Installation & Usage
So before we can use the MB561US-4S-1 we need to install our drives. We will be using 4 identical Samsung 750GB SATA drives. The drives are easily installed in the cradles by securing them on each side with the included screws. Once you have them all in the cradles just slide them in and lock them into place. ICY DOCK uses the same cradle design on many other enclosures and the cradles on the MB561US-4S-1 are compatible with 7 other ICY DOCK products.
This enclosure has both eSATA and USB 2.0 connections. The thing with multi-bay external enclosures with eSATA connections is if they only have 1 eSATA connection you can only access one of the drives via the eSATA connection unless your motherboard supports the port multiplier function and many do not. We ran into this problem with the ICY DOCK MB662US-2S enclosure. Knowing that most people who are going to use this device want to take advantage of the faster speeds of the eSATA connection ICY DOCK has built a port multiplier into the device. This way we can use all 4 drives installed with a single eSATA connection.
To give you an idea of the speeds we achieved with the eSATA connection here are the results from HDTune’s Read and Write benchmarks.
Now don’t count out the USB 2.0 connection. It works just like the eSATA connection; you will be able to access all 4 drives if you use the USB connection. The USB connection is great for easy access to your drives if you are using a laptop. Here are the read results from the USB connection.
