HDD dock recommendations?

[KLC]

I have several external hard drives, WD My Books, and I also have some bare hard drives. I'm thinking of getting a hard drive dock to manage all of them and to save space. My PC doesn't have USB 3.0 but I could get a 3.0 card if necessary, it does have eSATA. When I look at the docks available I see lots of off brand names and one known name, Thermaltake. But some of these products seem to be old and there are a huge number of different styles and names.

Any experience or recommendations for a reliable hard drive dock?

 

[KLC]

I'm thinking about getting this dock:

http://www.amazon.com/Anker®-Extern...+drive+docking+station&refinements=p_89:Anker

Any experiences or comments? It has mostly positive reviews and Anker is a name I've heard of.

 

[Medwynd]

So the hard drive dock is just to manage your bare drives or are you looking to pull the drives from your externals?

Do you have spare sata ports in your machine? You might want to consider something like a 3/4/5 in one bay. If you have room in your case for a 3x5.25 hard drive cage these will work.

I believe supermicro, icydock, istarusa, and norco are the popular brands.

Here's an example:
http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=166

 

[XavierMace]

I've got this one and after replacing the shitty USB cable they include with it, I love it.

http://www.amazon.com/Vantec-NexSta...8&qid=1448985775&sr=8-12&keywords=vantec+dock

It's a little bit pricier than some, but the duplication feature is great.

 

[KLC]

Yes, the dock is just to manage the drives. The 4tb drive will have all of my data, then some of the archived material, like digital copies of old 8mm family movies, will be duplicated and then stored offsite on the smaller drives I have. I'm thinking of pulling the drives out of the 2 externals I already have to make them more compact for storage, some of the others are already bare drives.

I like the duplication feature of that drive XM, but my current PC doesn't have USB 3.0 but it does have eSATA so I'm leaning toward getting the Anker which has both. The Vantec apparently is only 3.0.

 

[corkyg]

Be sure and read this thread regarding what happens if you remove a WD MyBook from its case.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2460318

 

[Cerb]

I got an Orico, and in USB 3.0 mode, it sucks (fine with 2.0).

Thermaltake ones Just Work(tm).

Vantec are good, but sometimes even pricier.

Startech vary by model (probably because they just slap their name on it, and don't do any QA on the hardware or firmware)--read reviews carefully.

I haven't used any Anker ot Liztek.

 

[Charlie98]

I have this Xigmatek and I really like it. I think it's USB3, but either way it's at the mercy of the PC's USB port. It has a flip up door that sizes the opening for either a 3.5" or 2.5" drive, so it works easily with SSDs or laptop drives. It does take a plug-in power adapter, so you have the power cord and the USB cable.