Kublai Kage finally in the channel - August 2008.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811999185 (always look at the same item in the Newegg Mall as the price might be lower there...) Don't be put off by the review that says that it won't work in any but the Kublai - it won't only if you have as limited an imagination and skill set as that particular reviewer.
These are standard equipment in the Silverstone Kublai cases, and are by far the cheapest hot plug/hot swap drive cages on the market. A small amount of modding should make the stock fan mount work with most any case and that's all that keeps the Kage from being universal (I won't repeat my thoughts on this stupidity here). You can also rig just about any other cooling method you want as it's not dependent on the stock fan mount for anything else. Looks like it's running about $30. at the places that show up on Froogle as carrying it, and the SATA hot-swap brackets run about $6. for a total of ~$55. for Kage and a full set of brackets.
You might be able to achieve improved cooling by removing parts of the upper and lower plates on the front of the drive trays. OTOH, those parts may speed up the flow right next to them thus bending the flow toward the drive surfaces. Up to you to do the empirical and report back heh-heh...
------------ earlier stuff below -------------------------
Added 06/09/2008 - Well, I finally got my hands on the Cooler Master STB-3T4-E3-GP HDD cage. Here are my Pros and Cons lists:
Pros-
1- very light (weights in grams): drive box = 206, fan = 117, bezel assy. = 206 (quite a coincidence), side panels (functionally irrelevant) = 85. This could help with shipping costs as the retail packaging should be adequate for shipping too - plenty of room inside for a Web reseller to pack some small items as well (if they only would). For comparison, ONE of my old SCSI drives weighs 663 grams... This is lighter than any other cage out there except the Tt iCage.
2- Attractive appearance - cage now has a proper dress bezel, so your front end will look finished if your case lacks a door - only the Silverstone CFP51 looks better, IMO. But CM giveth and CM taketh away. See Cons section... So far, it looks like the bezel is sized a bit narrower than a standard drive, so it shouldn't contact the case at any point - good for avoiding the transferral of vibes to the case. The black ABS with silver trim bezel should complement most cases.
. The hollow aluminum mount pins are pressed onto stainless steel mounts which are swaged into the side panels - very clean and may save a bit over the all-stainless pins used in the earlier cages. The aluminum sheet pieces look to be fully anodized - nize!
3- holds 4 HDDs in the least amount of space that will still allow space for cooling.
4- The fan is the same one supplied with nearly all C-M products that come with a blue LED fan (A12025-12CB-3BN-F1) - this one is updated with the three-wire ribbon cables that are becoming common on LED fans and have the clear insulation on the wires. Earlier revs of this LED fan had the common red/black/yellow leads. Moves enough air quietly to keep the drives cool, but a stronger one will likely be needed to help much with overall system cooling. Mounts to cage with short, push-lock pins - can be subbed for rubber pins if desired. The label on the moving blade (unbalance weight) isn't too eccentric, so I may leave it alone if I can't feel it in testing.
5- Cage still has the big, blue, soft elastomeric bushings to isolate the cage and drives from the case.
6- Cage now has the little ears to support each drive making installation easier.
7- A filter is now supplied - see cons.
8- Looks like it will mount in most cases w/o mods to the case - even those with ears between the drive bays, but I'll reserve judgment until I have a chance to try to mount it into the six or seven cases I have here. One of the brace plates in the RFFT's 5.25" drive rack will have to be removed to use this cage as three contiguous bays are required. The screw holes in the mounting panels measure to standard optical drive specs. for spacing.
9- The metal "mesh" in the front of the bezel has decent size pores so it may not be too restrictive. Test results to follow.
Cons-
1- Lighter than any earlier version of the Stacker drive cages. Extra sprung mass (total mass of parts on the drive side of the bushings) helps in damping vibrations. Total sprung mass as delivered: 529 grams - compare to SCSI drive mentioned above.
