cenmate
Jesse Drummond
If you are like me and had some hold sata hard drives hanging around and want to access the files or just want to use them to add more storage to your computer this is a great product. Works with 2.5 and 3.5. Hot swap works just fine.
mtlewis71
Great product. Super easy to set up. No problems or issues. Comes with TWO different usb style cords: USB C to USB B; USB A to USB B. The USB B is mostly associated with printer cables. I chose the model without the USB ports in front. If you need additional UBS ports, I would pick that one.
Andy Davis
Although this device claims to support USB 3.0, it does not do so reliably. It works reliably if you just use USB 2.0 ports. But the problem is that it is very slow -- 35MB/s versus 150MB/s using USB 3.0. Sometimes it will appear to be working reliably with USB 3.0, copying many gigabytes, but it eventually errors out. Sometimes it wont' even start, as the video below demonstrates. In my humble opinion, it has a data buffering issue.
I bought this as an inexpensive, refurbished item, so I plan on keeping it for use with older, slower machines. But if you plan on using it with a modern, fast machine with USB 3.0 or 3.2 ports, you're better off with a different drive array model.
Larry G 44
This unit solved a lot of my clutter issues on my Workstation desk. I have 3 SSD's and 3 additional USB drives attached and access to all, rather than the plug/unplug that I had to do prior. The transfer speed are as fast as advertised (or faster), complex Solidworks assemblies are transfered in 6-10x the speeds via my old docking platforms.
I would recommend this product.
Customer
I got this because I've often had to deal with old hard drives, and devices like this make it easier to quickly access them. I was already familiar with the brand, Cenmate, because I had already bought 3 of their hard drive enclosures in the past, and I've been satisfied with their performance and price. This particular Cenmate device is not really an enclosure (because the HDDs are not enclosed in it), it's more like a floppy disk drive because you just insert the disks into slots. I wouldn't use this for regular, long term hard drive use (because there is no active cooling, no fans), but I think it's fine for short term use. I would also advise you to be careful when inserting and removing hard drives because you could accidentally damage the SATA connectors. I tested this device with a 3.5 inch and 2.5 inch HDD at the same time and the device and both drives were instantly recognized in Windows (no need to install drivers). Transfer speeds to and from the device seemed reasonably good. I would recommend this for anyone wanting quick access to old hard drives.
CurioTales
This is a simple 3 Bay Hard Drive Enclosure which fits both 2.5" or 3.5" SATA HDD or SDD. The size of the unit is measured at 5.63"L x 4.92"W x 2.76"H, so it is a compact size for 3 Bay enclosure. It is truly a plug and play as there's no need to download extra apps or software to run this enclosure. Using the included Power unit to power on the enclosure and connect via the included USB A/C cable, it works well with my 3.5 SATA HDD that it mounts right away onto my MacBook. It is easy to plug the hard drives into the enclosure and I can plug into any of the 3 slots. It also works with my 2.5" SDD. Overall simple and convenient to use and extend hard drive capacity or use for data backup.
Loki
I'm constantly needing additional digital storage space.
As part of that, I've taken to harvesting the hard drives from older laptops as they die.
This dock is a great tool for accessing the drive's data and wiping them clean for re-use.
The dock appears to be well constructed, and it can accommodate both 2.5" and 3.5" SATA hard drives.
Eventually I'll need to upgrade to a NVME dock, but this should work well for my needs for a while yet.
T
I’m using this as a simple NAS setup and it’s been doing what I need. All three drives show up individually to the system , so you can configure them however you want. Setup was quick, plug it in, slide the drives in, and you’re up and running.
It’s very lightweight and basic, but it works. No RAID and no built in cooling, so you’ll want to handle redundancy and airflow yourself. For a budget way to add more storage to a home lab or media server, it gets the job done. Compatibile with windows, fast, and fit my standard drives.
Roy Kenneth Taylor
Ive used Cenmate before, and their gear teaches me that "inexpensive and plastic doesn't mean bad." This is a high quality device at a reasonable price, but it fills a very specific niche, so bear that in mind.
