INTRODUCTION

   So far at this year’s CES we've witnessed the unveiling of a lot more products than we did last year and that alone is enough for all of us here to be happy not only because that means we'll have plenty of new things to play around inside 2014 (some may even take a year to become available however) but also because no matter how much innovative and advanced a product is next year we can always expect to see something even better. Of course we still have a long way before consumer oriented products can get closer to industrial/enterprise class ones both in terms of quality and performance but some manufacturers are always doing their best to narrow the gap. iStarUSA is one of those manufacturers and today we will be taking a look at their BPU-124DE-SS 1x5.25" to 4x2.5" SAS/SATA 6Gb/s Hot-Swap cage.

   iStarUSA Group has over 20 years of experience in the industrial computers industry. We specialize in OEM/ODM projects and manufacture of industrial power supply, rackmount chassis, enclosed cabinets and racks, data storage, and custom power solutions. Our intrinsic value is driven by one steadfast belief: "To always provide our customers with the best products and superior customer service." This credo has made iStarUSA Group a major contender in the IPC power supply industry. We cover a multitude of vertical markets. Our products are widely used in industrial computing, servers, multimedia production, DVR/Surveillance, and telecommunication industries. In the past eighteen years, iStarUSA Group has provided unsurpassed OEM/ODM products and services with exceptional design flexibility, rapid prototyping, and cost-effective solutions. The ISO 9001 certification ensures our product quality and customer commitment. iStarUSA Group bases its strength on our experience, technology, and strong partnerships. For many years, we have worked closely with major computer component manufacturers and system integrators to ensure our products are highly compatible and extremely stable. We continuously adopt new industrial standards to improve our designs. Our ability to customize products according to customers' specifications has won us a prominent and solid industry reputation. Our experienced design team and project engineers complete OEM projects within deadline and product specs. Being on the cutting edge of technology is a key to the success of iStarUSA Group and that of our customers. We believe an innovative technology leader must be able to incorporate the latest advances into all products to ensure customer satisfaction.

   The last time we had something similar to the BPU-124DE-SS on our test bench was a couple of months ago and it was the BPN-2535DE-SA again by iStarUSA. However although these two cages are both constructed by aluminum and are hot-swap they also have massive differences the most obvious of which is that the BPU-124DE-SS occupies a single 5.25" drive bay (not an 3.5" like the BPN-2535DE-SA) and thus has room for a total of four (and not two) 2.5" HDDs/SSDs. Other differences include both SATA/SAS compatibility and active cooling for the drives via two 40mm exhaust fans. Overall although both cages have similar functionality the BPU-124DE-SS is by far a more complete solution for people who use 2.5" drives a lot but since it must cost quite a bit more than the BPN-2535DE-SA we need to see if it's worth it so let’s get going.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The BPU-124DE-SS is placed inside a white/red box with a product picture at the front and its main features placed right beneath it as small cubes.

At the bottom we again see the features cubes but this time over with explanations right next to them.

Moving at the rear of the box we see pictures of both the BPN-2535DE-SA and the BPU-124DE-SS and the features of the 2nd placed right beneath.

Once again the bundle is not very rich so together with the BPU-124DE-SS you will also receive the user's manual, two keys (wish they had placed 4 keys for the 4 locks) and a small plastic bag with the necessary mounting screws.

THE BPU-124DE-SS

The body of the BPU-124DE-SS is almost completely made by aluminum and measures 180.1mm in length, 146mm in width and 41.9mm in height.

A total of 4 perforated doors are placed at the front each of which has its own lock and activity LEDs.

Unlike the BPN-2535DE-SA however the BPU-124DE-SS features 4 removable drive trays so you need to use the bundled screws to mount each drive (we liked the trayless BPN-2535DE-SA more in that aspect).

One of the very nice features of the BPU-124DE-SS is that you can mount both SATA and SAS drives inside.

As you can all see the cage uses the same mounting holes as a normal 5.25" drive so even locking tool-free mechanisms work fine.

At the rear of the cage we see 4 SATA data connectors, a single SATA power connector, two 40mm exhaust fans (3500RPM) and a switch with which you can turn off the front LEDs.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

     Testing hot-swap cages is not really needed since they just act as a bridge between your SATA or SAS controller it doesn't however harm to be 100% thorough. So in this kind of reviews we use a HGST Travelstar 5k1500 1.5TB SATA III HDD with our typical benchmarking suites in an effort to bring you the most accurate results across the board. Now the only reason why we say effort is because real-world usage is not always on par with what results one gets by running several benchmarks on a drive and that's mainly because there are many variables at work from ambient temperatures to hardware configurations and even firmware versions.

   Once again the benchmarking applications we use are the AIDA64 suite (former Everest Pro), HD Tune Professional, HD Tach RW, ATTO, Sisoftware Sandra Pro, PCMark 7 and the well-known Crystal Disk Mark 64bit. These benchmarking tools are the best in what they do and as you will also see later on their results more or less agree. Each test is performed a total of 6 times and then the average is recorded into the charts. Temperatures are recorded using Hard Disk Sentinel and after 45 minutes of continuous testing in a 23 degrees Celsius temperature controlled room. Finally with actively cooled solutions we also use an ExTech HD600 dBA meter next to each drive cage (5-10cm away) in order to accurately record their noise levels, although it's very possible that the fans in your system will mask noise coming from the cage. The operating system as usual is a fresh installation of Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Service Pack 1 with every update installed up until the 2nd of January 2014.

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK

TEST RESULTS - PCMARK 7 / TEMPERATURES / NOISE LEVELS

CONCLUSION

   Although the BPU-124DE-SS and the BPN-2535DE-SA are almost identical when it comes to their SATA connectivity thanks to its active cooling (or at least that's what we think) the first managed to surpass the second in most tests if only by very small margins. Of course such performance differences don't matter much but what we really wanted to see was if the BPU-124DE-SS performed at least on par with the BPN-2535DE-SA and since it actually does even better we got that out of the way. What matters most however is that you can mount up to four 2.5" drives inside the BPU-124DE-SS without having to worry about temperatures thanks to the two 40mm cooling fans. True they can be somewhat loud at max RPM especially when you are testing their noise levels but during normal use i really doubt they can be annoying (or even be heard at all).

   With a price tag currently set at USD79.95 inside the USA (Amazon.com) the BPU-124DE-SS 1x5.25" to 4x2.5" SAS/SATA 6Gb/s Hot-Swap cage may not be really expensive but much like most products by iStarUSA it's not widely available anywhere else and that's perhaps the only drawback we could find. Of course you can always import it from the USA but that's not something many people will choose to do so once again i find myself hoping that iStarUSA will resolve that issue sooner rather than later. In any case that doesn't change that the BPU-124DE-SS is a very unique and useful product especially for professionals and that's why it gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Single 5.25" To Quad 2.5”
- SATA & SAS Compatible
- Locks
- Activity LEDs
- Hot-Swap Trays
- LED On/Off Switch
- Temperatures (Active Cooling)
- Price (For Some) 

CONS

- EU Availability
- Noise Levels