Question External JBOD enclosure (no HDDs) recommendation

[Baron harkonen]

Hello,

I need advice -
is there such a thing as external JBOD, for 150$ or less, that's well cooled, reliable and reasonably fast (usb 3.1 10gbps or Thunderbolt 3 (wishful thinking probably)?
2 bay minimum, preferably 4 bay.

My Lacie 2Big died recently, i need a replacement, but what i found so far are either:

• extremely expensive
• come with HDD already preinstalled (which i don't need - all my HDDs are perfectly fine)
• unreliable based on reviews

What i want it for:
mainly for my personal files - music, photos, office work docs, my music projects. - so 7200rpm HDDs. (maybe if its 4 bays i may throw an ssd there, hence the 10gbps preference).

Why JBOD?
i used to have RAID 1, but i came to a conclusion that its too much hassle. i do backups daily anyway to yet another external HDD (simple hdd dock) and to Unraid Server, so JBOD will do just fine.

i've looked into Lacie, g-tech, buffalo, Terramaster - all of them come with HDDs pre-installed, all of them are very pricy.

the only one i found that suits my needs (on paper at least) is Yottamaster Aluminum 2 bay
but - according to some reviews the cooling is bad, and the box is picky with HDDs - like if hdd is not in perfect condition - the box will shut off - apparently even if i have a bad sector it will shut off. - that does not sound appealing to me...

i'm also open to DIY suggestions, i have not found a ready-made guide for such thing though...

if there is no product that can meet my needs in 150$ range, i would like to hear recommendations what company is reliable and well built. if its expensive i at least want to know that i payed for quality and not for a brand.

thanks in advance!

 

[popatim]

Terramaster d5-300c typically comes without drives but is above your budget at $200
Mediasonic 4 bay is $140 but only does software JBoD, using the OS to create the JBoD array & presenting 1 disk to you. It wil present 4 individual disks just fine (some people think that is JBoD)

 

[Baron harkonen]

Terramaster d5-300c typically comes without drives but is above your budget at $200
Mediasonic 4 bay is $140 but only does software JBoD, using the OS to create the JBoD array & presenting 1 disk to you. It wil present 4 individual disks just fine (some people think that is JBoD)

I'm one of those people 🙂 i thought JBoD is individual disks, that's what i'm after. I thought that 'showing x disks as one' is called 'spanned volume'.

 

[Baron harkonen]

I just had an idea for diy -
HDD dock stations - they pretty much do what I want, but have no enclosure.

does anybody know what Pcb board they are using? Maybe I can procure such board, will arrange enclosure myself somehow, and that’s it.
I don’t know though what is the proper name for those boards to google. I familiar with “host controller” and “expanders” from my unraid server days, but as far as I could tell those all are pcie based - so they have to connect with MB, so not exactly what I’m looking for.