At first we would like to thank ICY DOCK for offering us a sample of the FlexiDOCK MB522SP-B for testing and reviewing.

 

 

 

About ICY DOCK:

 

“ICY DOCK is a privately held company with more than 15 years of experience in design, manufacturing, branding and distribution of Storage enclosure peripherals. By constantly improving upon its own new product release strategy, ICY DOCK has formed a standard, yet efficient, new product development procedure to ensure timely product delivery to the market.

 

At ICY DOCK, we constantly offer state-of-the-art hard disk enclosures and removable storage kits which feature removable drive & hot swap capabilities and eSATA / SATA connectivity. We also specialize in BTO (Built to Order) branded products, OEM-branded and non-branded products for our “Tier 1” customers.

 

Headquartered in Taipei, ICY DOCK became a global peripheral enclosure provider with utilizing their manufacturing facility located in Shenzhen China since 1997. Adhering to strict ISO9001 manufacturing guidelines, ICY DOCK delivers high quality standard products at a competitive price which provides our customers with an excellent opportunity to be successful in the competitive US marketplace.

 

As one of the leading peripheral enclosure solution providers, we will continue to commit ourselves to supplying our customers with the best performance per dollar products. “Your demand is our command” is the key to ensure our success in the business world.”

 

Product Features:

 

Supports docking up to 2 x 2.5 inch SAS / SATA HDD / SSD with hot-swap function (5mm – 9.5mm)

Fits any external 3.5” drive bay or floppy bay

Full metal chassis with partial ABS-plastic for full protection

Completely tray-less design and accepts bare drives without trays or holders

Drive door-less design for quick hot-swapping

Safety enhanced drive ejection button to prevent accidental drive ejection

Individual large drive eject buttons with SSD/ HDD activity indicator light built in

Flush in design for full drive protection from possible environmental damage

Artistically designed ventilation slots for maximum passive cooling

Active Power Technology (APT) powers up individual LED if only there is drive installed in the drive bay

Backed with 3-year manufacturer warranty

Ideal 2.5” SSD / HDD docking for system that requires easy hot-swap as mobile computers, data center rackmount computers and rackmount server systems, industrial automation control system, military computers and OEM / ODM systems

 

 

Product Specifications:

 

 

 

ICY DOCK has recently sent us their brand new FlexiDOCK MB522SP-B 2.5 inch SSD/HDD docking designed for external 3.5 inch floppy drive bays; this device really helps making use of this, rather unused case compartment by installing and removing extra 2.5’’ storage (which is also hot-swappable). The drives installed into the FlexiDOCK MB522SP-B do function as if they would be connected directly to the motherboard (SATA 6Gb/s speed), so no limitations there! Let’s take a closer look at the device and see what we’ve got! The product is shipped inside a small cardboard enclosure, which does show the main product features on the frontal layer:

 

 

 

The MB522SP-B technical specifications can be checked out in the back:

 

 

 

Inside the box, we will find a set of screws for mounting the device inside the 3.5’’ slot, but also the product and its instructions inside a transparent plastic bag:

 

 

 

 

The manufacturer does show inside the supplied manual the installation procedure, drive mounting and product main components:

 

 

 

MB522SP-B does come with an all-black metallic body, with some plastic in front; the top area does have some ventilation holes available:

 

 

 

 

In the frontal area, we can observe the two available 2.5’’ slots, which fit drives from 5mm to 9.5mm drive height, but also the left Eject button, which does also double up as an activity notification LED:

 

 

 

The sides of the product do come with the respective mounting holes:

 

 

 

On the bottom we can clearly spot another ventilation grill; this product does not come with active cooling so these grills do make use of the airflow inside your computer case:

 

 

 

In the back of the MB522SP-B, we can see one single SATA Power port but also two SATA Data ports; the Data ports are market so you would be able to notice the correspondence with the Top/Bottom drive bays:

 

 

 

Here is how the enclosure does look with a 9.3mm OCZ Vertex 4 drive installed; as soon as we do have the drive secured, the Eject button becomes accessible:

