2.5" SSD & SATA Hard Drives to 3.5" Converters

Starting this post so others can share there 2.5" SSD & SATA Hard Drive to 3.5" Converters and how/where they use it.

I was think of trying a SSD drive as a unRAID Cache Drive, my chassis is a Norco 4224.

There was SSD post not to long ago and in there I asked a question which a member brought me to the ICY DOCK MB882SP-1S-1B and MB882SP-1S-2B 2.5" to 3.5" SSD & SATA Hard Drive Converters.

Nice video on NewEgg. I took a chance and bought the MB882SP-1S-2B because of the extra vent slots. The converter fits like a glove in the Norco 4224 Drive cage and the SATA connection seats well in the backplane. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817994083

Now I just need a SSD drive 

Really want one of these "OCZ Agility 3", to keep moving with the 6Gbps controllers and spinner drives I am using. http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/10/ocz-unveils-agility-3-and-solid-3-ssds-for-thrifty-speedsters/

I just noticed something while working with a Norco SS-500.  The drive tray (which is nearly identical to the trays in the Norco rackmount cases) has screw holes for 2.5" drives!

Here's a comparison of a regular 3.5" drive on the left and the 2.5" SSD on the right:

It looks like the SATA power and data ports will line up in the correct spot.  There's one catch...the screws meant for the drive tray are too big for the SSD.  I tried a 2.5" laptop drive as well and had the same problem.  Unfortunately the SSDs didn't come with any screws that do fit, so I'm not sure where I'm supposed to find any that will.

Do you have an Ace Hardware in your area? The ones near me have aisles of bins full of various fasteners. Threads, heads, lengths, widths, strengths... Take something worthless with the same threads and test away.

I haven't touched a Norco yet but from the pictures it looks like they must use really thin screw heads or there's clearance under the tray?

I just noticed something while working with a Norco SS-500.  The drive tray (which is nearly identical to the trays in the Norco rackmount cases) has screw holes for 2.5" drives!

 

 

It looks like the SATA power and data ports will line up in the correct spot.  There's one catch...the screws meant for the drive tray are too big for the SSD.  I tried a 2.5" laptop drive as well and had the same problem.  Unfortunately the SSDs didn't come with any screws that do fit, so I'm not sure where I'm supposed to find any that will.

 

Holy crap you are right!

My 4224 has the same mountings!

I'll look in my norco screw pile for the correct ones.

Now i almost feel bad for point madburg to the icydocks. But It looks like his would work in any pullout. like the supermicros that only have side arms.

also, i think of you don't use the adapter in a 4224, you will have all your air going into the SSD pullout and not less going into the spinners. You might want to close the air vent most of the way.

OK, I gave it a try.

The screw heads can be quite large i found out. I mounted an SSD in the norco tray i tried it in the bottom row and in a middle row. it slid in with the normal effort.

Unraid saw the drive in "warm swap" mode and i could have added it to the array

I would have tested that drive for speed, but I sort of need the data on it. maybe i'll image it later and try it.

I will mention, I did keep the vents closed.

I do think the icydock inserts docks are sort of nice. especially since it took me forever to find the right screws. i am pretty sure I'll order one if i go the SSD route. I already had my eye on them.

Edit: added video.

ICY DOCK Video

I was think of trying a SSD drive as a unRAID Cache Drive, my chassis is a Norco 4224.

I just ran what I thought was a "pretty decent SSD" in my unraid all day to test the performance of an SSD in unraid.

It was not as expected... or should I say, I hoped for better.

The SSD i used: Mushkin Enhanced Callisto Deluxe MKNSSDCL120GB-DX 2.5" 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive

I Plugged the SSD into my SATA6G port on my motherboard.

I tried 4 sources:

3 2008r2 boxes, (1 with areca raid controller [raid6], 2 with Intel controllers [raid5])

1 win 7 box with Agility2 SSD.

All of my sources can copy to each other at  a flatlined (no spikes) 109MB/s or 99.3% on networking in task manager. the limit is the nic.

The results with the SSD in unRAID were Spikes about 109MB/s for the first half a second then a drop to upper 80MB/s. Some files were still copying at 60MB/s. the speeds were all over the place, it looked like an EKG for a rabbit on crack.

I expected a LOT better. This is only a hair better then what my Spinner is getting in my unraid rig...

One thing I did notice, i could read and write to the SSD in the unraid at the same time and not take a big performance hit. like running the mover script.

The downside is I could fill the SSD in about 15 min. A 120gig drive is fine for tossing a few Bluray rips or  a bunch or rared files.. once you get past the first filling of  an unRAID. that should be enough for most people. you could also  run your mover script  more often and not feel the hit as bad if it kicks off while copying.

I hope other people will get better results or performance increases then I did. If you are going from a green drive to SSD, it should help performance (Not help your wallet though).

I'd love to try it again with a true high performance SATA3 SSD Like an agility3.... drool

As long as my unraid is a test bed and this thread is about 2.5" adapters... I'll try a 2.5" 7200rpm drive for a cache drive next.

EDIT:

I  failed on the 2.5" 7200RPM spinner. IDK if it was because it was in XBOX format, but unraid refused to format it. I'll try again another day.

Johnm, you now offically own a ICYDOCK, just kidding!!! Like I said in the deal post I took one for the team (notice I didnt flag you out posting this topic  ). I like the ICYDOCK, it will not go to waste. I need to look at my 4224 drive cages make sure they are the same (ssd holes in them) From the picture it looks like those screws come out past the cage (bottom) when you slide the cage back in is it scraping? and or elevated due to this?

Thanks Rajahal, that is exactly what I wanted to do and pictured in my mind, but stupidly did not even look at the cages... thats what happens when unRAID is not your full time job  Most important is finding the right screws (hopefully someone will so and get us the size/depth and easy to find, like ACE Hardware.com, etc...) the ssd needs to be secure and straight or it well break the SATA port on the backplane.

That icydock is definitely a great tool to have in your toolbox of parts. many pull-out cages don't have a bottom plate like the Norco. One brand has angle brackets so you use the bottom mounts.

do the icydocks have under-mount screw holes for a mount like that?

as far as the screw dragging in a Norco, it seemed to go in fine.

the screws that came with my SSD had a much smaller head.i was just testing the clearance to see what i could get away with. The entire drive trays have a lot of slop in them so there was no pressure or force involved. just snapped the arm closed (it felt like a 3.5"). presto.. stopped the array, assigned the drive, restarted the array. i didn't even reboot.

i did reboot later to see if it got any faster.

the only thing i didn't try was setting jumbo frames.