ZALMAN ZM-HDR1 HDD Rack

Comment:
I've only had these racks a day, so I can't comment on how well they will hold up over time. But out of the box, they leave a good first impression overall.The tool-less trays are great. I have some Norco and Supermicro ones that, while having better build quality, are a bit frustrating to swap drives as you need to unscrew/screw. I can swap a drive in these in a few seconds. The drive lines up perfectly in the tray without any fuss.The LED is a bit misleading. I've noticed it will light up before the drive fully engages (and it's possible to close the lever on the tray without fully engaging the drive too). You need to give the drive an extra push to seat it properly. Would also prefer to see an activity LED.Fan is quiet and moves an OK amount of air. Adjustable between two speeds, and is also removable/user replaceable. Trays are a bit flimsy, but I wasn't expecting any better at this price.These are far from enterprise quality, but for a cheap way to get some hot swap bays in a home desktop or file server these are a great choice.

Comment:
i taken one for house my backup hard drive (non raid) and it do the job well. The fan doesn't make much noise and the installation is without any problems. And above all the rack mounting system is tool-less and the lock buttons are great.This bay is compatible w/ SATA3 since crystaldiskmark shows no difference between 2x 1TB WD black, one pluggued directly to the mb, and the other in this bay.

Comment:
I bought this to go into a desktop/server, since I put in a EATX motherboard, I had to remove the HDD rack, so leaving me with only 3 5 1/4 bays. I bought this unit to go into those 5 1/4 bays to allow me to install hard drive in my server.I find the construction to be very good.The install was easy. Just slid right in. Screws included. Just make sure you have extra long SATA cables, as usually sata cables are not made to reach the 5 1/4 bays especially in a tall EATX case. Also using long sata cables means, you can remove the unit from your case with ease, and install it into another computer, without fear of wreaking your sata cables or having trouble to reinstall the unit in your pc or the cables unplugging from your motherboard by mistake.To install an hard drive in the tray that slides in, was easy. There is two push button switches on each side on the hdd tray, and it locks the hdd in place. I find this method a lot better then the other trays where you have to bend part of the tray.Now here is the tricky part when placing in the tray. I found that the sata connector at the back to be tight. so the hdd might not properly click in. The good news is that there is a hdd light. so if it doesn't light up, the hdd is not properly in place. What I did was slide in an HDD to each connecter without the tray to help loosen up the connector. This is not a big issue, and it might just relate only to the sata connectors on my unit. After I did this, now I can slide in the trays easier.THe back of the unit support locking SATA cables, I recommend these, although the standard ones stay in place pretty good.The unit does a pretty good job at keeping the hard drives cool.The HDD flap/unit cover works great, locks everything in place. Its an added bonus. Make sure you don't install/screw the unit too far back or the door will be harder to open due to friction against the casing of the computer case.This is a 5 star product, although I am giving it 4 stars due to the trays being harder to install due to the tight sata connector, but I do see this loosening up over time with gradual wear and tear.All together I am happy with this purchase and will but another once for my other computers.