Aluminum Dual Bay 10Gbps Hard Drive Enclosure with Cooling Fan for 2.5“/3.5" SATA HDD/SSD with USB A/C 3.2 Gen 2, Support Hot Swappable, Daisy Chain Expansion, Tool-Free, DAS(NO RAID/NAS)

I admittedly haven't had this DAS for long (at the time of writing this review), but I will keep this review in mind and edit it should any of the below change. I was running Ubuntu Server 24.04 with Frigate (Linux-based NVR software) at home, but as I added cameras over time, the old server was a little too weak. I moved the Ubuntu/Frigate install to a higher powered micro tower which solved the first set of problems, but of course I had no room for a 3.5" HDD for the video storage in the replacement system, which is where the Cenmate 2 bay unit comes into the picture. I have a single 6TB drive in it. It's USB'd right into my micro tower. Ubuntu mounts it via UUID on startup, and Frigate takes over recording footage to it without issue. So far, it's a very boring unit - which is exactly why I like it. I was concerned about throughput speeds, so for kicks I generated a bogus 10 GB file and transferred it from the onboard NVME SSD in the micro tower to the WD Purple within the Cenmate DAS. It sustained 170 MB/s transfer. According to random searches online, that WD Purple is expected to handle about 180-200 MB/s write speed, so seeing 170 MB/s sustained write made me pretty happy. I should note, I am not using the included USB cable. I read a few reviews that suggested the included USB cable is problematic for some folks, so I opted to use my own existing USB A/USB C cable from the get-go. Another concern I had was the behavior of the unit in the event that the power switch is left "on" but power is lost and then restored, as it's critical for my particular setup that the DAS simply always be on if power is available. I decided to test this right out of the gate, so once I unboxed the DAS, I put my HDD in it, flipped the power switch on, and then after that I plugged it into the wall outlet for the very first time. It lit up and I could feel the drive motor spinning up. I tested this in total 3-4 times, and each time it simply fired up the drive since the switch was set to "on" already. While this may seem like a "duh" thing, some different units I compared contained some reviews that suggested even if they had an explicit on/off toggle (like this Cenmate does), if power is lost, and then restored, some of these other units reportedly still required turning the switch off and then back on. This didn't seem to be the case with the Cenmate, which is great as this would have been an instant deal breaker where I would have returned it. In my setup, it's a requirement that if power is lost and then restored, that the DAS kick on automatically since the NVR micro tower is also simultaneously booting up which would be expecting the storage drive to be present to begin recording feeds. It was a relief to see that the Cenmate behaved as I hoped it would with auto-power-on after power is restored. I can't comment on using two drives in the unit as I haven't had a need to yet, but with a single drive it does the job well so far. It's simple, but I needed simple as well as predictability. Given I have an available bay open, it is tempting to pick up another matching HDD and doing some sort of Linux LVM group to span the two drives for more CCTV storage, but that's a project for another day. No issues with this relating to Linux. My Ubuntu Server install simply saw the drive when I ran "blkid", I added it as an automatic mount point, rebooted, and there it was - ready to be used. The jury is still out on long term reliability. For now, I rigged up a script on the Linux system using the Cenmate DAS along with my uptime monitor server which will check for the presence of the Cenmate/CCTV HDD every 5 minutes and email me if there's an issue. I'm hopeful this will reveal no surprises over time, but if it does, I'll update my review here. For now, it's serving my Linux/Frigate NVR micro tower just fine and ticks what few (but important) boxes I needed.

Perfect HHD enclosure. Build quality feels great and works out of the box and no problem connected to pc. Using this enclosure to connect to a mini pc running truenas. Much cheaper option then all the nas options available and you get much better versatility. The fan noise is not bad at all.

The enclosure works well so far. Install was easy, it's been running reliably for a month now, and speeds are good. I've run into two things that could be issues for some people 1: the included power supply doesn't give enough power to spin up all 6 disks. From a cold start, I have to pull one disc out, let it power the rest up, then insert the 6th. Not that big of an issue for my usage, as I keep it on for the most part, but a minor annoyance. 2: The fans are not particularly quiet. It's in a networking closet for me, so it's not an issue, but it may not be the best fit for a desk in a workspace.

This is a DAS (Direct Attached Storage) device which means you can plug it directly into a desktop or laptop and the computer will see each hard drive in this just like it would if you had installed it into the computer. Because this uses the fastest USB version (at the time I purchased anyway) the transfer rates are even faster than what my old computer was via internal SATA connections. Either way I'm using mine on a laptop with 4 drives for a Plex server and its working excellent and can load and play 4K files from the 7200 RPM drives I have it in which my other computer wasn't capable of doing and only worked correctly on SSD drives. The huge storage capability of this made it a no brainer for my plex server and because there are no screws required for the drives to be installed that was super easy. I was a bit concerned about the noise level that people had mentioned in other reviews. In my case I put this in my office where it stays on 24/7 and its no different than having my other computer running fan noise wise. So you can hear it running but its nothing I would call loud. If you prefer silence though it might be best to put it in a room you aren't in constantly or maybe in a further back area of the room not as close to you. But it is absolutely not loud, just a low fan noise and doesn't bother me at all and I sit about 5 feet away. Setting this up was about as easy as it could possibly be. I just connected it to power and to the laptop with USB-C, popped my drives (WITH DATA on them still) out of my old computer and put them into this enclosure with no tools required, slid the sleds back in one at a time and they started showing up on the computer within seconds. IF you buy a brand new drive do the same thing but then go to Disk Management and initialize the drive and assign drive letter/etc. and you'll be good to go in no time!

This works perfectly. Excellent build quality. Very easy to set up and instantly recognised by my PC. I've no idea how it works because the HDD,s are not even connected internally but it does! Some users have complained about the fan noise - you can hear the fan, but it is very quiet.

As described. Works well.

Excelente producto... se instala en nada y los discos son facil de montar... tampoco me molesta mucho el ruido

Die Festplatten ließen sich leicht einbauen. Die Inbetriebnahme war ein Klaks nur der Lüfter könnte bisschen leiser sein. Ansonsten gutes Produkt.

It was delivered to Australia with a plug that is not compatible with Australian electrical outlets. I have contacted the seller and wait for their response.