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Thread: HEXUS.reviews :: Icy Box IB-350U-BL

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    Rys
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    Post HEXUS.reviews :: Icy Box IB-350U-BL

    RaidLogic's little Icy Box hard disk enclosure has reviews popping up all over the place now, so it makes sense to get ours out too. Stylish, decent performance and the all important blue LEDs round off an impressive package. Here's a snippet.

    In the giant sea of new, affordable external hard disk enclosures, the Icy Box stands out due to its appearance and ease of use.

    Recommended if you're in the market for such a device.


    Find that here.

    Rys
    MOLLY AND POPPY!

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    HEXUS webmaster Steve's Avatar
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    I have one! However, mine is the USB2.0 & Firewire version. It's working great over firewire, which is my interface of choice.

    I will second Rys' recommendation.
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    Just got mine today, after my last enclosure failed me. Great piece of kit, almost silent, and seems to keep things pretty cool.

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    Just to say that in the UK these can also be found at www.overclock.co.uk

    I dont work for them, I am just a very happy customer !

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    Just a couple of questions on this product

    1) How do you stand it up on its end, and still manage to insert the power and usb cables, also how do you switch it on. The only way you can stand it on its end is to have the cables at the top (very unsightly).

    2) Advertised as being 'extreme noiseless', well if that is the case, then mine must be faulty, cos as soon as you turn it on you can hear the disk spinning, and every time you access the drive in it, you can hear that as well.

    Has anyone else come accross these issues

    Walkerx

    Forgot to mention using a maxtor dx740 40gb drive

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    • Apex's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Asus Z87M-PLUS
      • CPU:
      • Intel i5-4670K
      • Memory:
      • 32 GiB
      • Storage:
      • 20 TiB
      • Graphics card(s):
      • PowerColor Radeon RX 6700 Fighter 10GB OC
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      • 750
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      • Core View 21
      • Operating System:
      • Windows 10 pro
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      • Dell S2721DGFA
      • Internet:
      • 200Mb nTL Cable
    Ay i got one of the these in the usb2 & Firewire and it's a very nice bit of kit

    o btw it's the black version too

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    Chaos Monkey Apex's Avatar
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    • Apex's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Asus Z87M-PLUS
      • CPU:
      • Intel i5-4670K
      • Memory:
      • 32 GiB
      • Storage:
      • 20 TiB
      • Graphics card(s):
      • PowerColor Radeon RX 6700 Fighter 10GB OC
      • PSU:
      • 750
      • Case:
      • Core View 21
      • Operating System:
      • Windows 10 pro
      • Monitor(s):
      • Dell S2721DGFA
      • Internet:
      • 200Mb nTL Cable
    Quote Originally Posted by carpy
    Just to say that in the UK these can also be found at www.overclock.co.uk

    I dont work for them, I am just a very happy customer !
    Plannet Micro also sell them, thats where i got mine from

    http://www.planetmicro.co.uk/product...ckcode=M003697

    http://www.planetmicro.co.uk/product...ckcode=M003701

    http://www.planetmicro.co.uk/product...ckcode=M003698

    http://www.planetmicro.co.uk/product...ckcode=M003700

    http://www.planetmicro.co.uk/product...ckcode=M003740
    Last edited by Apex; 27-10-2004 at 04:59 AM.

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    Chaos Monkey Apex's Avatar
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    • Apex's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Asus Z87M-PLUS
      • CPU:
      • Intel i5-4670K
      • Memory:
      • 32 GiB
      • Storage:
      • 20 TiB
      • Graphics card(s):
      • PowerColor Radeon RX 6700 Fighter 10GB OC
      • PSU:
      • 750
      • Case:
      • Core View 21
      • Operating System:
      • Windows 10 pro
      • Monitor(s):
      • Dell S2721DGFA
      • Internet:
      • 200Mb nTL Cable
    Quote Originally Posted by walkerx
    Just a couple of questions on this product

    1) How do you stand it up on its end, and still manage to insert the power and usb cables, also how do you switch it on. The only way you can stand it on its end is to have the cables at the top (very unsightly).

    2) Advertised as being 'extreme noiseless', well if that is the case, then mine must be faulty, cos as soon as you turn it on you can hear the disk spinning, and every time you access the drive in it, you can hear that as well.

    Has anyone else come accross these issues

    Walkerx

    Forgot to mention using a maxtor dx740 40gb drive
    Er the noise is no fault of the caddie it's your hard drive that is making the racket, the dx740 series is not a quiet hdd at all.

    But with that said my 250gb wd : se is noisey in this caddie i can tell when it powers down that it was running...will soon find out anyway when the 160gb sammy gets put in the caddie

    The caddie can be stood on it's side with the aid of a plastic holding foot, while i would have liked to have seen a longer version of this with the caddie it's does it's job

    but i see you point about it being stood on it's end... Rys m8 you didn't think that threw did you ?

    btw rys how is the caddie lit up ? is it just a case of leds round the place or are the using a cold cathod for it ?
    Last edited by Apex; 27-10-2004 at 04:57 AM.

