Hardware Bistro

Product: MB991IK-B
Manufacturer: Icy Dock
Supplied by: Icy Dock
Price: 33USD/RM99
Launch Date: July 2010

 

If Icy Dock MB994SP-4S is offering more than what you require then Icy Dock MB991IK-B is another alternative solution for you. In short Icy Dock MB991IK-B could be considered as a simplified version of Icy Dock MB994SP-4S which is only able to support a single 2.5" drive bay in 3.5" form factor instead of quad drive bays supportability in 5.25" form factor.

 

Company Profile

ICY DOCK is a privately held company with more than 10 years being devoted in design, manufacturing, branding and distribution of Storage enclosure peripherals. By keep improving its own new product release process from previous toil experiences, ICY DOCK has formed a standard yet efficient new product development procedures to satisfy timely requirement from the market.

As one of the leading peripheral enclosure solution provider, we will continue to commit ourselves in supplying our customers the best performance per dollar products. "Your demand is our command" is the key to ensure our success in the business world.

 

Features

* For 2.5" SATA I / II and SAS HDD/SSD
* Accommodates Drives with up to 15mm Height
* Fits 3.5" Device Bay
* Status LED on Front
* Full Metal EZ Slide Mini Tray System with full cage design
* Small form factor perfect for IPC and mobile DVR systems.
* Front, Rear, Top, and Bottom Ventilation Slots
* Heavy Duty Full Metal Construction
* Support SATA 6Gbps
* Top cover for the tray adds extra drive protection

 

Specifications

Package & Contents

 

Similar with Icy Dock MB994SP-4S, Icy Dock MB991IK-B is also packed with a simple yet compact cardboard box but luckily a bubble bag is included to give better protection against some minor shocking & dropping; reasonable and acceptable for such value product.

 

Besides the mobile rack of Icy Dock MB991IK-B, a user manual, a security lock key and some installation screws are provided as well. Although Icy Dock MB991IK-B does not come much but it is still come with 3-year warranty which is pretty adequate. 

 

A Closer Look on Icy Dock MB991IK-B

If you have read our reviews on Icy Dock external multi-bay (MB662USEB-2S) and internal multi-bay enclosures (MB994SP-4S), then you should not find it unfamiliar with Icy Dock MB991IK-B in term of design and function; delivering portable  storage solution with a very competitive cost.

 

The dimension and weight of Icy Dock MB991IK-B are about 135.1 x 25.7 x 101.6 mm (L x W x H) and 400 grams; the physical layout is almost identical with a floppy drive. For stronger durability, Icy Dock MB991IK-B is made by SECC material in matt black color which is good for heat dissipation too.

 

Security key lock is an upselling point for Icy Dock MB991IK-B over MB994SP-4S if security is a concern; by the way two keys are provided. Such locking mechanism is pretty common in PC industrial which is used for protecting expensive HDD (like SSD) as well as sensitive data.

 

Icy Dock MB991IK-B comes with a single EZ slide mini tray which is able to support a single 2.5" HDD regardless whether it is a SATA HDD, SAS HDD or SSD. This EZ slide mini tray of Icy Dock MB991IK-B is exactly identical with MB994SP-4S and they are interchangeable and compatible with each other.

 

Drive ejection button (beside the security key lock) is used to unfasten the EZ slide mini tray and manual pulling is required in order to pull out the whole tray. An panel door is available to fill up the opening once the EZ slide mini tray is removed out; to keep the dust away and protect the enclosure.

 

Icy Dock MB991IK-B comes with three connectors but only two will be required at once; SATA power plus either SATA or SAS data connector. The installed HDD on the EZ slide mini tray will be directly connected with the Icy Dock MB991IK-B's mobile rack as the EZ slide mini tray is just a HDD holder.

 

Anti-vibration feature is added on the EZ slide mini tray which is used to absorb certain level of vibration and shock for the installed HDD. No active cooling system is found on Icy Dock MB991IK-B but built-in air vents and metal chasssis are good enough to provide adequate cooling for the HDD.

