can you suggest me a nice 5.25 to 4 x 3.5 Hot-Swap sATA Hard Disk cage?

[DiTBho]

I searched on Amazon and around and found some cages.
Reading the reviews discouraged me because of several defects such as

• a cooling fan that is too loud and cannot be replaced due to its non-standard size
• defects in the sleds that no longer make contact between the HDD's sATA connector and the backplane

I need a 5.25-Inch to 4 x 3.5-Inch Hot-swap sATA Hard Disk Drive Cage.
Disks are sATA1 and sATA2, from 20GB to 500GB, nothing special.

Hot-Swap is optional, but I need to easily remove disks, and the four-HD-cage needs to go inside a computer-cage

[amwales]

Have a look at icydock https://global.icydock.com/ they may have something

[abeyer]

I need a 5.25-Inch to 4 x 3.5-Inch Hot-swap sATA Hard Disk Drive Cage.

Assuming you mean 4x 2.5, right? Otherwise I don't think it's possible to do 4x 3.5 

[DiTBho]

I need a 5.25-Inch to 4 x 3.5-Inch Hot-swap sATA Hard Disk Drive Cage.

Assuming you mean 4x 2.5, right? Otherwise I don't think it's possible to do 4x 3.5 

4 x 3.5", example products

• ICYBOX IB-564SSK, 4 x 3.5" sATA HDDs -> Unfortunately it uses a non-standard fan(1)
• Fantec 2192 BP-T3141, 4 x 3.5" sATA HDDs -> Unfortunately it uses a non-standard fan(1) + defects on the sleds

(1) 80x80x20 is not standard -> 80x80x25 is standard!

[DiTBho]

I am building a Network Attached Storage multi node Server, based on four MIPS32 boards.
Each board will be attached to a disk, all disks and boards will go inside a single mini cabinet.
Not a final product, but rather a researching hobby project: "myfs as distribuited filesystem!"

[abeyer]

4 x 3.5", example products

That's decidedly more than a 5.25 

[amwales]

I looks like the fan on the ICYBOX IB-564SSK is fitted to the rear of the enclosure.
Replacing the 80x80x20 non standard fan with a 80x80x25 standard fan would require 5mm longer screws and increase the depth of the enclosure by 5mm are you sure that would be a deal breaker?

[oPossum]

https://www.supermicro.com/en/products/accessories/mobilerack/CSE-M35TQB.php

[DiTBho]

I looks like the fan on the ICYBOX IB-564SSK is fitted to the rear of the enclosure.
Replacing the 80x80x20 non standard fan with a 80x80x25 standard fan would require 5mm longer screws and increase the depth of the enclosure by 5mm are you sure that would be a deal breaker?

I am not sure there is no plastic cover that is not easy to adapt/replace.
I am looking for pics.
Reading comments on Amazon people returned the product, which doesn't sound good.

[DiTBho]

I was expecting some more suggestions and/or feedback in a forum with users who assemble NAS ...   

- - -

Yesterday, a friend gave away a quad 3.25" bay NAS box he purchased on eBay for Christmas, trusting the seller's claim that it was "brand new, never opened in the box," and instead received a box that contained not only a used drive, but a damaged one as well.

Classic, you hear a complaint on eBay, item not as described, eBay says you can keep the item because returning it just adds more international shipping costs etc. and you get a full refund.

Idiot seller! Deserves nothing but a terrible negative feedback! Which my friend, too generous, didn't do because "come on, I got my money back"

The cabinet is basically full of dust and every kind of crap that can accumulate in an environment that must have been heavily frequented by smokers

Air filters are completely to be thrown away, I disassembled everything, cleaned with degreaser, water and alcohol, dried the metal parts, passed WD-40 and ferox, and reassembled the various drawers.

And this concerns the mechanical parts. The electronic parts are embarrassing ...

• The 100Watt PSU looks "exploded"
  worse still if you connect it to 230VAC it literally makes white smoke with a flame ...
  Very dangerous! Thank goodness I didn't turn it on while it was in the cabinet!
• The flat cable that connects the LCD to the motherboard that does USB-to-4xsATA,
  with 4/20 wires (2 wires are for backlight power)  that seem to have melted, a sign of a short circuit
• The LCD smells of burning and does not turn on
• Buzzer broken
• Buttons broken
• Status LEDs, all burned

In short full garbage! A true challenge, which 22 hours later, I can update to goods news!

Only the aluminum of the box and the HD sleds were saved from the hydraulic press of the nearby landfill.
But hey? Got it for free, and I manage to recover the four HD sleds and their hot swap sATA connectors.
Bringing them back to full functionality, with new LEDs for both "HD power (green LED)" and "HD running (red LED)".

Also, there is more room inside the box, so I will prepare a special mounting sled for the four routerboards!
I only need to buy a brand new power supply to power the four boards and the four HDs!

I'm quite late, and there are also various problems on the software development side(1).
But I'd say that we're more or less ready to start 2025 off right with a truly crazy project!  



(1) this would be another story
As usual.... Mikrotik doesn't answer my technical questions... or/and takes a loooooong time to answer

[Squarewave]

If you give a negative feedback on ebay, a seller can have it removed, hence, I don't bother with feedback.

But maybe try r/homelab on reddit.