CFI 4 Bay Port Multiplier eSATA RAID Enclosure

Introduction:

CFI Enclosures INC, they do nothing but create products to help you store your information to keep it safe and available. Data is one of those things I just don’t play around with anymore. 8 or so years ago, when I didn’t know any better, I was running a Raid 0 array in my system. 2X 40GB drives, no other backups.

I know you think I’m about to tell you a horror story about when one of my drives blew up and I lost everything, thereby teaching me a valuable lesson.

But, what actually happened, is that I have a horse shoe permanently welded to a spot where the sun don’t shine. It was over two years before I started worrying about loosing all my data. It wasn’t one event that clued me in how important It is to protect my data, but the more I learned, and the more irreplaceable files I collected the more I cared.

So now what do I do? Well I backup all my music, photos and documents onto at least 2 other drives. I also do DVD backups of my music once a year. But what I do on my main system is the most important. I *ALWAYS* have a Raid 5 setup installed that stores the most up to date version of everything. Everything I don’t care about, like my OS/Games/Programs that can always be reinstalled later are on a separate drive.

With that, I’ll take a closer look a CFI enclosure that uses eSata and can do Raid 0, 1, 5 and 10.

Shipping box

What it does

More features

Front view

Side with door open

Back

Specs:

B4043ER

• RAID storage (JBOD/Span/Mirror/Stripe/RAID-5/RAID-10)

• Silicon Image port multiplier, PCI-Express RAID controller.

• Support 3TB+ capacity*, Fully Tested with 750GB HDD

• Tray-Free swappable design.

• Vented housing design, 80mm ball-bearing fan.

• Backplane solution improves swappabiltiy.

PCI Express RAID Host Card - 2 eSATA ports

• 2 external eSATA ports

• Install in PCI-Express Bus (1X)

• Fully compliant with SATA II and SATA 1.0 standard

• Maximum 3 Gbps per port

• Support NCQ (Native Command Queuing) commands.

• Compatible with Port Multiplier

• Silicon Image chip set SiL 3132

• Use as a non-RAID or RAID controller

First Impressions:

Sata Sleds

Fan port

Power switch

This is actually the first time I’ve had anything that uses eSata, so I was a little unsure about how well it would work. On top of that, I don’t know how common eSata is. I don’t know anyone else who uses it, so that reduces how useful a portable drive bay will be that uses it. But if you have a modern motherboard, most of them have a eSata port built in now. So if you have a case that doesn’t have enough internal slots, it can be a good way to expand your space.

Wire/Finger guard

Sata plugs

mmm 1280GB

The enclosure is only slightly larger than the 4 hard drives it can hold. There is an internal power supply, the sleds to hold the drives, a 80mm fan and the electronics/wires to connect the drives. The only plastic is the door on the front of the unit, the rest is steel, with rolled bars on the top which give excellent strength to everything.

Front drives installed

Side clearance

And one last look

On the rear of the unit, it is fairly sparse. There is a standard power cord plugin with power switch, and a selector for voltage (115/230 volt), 80mm fan exhaust, then of course there is the eSata port.

The supplies

PCI-E 1X card

Cables and drivers

To install the drives, all you have to do is open the door and slide one on the rails. Because it uses the standard SATA connector, it slides into the connector without cables or problems. You have to screw the drives in to secure them once they are connected, and to do that, there are 3 thumbscrews on the back that release the one piece cover. There is enough room between the sides of the drives, and the cover that you can use thumbscrews to lock the drives down.

Card installed

Back of case

On and working