molex connector, which powers the drive, 40mm fan, and power LED.
Backplane PCB
Some removable drive cages implement a proprietary connector between the external bay chasis and drive cartridge, but Vantec has implemented a more direct (and clever) method. The drive cartridge has a hole that reveals the original drive’s SATA connectors. The drive itself makes direct connection with the bay chasis, ensuring backwards compatibility with other drive cartridges.
Installation of the drive is very straightforward, and consists of two parts: installing the drive into the drive cartidge, and mounting the cage chasis to your PC case. The lid of the drive cartidge is secured with screws, and slides easily off the back when removed. Any standard 3.5″ hard drive plops easily into the vacant space. When oriented correctly, the SATA connectors appear through the rectangular hole in the back of the cartidge, and the drive’s screw holes align properly and can be seen outside the cartridge. Use the included case screws to secure the drive, just like any normal drive install, and then slide and secure the cartridge lid.
Securing the host bay is just like installing a CD-ROM drive: place it where you want, align the screw holes, and mount the bay to the PC chasis. Take the SATA connector and plug it into your motherboard or drive controller, and optionally connect the hard drive LED lead. The drive cartridge then easily slips into its new home.
Performance
The drives were tested in an environment with the following specifications:
- I-Star D-300 Server Case
- 2x Western Digital 80GB SATA HDD
- Asus P4P800 motherboard
We’re not interested in benchmarking the device but rather measuring if the enclosure impacts drive performance in any way. Two EZ-Swap 2 bays were used on a RAID 1 drive array, and tests performed with HD Tach. The tests were ran several times, and the results were nearly identical as the “naked” drives. The EZ-Swap 2 drive bay does not affect performance one bit, and CPU utilization and burst speeds were practically identical.
The drives’ temperature normally reach 95-100 degrees, and the drives actually ran slightly cooler inside the drive bay, reaching 90-95 degrees. Heat will not build up in these bays as they do with a passively cooled unit.
There are two different kinds of users that will use this product: an enthusiast that wants to boot off seperate drives easily, and a server user. An enthusiast who has ever had to move a large amount of data around a few different computer systems can definitely appreciate the usefulness of removable hard drive racks. A user can also have different versions of Windows, or have seprate drives to switch between Linux and Windows. For this application, a user will need one full kit plus an additional drive insert. You will need two complete kits if you want to easily share a single drive between two computers.
This is also a good upgrade for a server chasis that does not include hot-swappable drives (like the I-Star D-300 chassis reviewed here). Users will need at least two for a RAID setup, which will take up two 5.25″ bays. If you have a RAID array with 3 drives, then I would recommend looking for another product that can easily squeeze 3 hard drives into two drive bays.
This is an excellent solution for a user that wants to easily boot between seperate operating systems, share drives between computers, and is a good solution for RAID arrays using two hard drives.
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