Date: October 5th, 2003
Article by: Roger (Hardware Reviewer)
Product was donated by: Cremax

PRODUCT COMPOSITION AND PICTORIAL

The ICY DOCK arrives packed tightly and securely. Inside the box you'll find the product itself, as well as instructions (a single page folded in half), some screws to mount the rack and some thermal tape for the temperature sensors.

The ICY DOCK has employed a very clever way of securing your HDD. Instead of screwing it into the rack, you simply lay it upon rubber pads and screw a retention arm down. On each of those rubber pegs you'll notice a small metal ball. It sits into the holes that are present on the bottom of nearly every modern HDD. The pressure from the arm locked down and the foam pegs secure the HDD to the point where you could easily use the ICY DOCK in a workstation that is set vertically. As an added benefit, the pegs and the arm provide an excellent cushion for the HDD's vibrations. The end result is that your HDD is actually quieter.

This picture demonstrates how the ICY DOCK can support IDE, SCSI or SATA drives. You'll notice there is no in-between chassis intrusion. The HDD connects directly to the motherboard, and as such does not suffer any performance drop. The downside to this is that the rack isn't removable, but in this case, the pros far outweigh the cons.