 

 

 

Thanks to the included Safety Enhanced Drive Guiding Mechanism, ICY DOCK does prevent accidental drive ejection; two guiding pecks on either side of the drive and a metal flap in the rear does adjust automatically based on the height of the drive. Each guiding pecks clamp the drive tightly while adjustable metal flap pushes the drive down, making a stable SATA connection:

 

 

 

 

Let’s say that you are in the situation when no available 3.5’’ bays are available on your case; ICY DOCK has also thought of a solution so they are proposing the FLEX-FIT Trio solution, which does basically convert 3.5’’ to 5.25’’, but also provides two additional 2x2.5’’ SSD/HDD drive bays on top:

 

 

 

On the lateral sides of the FLEX-FIT MB343SP, ICY DOCK does describe the HDD/SSD tool-less installation procedure; if we do not choose to install the FlexiDOCK MB522SP-B inside the provided 3.5’’ slot, we can always go with a 3.5’’ HDD:

 

 

 

 

Additional technical specifications are available on the back side of the box:

 

 

 

The FLEX-FIT Trio MB343SP along with its bundle is further wrapped inside a transparent plastic bag:

 

 

 

In order to secure the drives even better, the necessary screws are also provided (for installing a 3.5’’ HDD, a 3.5’’ device/FDD but also for the FLEX-FIT Trio itself:

 

 

 

The installation procedure is described with details inside the provided manual:

 

 

 

First we get to see the side (bottom area) where our MB522SP-B will get installed:

 

 

 

The lateral panels do come with mounting screw holes:

 

 

 

 

The top area does clearly show the two compartments for the 2.5’’ HDD/SSDs, with the optional mounting holes:

 

 

 

Thanks to the two lateral clips, the MB522SP-8 installation can be performed in seconds:

 

 

 

For good measure, we can always use the two provided screws:

 

 

 

 

 

While the FLEX-FIT Trio MB343SP is made of plastic, its front does imitate brushed aluminum, so it would fit with many case designs:

 

 

 

After mounting it inside the case and using the provided screws in order to properly secure it on both sides, we can say that the installation is complete!

 

 

 

In order to test out the flexiDOCK MB522SP-B, we have installed the two SSDs we are using in our VGA test bench machine; the drives were detected as if they would be connected straight to the motherboard and no extra slowdowns did occur. Before using the hot-swap function, make sure that this option is also activated from the UEFI interface of the motherboard!

 

 

 

 

flexiDOCK MB522SP-B is a well-built trayless case upgrade device that allows 2x 2.5’’ HDD/SSD installations with variable heights and for additional durability, the outer enclosure is made of metal. This type of product is a very good time saver in applications where drive swapping occurs regularly such as data cloning, data backup, audio/video editing, digital forensic, drive recovery, drive testing for performance purposes or any other tasks.

 

MB522SP-B does also come with a drive indicator LED that does show the current status, while ventilation grills are available on the top, bottom but also in the back in order to ensure an optimal temperature for the utilized drives.

 

Many modern computer cases nowadays have phased-out 3.5’’ bays, so ICY DOCK comes to assist in this situation too! The FLEX-FIT MB343SP for External 5.25” bay can be purchased separately and besides the flexiDOCK MB522SP-B, it can also hold to additional 2.5’’ drives on the top. This adapter is a single-piece design for additional durability, while passive cooling can be still realized optimally so no failures would occur on the long run. This adapter can be also used with other 3.5’’ mobile racks, multimedia devices or 3.5’’ fan controllers.

 

The flexiDOCK MB522SP-B is available online for about 22.84 Euros, while the MB343SP can be had for just 5.99 Euros.

For those shopping on Amazon, here is the LINK concerning the MB522SP-B, while the MB343SP can be purchased from HERE.

Given the flexibility we do gain with these two devices, we can really say that the investment is really worth it!

ICY DOCK FlexiDOCK MB522SP-B is Recommended for:

 

 

We would like to thank ICY DOCK for making this review possible!