LED indicator is available for Icy Dock MB991IK-B which indicates the drive activity; amber blinking light for drive activity while green light for drive power. The drive tray ejection button is located on the most right of the EZ slide mini tray or right beside the security key lock.

SATA III is the latest SATA technology which is able to deliver 6Gbps throughput; 2X SATA II @ 3Gbps. Thanks to Icy Dock as SATA III is also supported by MB991IK-B but the components at the other ends must able to support it as well; both HDD and SATA storage controller.

 

Installation, Testing & Performance

 

Installation for Icy Dock MB991IK-B is as simple as Icy Dock MB994SP-4S but this time only a single 3.5" exposed drive bay is required instead of a single 5.25" exposed drive bay. The HDD can be installed on the EZ slide mini tray with four screws from the bottom panel; you might ignore the screw installation if you just need a quick data copying/transferring but we do recommend to secure the HDD on the EZ slide mini tray for better HDD protection.

 

Before Icy Dock MB991IK-B can be ready to be serviced, a suitable 3.5" exposed bay of the chassis has to be allocated. This is not a problem although most of the latest chassis nowadays do not come with 3.5" exposed bay as it is being phased out but chassis vendor will still try to include a 5.25" to 3.5" exposed drive bay converter; just like our Maelstrom. In term of installation, we did not encounter any issue but take note on the tool-less rail kit of the chassis as it might give a little bit problem in some scenarios.

 

Test Bed:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8300 @ 2.83GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3/Gigabyte G31M-ES2L
Heatsink: Noctua NH-C14
Memory: Kingston HyperX 4GB DDR2 8500
Hard Drive: 250GB 7200RPM 8MB Seagate
Graphic Card: Galaxy GeForce GTX260+
PCIe: Aten IC320U USB 3.0
Casing: In Win Maelstorm
HDD Cage: Icy Dock MB991IK-B
PSU: OCZ ZX 850W
Optical Drive: HLDS DVD RW +/-
Controller: Aerocool Touch 2000
Monitor: Dell 22" Wide Screen LCD
Speaker: Edifier R501
Mouse: SteelSeries Ikari Laser
Mouse Pad: SteelSeries QcK+
HeadSet: SteelSeries 3H
Router: TRENDnet TEW-639GR
Operating System: Window XP Pro SP2/Win 7 HP
Ambient Temperature: 27 Degree Celsius

Same with Icy Dock MB994SP-4S, we are not going to have any serious synthesis benchmarking on Icy Dock MB991IK-B since it is just a media to connect between the SATA controller of the motherboard and the HDD. Anyway we have tested a Kingston SSDNow V+ 100 128GB SSD on Icy Dock MB991IK-B and as you can see the SSD's performance has no different with direct connection with the SATA controller of the motherboard; no problem lagging at all. Noise is not measureable on Icy Dock MB991IK-B since it is only having passive cooling system. Besides the HDD's performance, the usability and flexibility of Icy Dock MB991IK-B are quite important when considering to purchase it as the mobile rack storage solution but overall Icy Dock MB991IK-B meets all the criteria that it supposes to achieve.

Before we come to conclusion on Icy Dock MB991IK-B; here is its introduction video; enjoy yourself.

 

Verdicts

If you are having a desktop system but would like to a 2.5" mobile rack for portable storage solution then Icy Dock MB991IK-B should be something that you might look for. Icy Dock MB991IK-B is an internal HDD mobile rack which can support any 2.5" hard drive including SATA HDD, SSD or even SAS HDD with maximum throughput of 6Gbps for SATA III setup. Icy Dock MB991IK-B is ideal for quick or temporary data transfer between systems and it is just cost about 30USD which is definitely affordable. Anti-vibration design, EZ slide mini tray, solid metal chassis, security key lock are some additional add-on selling points of Icy Dock MB991IK-B. 

 

Pros:

+ SATA III with 6Gbps throughput
+ SAS & SSD are supported
+ Solid metal case
+ Slim & light weight
+ EZ slide mini tray
+ Anti-vibration design
+ Security key lock
+ 3-year warranty
+ Affordable price

Cons:

- None

 

Thanks to Icy Dock for providing this sample for us to review.

 

 

 

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