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USB-C JBOD box

Hardcore Games

Hardcore Games

Joined
Jan 1, 2019
Messages
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I have a USB-C box that holds 5 hard disks (or SSD etc). I use server disks and this box seems to be fine for collecting godgames galore.

My box has LED for each disk which is nice and it comes with a PSU that is more than enough.

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I'm starting to collect enough NVMe SSDs to consider something similar, but for M.2s.
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Decided on a single USB4 enclosure for now, instead.
 
Hardcore Games said:
I have a USB-C box that holds 5 hard disks (or SSD etc). I use server disks and this box seems to be fine for collecting godgames galore.

My box has LED for each disk which is nice and it comes with a PSU that is more than enough.
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Does this pass smart data to the system? What does Crystal Disk show when using this box?
 
Testing some cheap USB cables shows this box needs better quality cables. Still it uses no power so I can use a USB-C y-cable or hub and operate additional USB-C boxes with even more storage,.

I have a 240W USB-C PD cable which shows zero power draw from the machine. This means it will not stress a laptop PSU at all. Desktop users are not usually affected by power shortages.

The brick for the Orico box has a blue LED and it is rated at 75W at 12V. The max current is 6.5A. Each disk has a power budget of 15W which is more than any disk I have in my worksheet.

NewEgg has 24TB disks now for $500 in Canada so these will definitely hold a lot of games. Sooner or later 30TB disks will surface, The 32tB disk is shingled which is slower but fine for media like music and video.
 
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This box is eye opening as it seems to be internally able to move data but my old 4TB seagate disks are sluggish compared to my server class disks. I own lots of disks so I am looking at ways to leverage them games mostly. Sometimes I get a bunch of CDs and I feed them to iTunes galore.

I figure the old 4TB disks can continue as I can get more USB-C boxes and Y cables work as I have tested them. Hard disk prices have leveled somewhat while SATA SSD prices have continued to come down. Already 2TB SSD have driven hard disk vendors profits lower as competition grows.
 
I noted that copying disks in the 5-disk USB box is slower than putting one disk in a discrete USB box. It seems that USB performance is as much of a bottleneck as it is downloading all the games I own to a collection of hard disks.

My laptop mostly have 2TB M.2 but my Latititude 5440 only has 1TB. 12TB and 16TB disks can hold more games. Steam can move games here and there so for some rigs with dual M.2 slots this is convenient.

Given the sluggish USB performance I figure I will still need a couple of single disk boxes when I want to move files around as this approach is 2-5x faster.

I have questioned USB performance with Intel and Dell/Lenovo to figure out how bad even 13th gen Intel is.
 
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Hardcore Games said:
I noted that copying disks in the 5-disk USB box is slower than putting one disk in a discrete USB box. It seems that USB performance is as much of a bottleneck as it is downloading all the games I own to a collection of hard disks.

My laptop mostly have 2TB M.2 but my Latititude 5440 only has 1TB. 12TB and 16TB disks can hold more games. Steam can move games here and there so for some rigs with dual M.2 slots this is convenient.

Given the sluggish USB performance I figure I will still need a couple of single disk boxes when I want to move files around as this approach is 2-5x faster.

I have questioned USB performance with Intel and Dell/Lenovo to figure out how bad even 13th gen Intel is.
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USB is generally not 'choice' interface for program/games storage. Lots of smaller transactions tend to saturate the interface (esp. the lower bandwidth specifications).
Semi-related: Speaking from experience on AMD A320+R5 4600G, 2.4Ghz wifi and USB3 still somwhat interfere with eachother. I'm not sure if that's part of the performance not meeting expectations, or not...
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Your laptop appears to have 2x Thunderbolt gen4 ports, in addition to the USB 3.2 Gen1 (~5gbps) ports. However, the ORICO box you depicted, is also limited to USB 3.0 (5gbps) speeds.

You might want to keep an eye out for a similar "Thunderbolt" multi-disk enclosure/dock (used).
Even an old Thunderbolt (gen1/2) box using mDP PHY, adapted to USB-C PHY, would greatly outperform the USB 5gbps box you have now.
Looking towards new solutions, anything "USB4", "USB 4.0", or "Thunderbolt" is also compatible with your Thunderbolt 4 ports.
 
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Hardcore Games said:
My Orico gear does pass SMART and IDENT is also available as the USB-SATA is transparent as far as I can tell

What model is that Fideco box?
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Same for my 2 Orico USB3.0 3.5" enclosures and my USB3.0 docking i brought years ago they keep on working even with a 16TB HDD in them and passes on smart and ident like a clam I still buy their products today even they are made out of plastic they are really reliable and that's what's matters to me.

I also have a samme USB-C hub with 2xUSB-A and 1xUSB-C port on it I use from time to time and a usb-c 2.5" enclosure with a 2TB SATA SSD they work on every computer I plug them into :)
 
I use external HDD enclosures as well. IMO, it helps to have a checklist of features you want when making buying decisions. Usually I look for hardware RAID, multiple interfaces (if possible), fast interfaces and at least 4 bays.

iView 4 Bay RAID Enclosure - USB 3.0 / eSATA
Mediasonic 4 Bay Hard Drive Enclosure - USB 3.0 / eSATA
Mediasonic 8 Bay Hard Drive Enclosure - USB 3.0 ‘ eSATA (RAID 50)
Syba SY-ENC50118 5 Bay RAID External USB 3.0 Enclosure (RAID 5)
Terramaster D8 Hybrid 4 Bay Hand Drive Enclosure + 4 Bay NVMe USB 3.2 Gen 2 USB-C

I‘ll probably end up converting a PC case to an SFF-8088 interface or buying a Thunderbolt 2 or 3 solution off of eBay. USB 3.0 is just too slow.
 
