Each drive bay slides out of the rack with minimal effort showing off some excellent manufacturing craftsmanship.  On the underside of each tray are five small folds of metal.  These act as cushions to dampen any vibration a drive may cause making for quieter operation.  Drives are installed in these pull out trays just as they would be in any normal 5.25" bay.

     

Here is a side shot of the Icy Dock unit.  The point of the unit being able to hold more drives than bays it occupies when mounted can't be overstated.  The two long grooves you see allow the Icy Dock to be installed in cases with cradle tabs for optical drives.  The groves will slide over and around a case's cradle tabs.

Around back are the cooling fan and connection points.  Beginning with the fan we find something that really is innovative.  The cooling fan is a low volume 80mm number that is mounted in a special fan cage.  Instead of the fan being powered via a normal Molex plug, its power wires are attached to metal leads that make contact with a power pad with the fan cage mounted.  Visible on the rear of the Icy Dock are the various power and SATA connections for each of the four drive bays.  Two of the four power plugs are standard four pin Molex while the other two are standard SATA power ports.  Also present is a temperature trip point selector for the overheat sensor.  It may be set to trip the visual and audio alarm should the selected trip point of 45 C, 55 C or 65 C be reached or exceeded.

     

Mounting the unit took no more than five minutes.  Most of that time was spent pushing the Icy Dock into a three open drive bay opening on a Lian Li tower.  The unit fit in quite snugly to say the least.  So much so that it was just shy of being too tight.  The second shot below is of the rear of the unit mounted below a standard optical drive.  The fan cage does stick out a bit further than the CD-ROM but considering the IDE cable coming off the back of the optical drive and you have the same clearance for both.

  

Conclusion

In operation the Icy Dock MB454 proved itself worthy and sleek.  Easy access to drives that can be hot swapped at will, is enough of a selling point in itself.  Add in the solid aluminum construction, next to silent operation of the unit's 80mm cooling fan, the vibration dampeners on each tray with the MB454's overall aesthetics and you have a real pleaser.  From an aesthetics standpoint, Icy Dock would benefit from offering the unit is a silver or black finish that would grab a wider audience on looks.  Unfortunately for now it's either black or black.

The only two points worthy of being brought up was first the tightness of the unit going into a case.  We installed the unit in two Thermaltake and two Lian Li cases and had the same issue in each instance.  This isn't a huge deal as I, like many of you, want installed items to be firmly seated.  The only other point is that of price.  I've seen other racks with far fewer features sell for more online but a drive rack at the $139 MSRP price point seems a bit high.  All in all, the Icy Dock MB454 is a fine unit that is a winner and something you won't regret upgrading to if you have the need.  Thanks again to Icy Dock for sponsoring this review.

Pros

• Takes fewer open bays than drives it contains

• Hot swappable

• Efficient cooling

• Aluminum construction

• Clean lines

• Solid frame and craftsmanship

• Fits very tightly in bay area

• Overheating alarm

Cons

• Fits very tightly in bay area

• Pricey

 

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