09-28-2018, 08:00 PM
I am pretty disappointed with this enclosure. If it were just 1mm longer, it might be possible to fit the bundled SATA cables and still allow the fan to spin with 2 drives installed, but with the provided cables it just isn't possible without putting undue strain on them. The buck converters inline in the SATA power cables are also pretty sketchy; I wonder how much current they can reliably provide at 5V. The internal volume is very small with two 3.5" HDDs, so it definitely needs the fan.
Overall, the design is reminiscent of 1990's rack-mount server enclosures, particularly with the large number of tiny screws holding all the parts together and general lack of serviceability. I keep hoping someone will offer a powerful ARM board in a mini-ITX or microATX form factor, to enable much nicer ARM PC and NAS builds.
I'm on the fence now about whether to buy an external SATA enclosure to hold my disks or maybe just tap holes to mount the RockPro64 in a standard PC case.
It's not all bad; It's small and affordable and doesn't have sharp edges that will cut you, and I think anyone putting SSD's in it will do great with one of these. If you plan to use larger drives, you should also plan to get some right-angle SATA data cables.
Overall, the design is reminiscent of 1990's rack-mount server enclosures, particularly with the large number of tiny screws holding all the parts together and general lack of serviceability. I keep hoping someone will offer a powerful ARM board in a mini-ITX or microATX form factor, to enable much nicer ARM PC and NAS builds.
I'm on the fence now about whether to buy an external SATA enclosure to hold my disks or maybe just tap holes to mount the RockPro64 in a standard PC case.
It's not all bad; It's small and affordable and doesn't have sharp edges that will cut you, and I think anyone putting SSD's in it will do great with one of these. If you plan to use larger drives, you should also plan to get some right-angle SATA data cables.