WHAT IT DOES WELL
- Granular control over drives. Unlike other docks, you can power off and eject drives independently of one another, which makes this perfect for a hot swap setup.
- High USB bandwidth. SATA 3 drives will always be faster than a multiplexed USB connection, but I was able to get a combined 150 MegaBYTES per second write while wiping disks with this.
- It DOES forward SMART controls.
WHAT IT DOESN'T DO:
- There's no RAID.
- There's no cooling.
- There's no offline cloning.
Now, it's built rather inexpensively. It is an extremely lightweight device. And the power button is on the same side as the cables, which is a little awkward.
But it's like fifty bucks and it works like a charm in my homelab, where I routinely have to test and wipe 2.5" SATA drives.
Reviewer
3 Bay Hard Drive Enclosure for 2.5“/3.5" SATA HDD/SSD with USB A/C 3.0, Hard Drive Enclosure Support Hot Swappable, Tool-Free HDD Enclosure
It is a total "no frills" piece of gear that feels very lightweight and plastic-y. It really feels like it is going to snap apart if you bump it too hard. My first impression was that they said, 'Let's make the most basic, inexpensive, 3x dock that we can". It gets the job done without any unnecessary bells and whistles.
You don't need any tools at all; you just slide your 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch drives into the slots and push down until they click into the connector. Just take it easy is as the slots don't help much with alignment. I was able to swap drives in and out while it was still powered on, and Windows 11 picked them up almost instantly every single time. Although I still recommend changing drives while powered down. No sense jostling around a bunch of mechanical drives, possibly causing a head crash.
The transfer speeds were as expected for a USB 3.0 connection. I think it's still 5gbs, not 10.
It comes with a useful combo cable that has both a regular USB and a Type-C adapter attached, which is super handy if you're switching between a laptop and a desktop. All cables should be made like this.
There isn't a fan or any active cooling inside, so 7200/10000 RPM drives can get pretty toasty if you're running all three of them at the same time for a while. I have a USB powered fan that I use to keep some airflow on the drives when needed. The little lights on top are easy to read-they change colors or blink to let you know exactly which drive is currently working.
ISSUES:
Depending on the size of the drive inserted, they can be allowed to wobble quite a bit. Not good for mechanical drives. I had to use some paper to help prevent thinner drives from wobbling.
Since there's no "eject" button, you just have to grab the drives and pull them out by hand. Some drives fit snugger than others, so I really missed having an eject lever.
There is no 'power on' light, but the drive activity lights serve that purpose.
I would feel better if they included some internal weight to the bottom of the enclosure. Loaded with 3x 3.5 drives, it seemed a little top heavy. Not like it was going to fall over, but more like it could be easily moved around if you accidentally pulled on either of the cables.
These issues are not dealbreakers. Just things to think about when shopping for one of these enclosures.
Harold M
This external hard drive bay is pretty plug and play.
I tested it with 2x 3.5" SATA HDDs and 1x2.5" SSD and Windows immediately recognized the bay and the drives.
The plastic and feels a little light, but I've used a few things from Centmate and they're pretty quality and just work. I can confidently recommend their products.
Comes with all the cords and cables you need and doesn't take up too much space on the desk.
This will come in handy as a drive reader and to transfer data from one drive to another.
No cons. You plug it in and it works.
Musician67
The nice feature about this is that you don’t need any tools. You don’t have to install the drive. You just plug your drive into the SATA Connector on the unit. The drive will only fit in one way so make sure you align the unit and disk drive connectors. The flap can accommodate 2.5 “and 3.5” drives into each drive bay. This allows you to access 1 or 3 drives at the same time. The USB 3.0 connection is reasonably fast in getting you quick access to your data. The unit is plug and play and Windows 11 Pro quickly recognized it. If you have any issues with your computer recognizing this just plug it in and reboot your machine. The unit has a LED at each drive bay so you can tell which drive is being accessed. The unit comes with a 12-volt DC transformer enough to power all 3 drive bays. This really comes in handy. I have been building computers for years and every time I dispose of or sell a PC, I always remove the hard drive. After all it has all my personal data on it. The problem is I have quite a few hard drives lying around and needed to be able to check drives quickly. I don’t use this all the time but it is nice to be able to quickly confirm a drives status. This saves time and aggravation. Definitely worth considering.
