Mediasonic Probox 8-bay 3.5" USB 3.0 / eSATA DAS Review
by Ganesh T S on August 4, 2012 7:55 AM ESTFinal Words:
As we come to the business end of the review, we will summarize the pros and cons of the Mediasonic Probox 8-bay JBOD unit first.
Pros:
- Provides quick access to upto eight 3.5" SATA HDDs
- Fulfills basic functionality without flaws and has decent performance
- Dual interface (eSATA and USB 3.0) support
- Automatic fan control and ability to turn on and off along with the PC
Cons:
- eSATA is unusable for configurations with more than one drive unless SATA controllers with port multiplier support are used. Even in that case, only add-on cards using the Silicon Image 3132 / 3124 controller can access all the eight drives using the port multiplier feature (standard specifications seem to call for support of upto 5 SATA devices only through a port multiplied link)
- For the pricing of the device (more than $250), an add-on card with the appropriate Silicon Image controller must be bundled
- The unit forsakes support for 2.5" HDDs / SSDs, and the latter don't work even with 3.5" adapters. The only way to solve this issue would be for Mediasonic to bundle a tray capable ot supporting both 2.5" and 3.5" HDDs and slotting in perfectly with the fixed SATA connectors inside the unit.
- The bridge chips conform to the SATA 3 Gbps specification only, and USB 3.0 port is unable to deliver full performance. With eight drives being accessed simultaneously, it is quite easy to saturate a 3 Gbps link. Bridge chips capable of 6 Gbps support would definitely become necessary when DAS units with SSD support come to the market.
Motherboard vendors should also make sure that their eSATA ports conform to the port multiplier specifications. However, the rise in popularity of USB 3.0 probably means that vendors don't want to spend too much effort on this. Thanks to its dual interface, the Mediasonic Probox enclosure is compliant with a wide range of systems. It should be able to satisfy the needs of most consumers looking for a 8-bay JBOD enclosure.
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cdbob - Monday, August 6, 2012 - link
I built an NAS using the G530 and it works great. The best value for money you could get.Deptacon - Tuesday, August 7, 2012 - link
I have 16TB's of data spread across 8 drives..... this is plug and play from one machine, and frees up room in my machine....thats what these are for.PommieB - Saturday, August 4, 2012 - link
Bit disappointed in this review, especially the lack of knowledge about eSata and Port Multiplication, I've run eSata and multiple enclosures for at least 5 or so years, I've had little or no problems using them, I'm running this particular enclosure connected to a Asus M70 laptop with no problems at all, it runs via a PM aware Addonics eSata expresscard without problems, the expresscard has a SIL3132 chip, something I checked prior to buying this particular enclosure, never had blue screens with esata, but then I do the research beforehand, something the reviewer should have done in the first place, I don't have USB3.0, so far I haven't needed it.All I can say, for the price these enclosures work well and so does the eSata, that's if you understand PM and know what your doing, same goes for eSata.
ganeshts - Saturday, August 4, 2012 - link
The introduction section mentioned that a PM link needs to be used. However, not many users realize that their board's eSATA port most probably doesn't support port multipliers.One of the aims of this review was to educate the readers about this issue. Just trying to make sure that readers have a proper PM supporting eSATA port before expecting eSATA to work in this unit.
yyrkoon - Sunday, August 5, 2012 - link
Well then. Educate the readers who need it. But not at the expense of a product you are reviewing.I completely agree with the OP here on this thread. Which is why you saw my post on the first page.
overanalysis - Thursday, August 9, 2012 - link
PommieB,are you saying the expresscard using the sil3132 will add the multiport function to your labtop even if the chip set on mobo doesn't have it. I have xps 1640 w/ ICH9 chipset that doesn't support port mulitiplier. I have a 4 bay probox that does not have PM controller in it. I was going to going to use a usb 3 espresscard but would prefer to use the esata if I could.
PureHazard - Saturday, August 11, 2012 - link
Yes, he's saying exactly that. The Sil3132 will have a port multiplier enabling you to see up to 8 hard drives via eSATA.tuxRoller - Sunday, August 5, 2012 - link
I'd be curious how a linux distro (fedora, say) handles this setup.yyrkoon - Sunday, August 5, 2012 - link
Heh, I'm thinking you'd have better luck asking for openSolaris advice on this site . ..but freenode.irc -> ##fedora perhaps ?
tuxRoller - Sunday, August 5, 2012 - link
I suppose you are referring to their zfs coverage?Fedora, or something like RHEL storage, should be able to handle this easily using lvm2 + whatever fs you like.
Mainly, though, I'm curious about the usb3 performance comparison. Linux has had usb 3 support for ages, and driver quality for windows can be quite variable for usb3.