Final Thoughts
If you need extra storage space in your system the MB974SP-B is the perfect thing. It only takes up three 5.25-inch drive bays, but has room for 4 hard drives. This means with most cases you will still have room for an optical drive. The MB974SP-B is a very solid device and the only part of it that is plastic is the front bezel, everything else is metal, which means it is going to last for a long time. The fan on the back of the device is removable so if you don’t want to use it or by chance it dies you can easily replace it.
Installing drives into the MB974SP-B is so simple, you just open up a bay and side your drive in, no tools needed! This makes swapping out drives easy and painless. I also like that there is an eSATA and USB port on the device, you can never have too many of those. SATA 6GB/s is pretty much standard on all new hard drives and the MB974SP-B support SATA 6GB/s drives.
Although your drives are essentially “locked” in the device because you need to press a button to get them out, there is no way to completely lock then in your system. This makes it very easy for someone to take out the drives at a LAN party or other even. I would have liked to see some type of locking system.
If you do not need storage space for 4 drives ICY DOCK also has the MB973SP-B, which fits into two 5.25-inch drive bays and has room for 3 drives. The MB974SP-B sells for $125.99 at my favorite online retailer, which puts it in the same category as other similar devices. Overall ThinkComputers gives the ICY DOCK MB974SP-B Internal 4-bay Enclosure a 9 out of 10 score.
Pros:
– 4 drives in a 3-bay device
– Solid design
– USB and eSATA port
– Easy installation
Cons:
– Unable lock drives in device