2- Still overly long drive mounting screws supplied (should have 3/16 or less of thread - they are still providing the same, standard case screws I've told CM about several times before). Either check your drives for clearance and shim them out with washer(s) as needed or get some proper length screws.
3- No allowance for an external (floppy) bay as they always had before (can't be helped with a bezel of low complexity).
4- Bezel is mounted to cage with 4 plastic-tapping screws thru the back side of the the cage's front panel, making it difficult to easily clean the filter - cage must be removed from case (however, removal of the bezel with the cage mounted in your case might be possible with the use of a long, magnetized screwdriver - but it's not going to be any fun). IMO, filter access should be easy and from the front - particularly when the filter will clog so quickly. The threads in the plastic could easily get stripped by multiple removals for cleanings, so be careful not to over-tighten.
5- Filter is a thin sheet of polymer - one dimensional. Say it all together now: "clogs with dust quickly" in a dusty environment like our old house. Changing to a piece of air conditioner foam filter (or any more 3D media) should give you longer service between cleanings.
6- No 38mm thick fans allowed with the bezel in place - drop the bezel and any thickness will work.
7- Both versions of the original cage had identical mount spacings in the panels so it was easy to trade them side to side and/or rotate them to provide a number of mounting options. The panels on this new cage have different mount spacings at the bottom of each side: one is 2-11/16" and the other is 2-13/16", so no more swapping or rotating the panels. This does reduce the potential for development of resonance frequencies within the structure itself, but I'm not sure if that is worth the loss of mounting flexibility.
8- The drives extend about an inch beyond the end of the drive box. The HDDs fit entirely within the earlier C-M drive boxes. How much would that extra inch or so of aluminum have cost them? Tsk, tsk...
9- As always, the C-M instructions could be improved. Not easy to tell from the exploded diagram just how the bezel is held to the cage. There are some screws floating out there in space with no caption. But just looking closely at the cage reveals them.
10- Most other cages have ventilation holes in the top and/or bottom, but my mind is divided as to whether those vents add any real benefit.
I conclude that the pros outweigh the cons. It should be able to deal with the minimal vibes from most modern drives - air borne noise drive noise will hardly be reduced at all by the cage. But 10k and up SCSI or Raptor drives might give it some trouble with vibes or resonant coupling - more after I've tried my (2nd cousin to a washing machine) 10k SCSI in it. Usable in as many cases as the most compatible of the other cages. Generally well made. A simple redesign of the bezel assy. and the inclusion of properly sized screws would resolve many of the nits I picked.
Below are my earlier scribblings...
4/19/2008 - I was browsing the Silverstone site today for another reason and here's what I found: http://www.silverstonetek.com/...hp?pno=CFP52B&area=usa , so it should be in stores soon (if not already)... Yay! Official moniker: CFP52B-- Still no signs of the new C-M cage at the Egg. Endless slippage...
Sorry to say that Newegg's ETA on the new C-M cage has slipped to April 1 (and we all know what that day is, so don't get your hopes up...). And Directron is also OOS with an indeterminate ETA (methinks that is more honest).
4/1/08 - BEGIN - It's true, there will be no universal version of the "Kublai Kage" (c) 2007 .bh., still it will be an easy install in most cases. And not too hard to rig a cooling arrangement. I have modded a set of three bay filler plates into a fan/filter holder before. That idea would work fine on this. - END -
The recent info I got on the CFP52 is that a training document has been issued, but product not seen. From the training document, it looks like the cage is specifically for the Kublai cases as the supplied front bezel wouldn't be useful on other cases as it is the same that comes with the cage on the cases. It requires the Kublai case bezel to stay in place. It also still has the same drawbacs as the original: no filter; restrictive, punched-steel cover. Of course you could go sans bezel and rig the fan to suit your case - perhaps mod three of your bay filler plates to make a custom bezel/filter holder/fan mount. I'm hoping that they went back to the drawing board to make a universal version with more open "mesh" and a filter is the reason for the shipment delay. If I had the Kublai case, I wouldn't want another of the original... But have die grinder, will mod... ;-)
.bh.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811999185 (always look at the same item in the Newegg Mall as the price might be lower there...) Don't be put off by the review that says that it won't work in any but the Kublai - it won't only if you have as limited an imagination and skill set as that particular reviewer.
