Review Icy Dock ToughArmor MB840M2P-B Review: Quick and Tool-less NVMe SSD Swaps

[Admin]

Icy Dock’s ToughArmor MB840M2P-B incorporates fast hot-swap capability with a secure, tool-less M.2 drive installation.

Icy Dock ToughArmor MB840M2P-B Review: Quick and Tool-less NVMe SSD Swaps : Read more

 

[damric]

I was $shopping for something like this today actually. I found the ASUS PCIE 4.0 version with 4 M.2 slots for only $70.

https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-M-2-X16-Expansion-Card/dp/B084HMHGSP

The PCIE 3.0 version is a little cheaper and still holds 4 drives.

 

[excalibur1814]

Do you get a second pcie slot, for the other computer?
Do you get a second caddy, for the M.2?

No.

What exactly is the point of this? Security? Fine. Backup, rotating drives? Fine.

Other than that, I'd just get a caddy and usb USB c.

 

[gg83]

Put some RGB's on it and I'll buy it

 

[ajr1775]

Do you get a second pcie slot, for the other computer?
Do you get a second caddy, for the M.2?

No.

What exactly is the point of this? Security? Fine. Backup, rotating drives? Fine.

Other than that, I'd just get a caddy and usb USB c.

To add an M.2 on a more permanent basis where it would not be possible due to lack of more M.2 ports on the board and also offer the ability to swap it out without having to crack the case open.

 

[Ewitte]

Other than that, I'd just get a caddy and usb USB c.

Then you miss out on a lot of the benefit of NVME speed and latency. You will see about 980MB/s and much lower IOPS.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Do you get a second pcie slot, for the other computer?
Do you get a second caddy, for the M.2?

No.

What exactly is the point of this? Security? Fine. Backup, rotating drives? Fine.

Other than that, I'd just get a caddy and usb USB c.

The chief advantage is you can quickly and easily swap out SSDs without having to open up the computer. You also can buy extra "caddies" for it.

Update: I've been swapping out three drives , each in its own "caddy" (tray) for the past five months without any problems.

Every month, after making my weekly image of the boot drive located in the swap bay, I pull out the drive in its tray, replace it with the next one in the rotation, then restore the image I just made to ensure my imaging software is still making restorable images (an untested backup is no better than no backup).

It takes only 10-15 seconds to do the swap without having to open up the case compared to the 13-25 minutes it used to take me to open up the case, pull the graphics card, swap the drives, then put it all back together again.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Icy Dock’s ToughArmor MB840M2P-B incorporates fast hot-swap capability with a secure, tool-less M.2 drive installation.

Icy Dock ToughArmor MB840M2P-B Review: Quick and Tool-less NVMe SSD Swaps : Read more

Actually, you can't hot-swap NVMe drives with this dock because the trays (aka caddies) use the SSD's own connector. Trying to hot-swap a drive like this could damage the drive and maybe even the computer. the computer must be powered down while swapping drives.