INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   If you happen to be a designer, 3D animator, video editor or even just an enthusiast then in all likelihood not only do you need lots of space in the form of Terabytes to store all your data but you may also need a more "portable" solution which will allow you to move all that data around without much effort. That pretty much means you can't really use the drive trays of your tower to do that so you will need to either get a docking station or try and find an external enclosure capable of holding all your drives. Now the docking station may not be the most ideal solution since drives are both exposed and not really stable during transport (although you can always pack the drives separately) but its most serious drawback is that there aren't really many in the market with more than 2 drive spots. On the other hand there aren't really that many external HDD enclosures that have more than 4 drive bays and that also may be a problem for many people (although a step up compared to docking stations). Luckily a few manufacturers recognize that issue and have begun to release external HDD enclosure with more than just 4 drive bays and the latest ICY BOX IB-RD3680SU3 External RAID Enclosure by RaidSonic has room for 8.

   RaidSonic Technology GmbH was founded in Hamburg 1999. To realize our future visions and the rising requirements, RaidSonic moved to Ahrensburg (20 min. away from Hamburg) in May 2004.The capacity of our new warehouse, our permanent improving logistic and the expanded technical support lets us look into the future very optimistically. Our vision in a constantly growing IT market is to develop products, which will become your future dreams. Our extensive product portfolio, which we distribute Europe-wide, combines all internal and external solutions for the application of mass storage, for industrial and professional applications as well as for the private sphere, too. Through our all along increasing know-how, good results in research and development and our good cooperation with our long-time customers we could achieve a dynamic growth.

   The ICY BOX IB-RD3680SU3 External RAID Enclosure gives you the ability to install up to eight 3.5" drives inside two trayless drive cages (4 drives each) and in turn allows you to configure them either as BIG (1/2x), RAID 0 (1/2x) or RAID 5/50/10 (2x). RaidSonic has also given it both USB 3.0 and eSATA connectivity (ideal for new and older systems) along with hot-swap support, energy-saving feature for reduced power consumption when the drives aren't accessed and two thermal controlled 80mm fans (can also be controlled manually). Unfortunately it doesn't support JBOD (Single) mode but for that specific use RaidSonic has the IB-3680SU3 which is basically the same unit minus support for BIG and RAID (we should be reviewing it shortly). So let’s see what this particular model is capable of since RAID 0 should offer quite a bit of performance increase compared to single solutions.

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are four pictures at the front showcasing both the product and its main features.

 

 

The same pictures are also placed on the right side beneath the features list printed in 8 languages.

 

 

A large product picture placed on the left is used to show the drive cages.

 

 

At the rear you can see all the possible RAID modes and again the features list in 2 languages.

 

 

Two thick foam spacers are used to keep the device and the rest of the bundle secure during transport.

 

 

Inside the box you will find the ICY BOX IB-RD3680SU3 enclosure, power cable, 8 drive adapters, USB 3.0 cable, eSATA cable, Philips screwdriver, 2 keys, plastic bag with screws and the quick installation guide (in English and German).

 

 

THE ICY BOX IB-RD3680SU3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ICY BOX IB-RD3680SU3 is made primarily by aluminum and hard plastic and measures 352mm in height, 253mm in depth and 155mm in width.

 

 

The brand name is placed on both sides of the enclosure.

 

 

Taking a look at the front we see a plastic door and the control panel.

 

 

Here we see the on/off button, Activity/Status LEDs, RAID mode control button and the fan speed control button (there’s also a long blue/red LED HDD activity stripe that starts from the power button).

 

 

A small round lock is placed at the front of the door.

 

 

Right beneath the door we see a small sticker with the RAID word on it (although not really needed).

 

 

Opening the door reveals two aluminum covers (one for each cage) which are kept in place with fixed thumbscrews.

 

 

Each drive bay has an activity LED right next to it.

 

 

The brackets for the drives are mounted at the front as you can see from the above picture.

 

 

Moving at the rear we see the two 80mm fans, RAID selection button, eSATA port and the USB 3.0 port.

 

 

Unfortunately we don't have eight 3.5" to use the enclosure with (not identical anyways) but our 6 Seagate Constellation ES.3 4TB SATA III drives should do the trick.

 

 

TEST BED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   Complicating things is not really our way so once again our testing procedure will be almost identical to the one we use with external docking stations. However since we are talking about an dual bay 3.5" external enclosure this time over we will be using one or more (depends on the mode) Seagate Constellation ES.3 4TB SATA III hard disk drives since mechanical drives are obviously what people will use more with such devices (besides in quad+ enclosures these should pretty much max out the performance of the onboard controller). Our standard selection of benchmark suites is used here as well for both single and RAID 0/1 testing (when possible) including the famous HD Tach RW (Long Bench 32mb Zones), HD Tune Pro (read/write -when possible- speeds), Sisoftware Sandra Pro (Read/Write -also when possible- speeds), AIDA64 (Linear Read/Random Read), Crystal Disk Mark x64 (100MB/1000MB read/write speeds) and finally the quite outdated yet highly reliable ATTO 2.47 (Max Read/Max Write speeds). Temps as usual were recorded using the latest version of Hard Disk Sentinel along with the sensors provided by AIDA64. Every test was repeated for a total of 6 times and after that the average (not peak) performance numbers were recorded into our graphs. As always every test was performed in a fresh installation of Microsoft Windows 7 Service Pack 1 with every update installed up to April 10th 2015.

 

 

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK X64

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS – TEMPERATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Even though we didn't have 8 identical drives to use with the ICY BOX IB-RD3680SU3 as you can all tell just by looking at our charts it had no problem (we didn't expect anything less really) surpassing every other model with ease and in most cases by a very large margin. Of course when an external enclosure offers space for a total of eight 3.5" drives it obviously can't be small and the IB-RD3680SU3 is quite large so although it can't be helped i expect that most people will consider that to be its primary drawback (along with weight with all drives mounted). That being said build quality is very good, mounting the hard drives is very easy (attach the brackets and slide them in the enclosure), the ability to change modes just by clicking two buttons is convenient and we really can't complain about its design especially because of the activity LEDs (stripe included).

   RaidSonic is an EU based company and since they have yet to expand overseas their products are still available only here so unfortunately we weren't able to trace the ICY BOX IB-RD3680SU3 there. Inside the EU however it retails for roughly 396Euros (Amazon.co.uk) a price tag which i too have to admit seems a bit high. Now i do realize that RaidSonic is amongst a handful of companies to have an 8 bay external RAID enclosure available so a high price makes sense but i really hope they can cut it even just a bit to win over even regular consumers. Overall if we exclude the price the ICY BOX IB-RD3680SU3 is something we feel can be of extreme use to people such as ourselves with countless TBs around and since it really doesn't fall short in any area it gets our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- 8x3.5" Drive Bays
- USB 3.0 & eSATA Connectivity
- LARGE & RAID 0/5/50/10 Modes
- Two Quad Drive Cages
- Dual 80mm Exhaust Fans (Auto & Manual Mode)
- Easy Drive Mounting
- Door Lock
- Excellent Performance

 

CONS

- Price (For Some)
- Loud Fans (100% Setting)