These are standard equipment in the Silverstone Kublai cases, and are by far the cheapest hot plug/hot swap drive cages on the market. A small amount of modding should make the stock fan mount work with most any case and that's all that keeps the Kage from being universal (I won't repeat my thoughts on this stupidity here). You can also rig just about any other cooling method you want as it's not dependent on the stock fan mount for anything else. Looks like it's running about $30. at the places that show up on Froogle as carrying it, and the SATA hot-swap brackets run about $6. for a total of ~$55. for Kage and a full set of brackets.
You might be able to achieve improved cooling by removing parts of the upper and lower plates on the front of the drive trays. OTOH, those parts may speed up the flow right next to them thus bending the flow toward the drive surfaces. Up to you to do the empirical and report back heh-heh...
------------ earlier stuff below -------------------------
Added 06/09/2008 - Well, I finally got my hands on the Cooler Master STB-3T4-E3-GP HDD cage. Here are my Pros and Cons lists:
Pros-
1- very light (weights in grams): drive box = 206, fan = 117, bezel assy. = 206 (quite a coincidence), side panels (functionally irrelevant) = 85. This could help with shipping costs as the retail packaging should be adequate for shipping too - plenty of room inside for a Web reseller to pack some small items as well (if they only would). For comparison, ONE of my old SCSI drives weighs 663 grams... This is lighter than any other cage out there except the Tt iCage.
2- Attractive appearance - cage now has a proper dress bezel, so your front end will look finished if your case lacks a door - only the Silverstone CFP51 looks better, IMO. But CM giveth and CM taketh away. See Cons section... So far, it looks like the bezel is sized a bit narrower than a standard drive, so it shouldn't contact the case at any point - good for avoiding the transferral of vibes to the case. The black ABS with silver trim bezel should complement most cases.
. The hollow aluminum mount pins are pressed onto stainless steel mounts which are swaged into the side panels - very clean and may save a bit over the all-stainless pins used in the earlier cages. The aluminum sheet pieces look to be fully anodized - nize!
3- holds 4 HDDs in the least amount of space that will still allow space for cooling.
4- The fan is the same one supplied with nearly all C-M products that come with a blue LED fan (A12025-12CB-3BN-F1) - this one is updated with the three-wire ribbon cables that are becoming common on LED fans and have the clear insulation on the wires. Earlier revs of this LED fan had the common red/black/yellow leads. Moves enough air quietly to keep the drives cool, but a stronger one will likely be needed to help much with overall system cooling. Mounts to cage with short, push-lock pins - can be subbed for rubber pins if desired. The label on the moving blade (unbalance weight) isn't too eccentric, so I may leave it alone if I can't feel it in testing.
5- Cage still has the big, blue, soft elastomeric bushings to isolate the cage and drives from the case.
6- Cage now has the little ears to support each drive making installation easier.
7- A filter is now supplied - see cons.
8- Looks like it will mount in most cases w/o mods to the case - even those with ears between the drive bays, but I'll reserve judgment until I have a chance to try to mount it into the six or seven cases I have here. One of the brace plates in the RFFT's 5.25" drive rack will have to be removed to use this cage as three contiguous bays are required. The screw holes in the mounting panels measure to standard optical drive specs. for spacing.
9- The metal "mesh" in the front of the bezel has decent size pores so it may not be too restrictive. Test results to follow.
Cons-
1- Lighter than any earlier version of the Stacker drive cages. Extra sprung mass (total mass of parts on the drive side of the bushings) helps in damping vibrations. Total sprung mass as delivered: 529 grams - compare to SCSI drive mentioned above.
2- Still overly long drive mounting screws supplied (should have 3/16 or less of thread - they are still providing the same, standard case screws I've told CM about several times before). Either check your drives for clearance and shim them out with washer(s) as needed or get some proper length screws.