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    Rys
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    Quote Originally Posted by Apex
    Er the noise is no fault of the caddie it's your hard drive that is making the racket, the dx740 series is not a quiet hdd at all.

    But with that said my 250gb wd : se is noisey in this caddie i can tell when it powers down that it was running...will soon find out anyway when the 160gb sammy gets put in the caddie

    The caddie can be stood on it's side with the aid of a plastic holding foot, while i would have liked to have seen a longer version of this with the caddie it's does it's job

    but i see you point about it being stood on it's end... Rys m8 you didn't think that threw did you ?

    btw rys how is the caddie lit up ? is it just a case of leds round the place or are the using a cold cathod for it ?
    The stand is really only for standing on its side, not on the shorter ends. My fault for showing a picture of it like that, sorry.

    It's lit up by a small cathode, if memory serves. My personal Icy Box is actually with someone else right now, otherwise I'd open her up and double check. Maybe Kez can confirm.

    As for noise, well it was pretty damn silent with the Seagate 7200.7 disk I used, definitely quieter than the disk in my usual case, and noisier disks definitely won't help.

    Rys
    MOLLY AND POPPY!

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    Yeah, I got one as well.

    Good points:-
    1. Well built - feels high quality.
    2. Works like clockwork, hot swap, plug in / plug out, XP recognises the drive immediately without the need for drivers etc

    Bad points (gripes really).
    3. Don't like the flashing blue LEDs (will have a go at disabling them)
    4. Bit pricey for what it is.
    5. Lack of any sound dampening.
    6. Can't stack them on top of each other (new lugs / screws needed for next revision plz).

    Also make sure you have USB2.0 enabled on your PC. The difference between that and USB1.1 is like night and day.

    As for.....

    "Western Digital's WD800BB disk aren't the noisiest drives you'll ever come across, inside the Icy Box you'd be hard pressed to tell they were in and working"

    .....I hate to think what the other HDDs the reviewer's been using if he thinks the 800BB is a moderately quiet/noisy drive, or that you'd be hard pressed to hear it when it's in the BL. Either that, or he did the review at a building site. It's also a waste of time to measure the top cover a HDD enclosure - whether the drive inside is turning into toast is far more important. Measure the drive!

    The Rodney Reynoldsesque analysis lets down what is generally quite a good review.
    Last edited by davidstone28; 27-10-2004 at 09:38 AM.

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    has anyone managed to install an operating system on a drive in one of these. if so were there any problems, as thinking of installing linux onto the drive.

    I have an option in bios to boot from usb-hdd - tried booting with the version of xp already installed on it, but as about to go into windows it reboots.

    if done clean install from scratch will this work, will the installation software actually pick up that it is a usb drive and not a normal drive


    regards
    walkerx

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    HEXUS webmaster Steve's Avatar
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    I've not successfully installed an OS on mine... yet.
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    Problems with Icybox

    Well, unfortunately, I've had problems with my USB2/Firewire version of the Icybox. Basically, it has corrupted 250GB of data on a Maxtor 250GB drive. It turns out that this is a big problem with, apparently, the Prolifics PL3507 chipset that is used in the enclosure. One need only Google "prolific PL3507" to see the vast number of people affected by firewire data corruption problems...

    Until I can resolve this problem, I'd not recommend any version of the Icybox except the basic USB2 model - or indeed the USB2/Firewire version, provided the user only makes use of the USB2 interface.

    If anyone has any solution to my problem, please please please do get in touch.

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    HEXUS webmaster Steve's Avatar
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    I've not had corruption but I don't use it much tbh - it's just a backup drive.

    I might try flashing the firmware, given that it's not critical to me and if I mess it up I can afford to be without it for however long.

    http://member.newsguy.com/~siccos/PL3507%20Firmware.htm
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    HEXUS webmaster Steve's Avatar
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    Scrap that - it's now a dead Icy Box, and I didn't even flash it.

    Anybody know of any good external USB2/Firewire drive enclosures?

    Update: Well in a turn of events the icy box is alive again - it is the hard drive which is dead I think. I used the romwrite program on another machine (my laptop) and was able to flash a new firmware onto the icybox. Another drive works in it now, but my backup drive may well be dead. I will test it tomorrow when I get the chance. While it may be coincidental that the drive failed, I won't be happy if I discover that the Icy Box killed it.

    Update2: Well the Maxtor 200GB drive passes disk tests in my test system, although I was jumpered as slave It's worked fine for months like that though. Anyway it's jumpered as master and now works fine in the icy box again. It also passes the write tester on the page linked in my previous post.
    Last edited by Steve; 29-12-2004 at 04:01 PM.
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    I've subsequently updated my Icybox firmware to V185; and it seems stable for now....

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