I realize that I was looking more at cost than capability but the single disk boxes I have seem to be good with server disks and copying files from a SSD

The consumer class disks are slower
 
I have a couple of the Orico single bay / slot in type USB models. They are OK. Nothing special.

I rather like the Mediasonic 8 Bay Hard Drive Enclosures. Unfortunately they seem to have stopped making them with RAID support, which, is OK depending on your use case. I prefer the RAID option but the ones without are cheaper and have USB-C 10G.

I came across a couple of Areca ARC-8050T2 8-Bay Thunderbolt 2 RAID Enclosures via eBay for cheap a while back. I'm kicking myself now for not buying them since the cheapest one now is about ~$500 USD.

Edit:


There is a Syba 8 Bay Enclosure (model SY-ENC50119) that's cheaper then the Mediasonic 8 Bay Hard Drive Enclosure at about ~$190 vs ~$250 but its slower USB 3.0 vs USB 3.2 Gen 2 10G
 
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One of the reasons I like USB-C is that it is the future. USB power delivery is a move in the right direction but change is slow.

I have a pair of 3-way USB-C cables that allow me to connect more devices to a machine. Unfortunately that are 5 gigabit so that tend to be sluggish. Maybe someday faster USB-C hubs will surface with 40 gigabit speeds.

I tend to use 2 or 3 disks at once to try to get better performance but storage devices are all over the dial at the best of time. To regain performance I zero wipe disks and SSD alike to allow the logic to refresh.
 
Hardcore Games said:
One of the reasons I like USB-C is that it is the future. USB power delivery is a move in the right direction but change is slow.

I have a pair of 3-way USB-C cables that allow me to connect more devices to a machine. Unfortunately that are 5 gigabit so that tend to be sluggish. Maybe someday faster USB-C hubs will surface with 40 gigabit speeds.

I tend to use 2 or 3 disks at once to try to get better performance but storage devices are all over the dial at the best of time. To regain performance I zero wipe disks and SSD alike to allow the logic to refresh.
Click to expand...

You forget that USB-C is just the port type and it doesn't determinate the speed you need to look at the usb controller version for this.

USB 4.0 Gen3x2 do 40Gbps and USB 4.0 Gen4 do up to 80-100Gbps.
 
The QNAP TR-004 is a 4 bay DAS with RAID support and USB-C / USB3.2 Gen2 10G IIRC. It looks like a nice bit of kit IMO and is typically around ~$200+ USD.

The TerraMaster D8 Hybrid is decent product too:

 
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Thanks, it does seem that more products are becoming available for people with lots of hard disks and SSD products

I see that Seagate has a new 36TB hard disk which should be able to get a few games installed
 
Hardcore Games said:
Thanks, it does seem that more products are becoming available for people with lots of hard disks and SSD products

I see that Seagate has a new 36TB hard disk which should be able to get a few games installed
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Blimey, 36TB !?!

And I thought 20 to 24TB was big!
 
If I do feel the need for an external array, I'll probably buy a SAS enclosure. Most of my important builds have an LSI SAS HBA controller for LTO backups, but the servers don't necessarily come with USB-C.

Hardcore Games said:
I see that Seagate has a new 36TB hard disk
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36TB will be "fun" when it comes to backups. That'll be two 18TB LTO-9 tapes but I can't afford the latest tape drives.
 
Hardcore Games said:
LTO-9 tape drives are costly
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True. The TRB3-HL9-DUAL pictured above? appears to be $10.699 in the States. Factor in the usual 30% markup in prices when things cross the Atlantic, add 20% VAT and possibly Import Duty too and it's a bit (a lot) more than I'm prepared to pay at the moment. There's also the question of how fast I'd have to throw data at the tape drive to avoid shoe-shining (if it still exists on LTO-9). I think I'll stick with my much older collection of LTO drives for the time being.
 
That dual tape box sells for $13,000 in Canada so it is capital intense but dual tape has some advantages as tape can be put in a box and stored. My laptop is a tad cramped inside with DDR4-3200 RAM and the WiFi card in addition so a CPU cooler and cell socket.

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My machine does not come with a smart card as facial recognition works fine for authentication. AFAIK my machine has USB 3.0 speeds which is below the Intel specifications.

I have AX211 on the machine so I have fairly fast Wi-Fi but ISP network boxes block USB storage so a different setup is needed for Ethernet.

Internet speeds for consumers are now are 3 gigabit and above with fiber connections.
 
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I’ve been wanting an LTO backup solution for some time now. Sometime I find myself looking on eBay for one. The obstacle is that affordable LTO drives are older lower capacity and functional newer higher capacity models are astronomical in price. So you kind of have to pick your poison. Either way you’re going to get it arseways.

So yeah, I can likely find a LTO 4 or 5 drive and not worry about the cost of the drive. However, the cost of backing up a 60 to 100TB dataset would be bracing (Includes the cost of the drive). All for obsolete hardware mind you.

Still want one though. That extra layer of protection is enticing
 
Octavean said:
I’ve been wanting an LTO backup solution for some time now. Sometime I find myself looking on eBay for one. The obstacle is that affordable LTO drives are older lower capacity and functional newer higher capacity models are astronomical in price. So you kind of have to pick your poison. Either way you’re going to get it arseways.

So yeah, I can likely find a LTO 4 or 5 drive and not worry about the cost of the drive. However, the cost of backing up a 60 to 100TB dataset would be bracing (Includes the cost of the drive). All for obsolete hardware mind you.

Still want one though. That extra layer of protection is enticing
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I am in the smae boat. And to add to the pain, from my days in IT (a while back) we often had to send our autoloader in for repair. Granted, it was a 12 drive (single read/write) library and more complex than a single tape unit, but still left me with doubts for home use. Maybe they have gotten more reliable over the years?
 
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