Introduction

Other than “My computer is too slow” one of the most common complaints I hear is “I need more storage”, which is usually followed by “Maybe I should get an SSD”. My answer to these questions are “what do you want - storage or speed?” The average consumer does not realize that if you’re on a budget, the cost to get both storage and speed out of an SSD is probably more than they are willing to spend. Most average users who do have SSDs normally use them as boot drives for their OS and maybe add a couple of everyday apps in the process. These drives are of small capacities and are usually not as “Fast” (have better read/write speeds MB/s) as the more expensive SSD with larger capacities.

After they go through the letdown of getting the education, their next question is about RAID, something that they may have heard of but really don’t know much about. I’ll usually explain to them what RAID is and what can be done with it but by then, they are totally confused or just don’t want multiple large hard drives in their system. Due to miscommunication, most don’t realize they can purchase 2.5” drives (I usually hear, but those only fit in a laptop) and use them to save space. This is where I normally go over some solutions for mounting and suggest they may be interested in purchasing some type of enclosure that will not only hold the drives (2) to fit in one 3.5” bay but either via the hardware or installed software, they could set up their RAID based on their needs without having to know much about it at all. One manufacturer's products I usually suggest is ICY Dock. Icy Dock manufactures multiple solutions for both internal and external storage needs.

The Icy Dock Dual 2.5”-3.5” SATA HDD/SSD Converter comes with Hardware Raid function. This Icy Dock Converter's model number is MB982SPR-2S and is constructed of metal. It can be inserted into any 3.5” bay, is screw-less in design and supports two 2.5” SATA HDD/SDD no larger than 9.5MM. It is compatible with four RAID modes (PM, BIG, RAID 0 and RAID 1), which can be set either on the converter itself or via software found on the Icy Dock website. The included instruction manual has detailed information on how to set up your RAID array and, by following the detailed steps, even a novice can set up its functions in a matter of minutes in both Windows or MAC.