Coolmaster X dock

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RRHill55

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May 1, 2013
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The x-dock on the CoolMaster Storm Trooper case is said to be a 2.5 inch hot swappable bay for SSD's. So do I understand it right - that you can use SSD's and this bay (just like like one would use a thumb drive in a USB port) to transfer and store data? Is there a down side to using SSD's externally in this way?
 
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It's so you can hot swap drives onto your PC, if you kept a large selection of data on SSD backups for example, you do not need to unhook anything or attach a new SATA cable, you simply throw the drive you want into the hot-swap bay and it will give you access as though it was a flash drive. It's not a bay you take with you and attach to other PC's, it is proprietary to the case.

No real downsides for it's purposes, it may be limited by the connection the bay has to your MOBO (what SATA spec), but the point of a hot swap bay is not so much for speed of transfer but speed and ease of access.
 
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Maybe there are specific uses for it. I'm just not seeing it, though. Especially in a case aimed at gamers.
If I had that case, and a stack of SSD's, I would just mount them internally.

Business or medical use? Maybe.
 
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Well, hot swap HDD bays were most useful for those with lots of data, especially when drive capacities were smaller. You might have a large stack of 100gb HDD's in a closet holding old data, and instead of having to open your case and plug one in, you simply toss the one you need into your hot swap bay and you are good to go, if you decide your data is on another drive, simply de-slot the one you just put in and re-slot another. I don't find it as useful yet for SSD's because they have smaller capacities anyways, and very few people will use them for archiving/storage, which is where a hotswap bay is most useful.

Aaaand, it probably hasn't been that many years since you couldn't buy a gaming/non-business case with 13 drive bays 😉.
 
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Yes. I get the use case for hot swap drives. I've used them in the past.

I do not get the use case for a gamer case with a potential 13 2.5" drive bays and the hot swap bay.
How many gamers are sitting on a stack of 15-20 2.5" drives with useful info on them?
 
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I do not disagree, in fact, I think an SSD hot-swap bay is kind of silly at this point, and definitely do not see it being practical until HDD's are phased out. Generally you aren't going to require that kind of speed from your archive copies. I could maybe see it being used as a host for RAM disks or something, but again, if you had that many bays you may as well just keep them internal. I suppose if you wanted to isolate a PC from the internet, hotswap SSD's would be a good way to get data to it from another internet accessible PC.
 
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I can see some uses for this. I have a fair amount of data on HDDs and only 8 sata ports on my mobo. Between optical drives and data drives I'm running out of ports. So swapping can be useful. I have games scattered everywhere.
 
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Is there any speed penalty for using SSD's in the x-dock bays as opposed to a direct sata connection from the motherboard? I know ssd's are fast as is but i couldn't help but wonder if there is much of a penalty going through the hotswap card. I have 2 SSD's mounted in the front of mine purely for convenience incase something goes wrong with one i just pop the front out as opposed to opening the entire case up.

Anyone know if it does or not... also is this a standard hotswap card? can't find the model of it.
 
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Could you use the Hot Swap for fast use of an off site backup, just use an ssd to back up your data but instead of internally hooking it up just use the hotswap to back up fast and dismount it fast?
 
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A hot swap SSD slot is exactly what every computer should have these days, especially portable computers.

I often carry my OS drive back and forth to work. I just plug it into whatever computer is available and boot from it. I have my whole environment set up and ready to run. Most OS's don't care what computer they are plugged into.

It would be really nice if the so called "7 in one" card reader had an SSD slot. SSD's are about 10 times faster than USB flash drives.
 
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"Most OS's" ? Linux maybe. Windows certainly does care.
 
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I'm considering using the SATA X-Dock in my new Coolmaster 431 to store data I'd want to preserve in an emergency. I'll set up my OS to sync files of interest with this drive, which I can remove and take with me in seconds should the need arise without breaking open the case. I suppose I could use an external USB drive just as easily but like the idea that it's concealed and thus somewhat less vulnerable to theft than the encrypted external drives on which my backups reside.
 
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you could use it to install separate operating systems on each drive plus some of us have terabytes of data we just physically cant fit into our machines so being able to swap out 500gb drives at a time could be very useful without having to take case apart i see no downside if you don't want to use it don't its not like its in the way

 
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Aside from resurrecting a 2 year old thread....that case has mounts for 13 drives internally. 13.
 
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Thread is old but I'm gonna drive by anyway.

I love my CM Trooper/window with the x dock. However, at some point it stopped recognizing when I took one out and put another in. As in, it's not hot swapping anymore. Does anyone have any clue? Trying to get to Cool Master support just leads down a rabbit hole of chinese characters. 🙁
 
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Hi there, I am still using my black stormtrooper case and wonder if anyone has a sticky flypaper case like I have? The rubberized coating is sticky/tacky and dust and lint sticks. How to clean it? What's the fix?
 
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