Jeff Z
3 Bay Hard Drive Enclosure for 2.5“/3.5" SATA HDD/SSD with USB A/C 3.0, Hard Drive Enclosure Support Hot Swappable, Tool-Free HDD Enclosure. there are couple things which is important for home user of this device. It is plug and play, and HDD are hot swappable (meaning one can remove drive and plug in different hard drive without powering down this enclosure, yes it is true I tested it. I placed three drives in the enclosure and all three were recognized without any trouble (see purple light next to each drive in my picture). I did not test transfer speed since it will vary for different drives. And since all three are using one SATA link to the computer it is expected transfer speed to degrade if one uses one, two or three hard drives being read or written simultaneously. Excellent product, I recommend it.
Bushwh@ck
This thing is surprising! I got this to add onto another enclosure from this company. It's got read / write lights on the top for blue and purple to indicate activity and whatnot. Very basic but easy to understand. It's very lightweight. Almost feels cheap but if this is what keep the cost down, that's okay with me. It fits both 2.5" and 3.5" drives. I only tested with 3.5" drives but they fit in and sat snug. I think it's supposed to be mainly used for things like cloning or restoring since it does have some markings that say "target" and "source" but I am planning to use this possibly to expand my Ubuntu Plex Server's existing SnapRaid and MergeFS setup to add more storage. It's not the most ideal situation, but it will get the job done for me. Plus the two different adaptors on the cable are amazing too for compatability for either USB A or USB C.
The Reviewer
This review is for "3 Bay Hard Drive Enclosure for 2.5“/3.5" SATA HDD/SSD with USB A/C 3.0, Hard Drive Enclosure Support Hot Swappable, Tool-Free HDD Enclosure (3 bay)".
This enclosure is quite compact and well made. The disks plug in by seating them in the slots and slightly pushing down. There are no eject buttons, so the disks need to be pulled out by hand. The status lights change color when the disk is inserted and blink when there is data transfer occurring.
It works well with Linux, I ran a disk benchmark with an SSD disk and the speeds indicate a good real world USB 3.0 speeds between 300 ~ 400 MB/s.
I formatted several disks using this enclosure and it worked flawlessly.
RedAkuma82
This device is not bad if you want a multi slot dock. It is a very basic drive docking station. It does not have offline cloning and is mostly for data reading. It can support both a 2.5 hard drive and 3.5 hard drive. You can have a device that is easy to plug and clone drives. You can also just read data from the hard drive. I do mostly use this for accessing drives for backing up data. It is easy to swap out the drive as needed. This device is large to support the weight of a 3.5 drive but you can use 2.5 drives too. The lid will secure it into place. The casing itself is just a simple hard plastic. It is simple docking station but it is secure even with no real locking mechanism to keep the hard drive from getting pulled out. It is pretty much held in with gravity. It does get a bit warm when it is on and running with all three drives installed. This is a tool-less device. You drop the drives in. You insert the drive. Remember to press the drive down to make sure it is plugged into the port. It does not combine both drives from what I can tell. I can access the drives individually. I also had no issues cloning drives on this through this. It does provide you with a USB A to USB B 3.0 cable. The cable is about your average length. That being said, the power cable is pretty long. Note to NOT pull the drive out while it is running. It could damage the drive. Overall this is a very nice device to have if you are trying to have multiple drives plugged in. It reads as one drive rather than as one. It does not require any tools and is very easy to just swap drives out to clone. It is preffy much plug and play. No driver installtion is needed. You can use it to clone drives so long as you have the software but it has no offline cloning. It is not too pricey for a drive docking station. It is a very basic device. It is using a usb b cable though but at least its 3.0.