3- No allowance for an external (floppy) bay as they always had before (can't be helped with a bezel of low complexity).
4- Bezel is mounted to cage with 4 plastic-tapping screws thru the back side of the the cage's front panel, making it difficult to easily clean the filter - cage must be removed from case (however, removal of the bezel with the cage mounted in your case might be possible with the use of a long, magnetized screwdriver - but it's not going to be any fun). IMO, filter access should be easy and from the front - particularly when the filter will clog so quickly. The threads in the plastic could easily get stripped by multiple removals for cleanings, so be careful not to over-tighten.
5- Filter is a thin sheet of polymer - one dimensional. Say it all together now: "clogs with dust quickly" in a dusty environment like our old house. Changing to a piece of air conditioner foam filter (or any more 3D media) should give you longer service between cleanings.
6- No 38mm thick fans allowed with the bezel in place - drop the bezel and any thickness will work.
7- Both versions of the original cage had identical mount spacings in the panels so it was easy to trade them side to side and/or rotate them to provide a number of mounting options. The panels on this new cage have different mount spacings at the bottom of each side: one is 2-11/16" and the other is 2-13/16", so no more swapping or rotating the panels. This does reduce the potential for development of resonance frequencies within the structure itself, but I'm not sure if that is worth the loss of mounting flexibility.
8- The drives extend about an inch beyond the end of the drive box. The HDDs fit entirely within the earlier C-M drive boxes. How much would that extra inch or so of aluminum have cost them? Tsk, tsk...
9- As always, the C-M instructions could be improved. Not easy to tell from the exploded diagram just how the bezel is held to the cage. There are some screws floating out there in space with no caption. But just looking closely at the cage reveals them.
10- Most other cages have ventilation holes in the top and/or bottom, but my mind is divided as to whether those vents add any real benefit.
I conclude that the pros outweigh the cons. It should be able to deal with the minimal vibes from most modern drives - air borne noise drive noise will hardly be reduced at all by the cage. But 10k and up SCSI or Raptor drives might give it some trouble with vibes or resonant coupling - more after I've tried my (2nd cousin to a washing machine) 10k SCSI in it. Usable in as many cases as the most compatible of the other cages. Generally well made. A simple redesign of the bezel assy. and the inclusion of properly sized screws would resolve many of the nits I picked.
Below are my earlier scribblings...
4/19/2008 - I was browsing the Silverstone site today for another reason and here's what I found: http://www.silverstonetek.com/...hp?pno=CFP52B&area=usa , so it should be in stores soon (if not already)... Yay! Official moniker: CFP52B-- Still no signs of the new C-M cage at the Egg. Endless slippage...
Sorry to say that Newegg's ETA on the new C-M cage has slipped to April 1 (and we all know what that day is, so don't get your hopes up...). And Directron is also OOS with an indeterminate ETA (methinks that is more honest).
4/1/08 - BEGIN - It's true, there will be no universal version of the "Kublai Kage" (c) 2007 .bh., still it will be an easy install in most cases. And not too hard to rig a cooling arrangement. I have modded a set of three bay filler plates into a fan/filter holder before. That idea would work fine on this. - END -
The recent info I got on the CFP52 is that a training document has been issued, but product not seen. From the training document, it looks like the cage is specifically for the Kublai cases as the supplied front bezel wouldn't be useful on other cases as it is the same that comes with the cage on the cases. It requires the Kublai case bezel to stay in place. It also still has the same drawbacs as the original: no filter; restrictive, punched-steel cover. Of course you could go sans bezel and rig the fan to suit your case - perhaps mod three of your bay filler plates to make a custom bezel/filter holder/fan mount. I'm hoping that they went back to the drawing board to make a universal version with more open "mesh" and a filter is the reason for the shipment delay. If I had the Kublai case, I wouldn't want another of the original... But have die grinder, will mod... ;-)
.bh.