RAID-0 and -1 Into 3.5-Inch Bay From Icy Dock

Mini ITX motherboards and small form factor cases are becoming popular with system builds. An application where they have become very prevalent is in Home Theater PC (HTPC), small home server or low profile desktop computers. The key benefits of the Mini ITX PC are low power consumption, space saving and portability. But what comes with a small case is limited 3.5" HDD bay space.

Most Mini ITX cases are limited to a single 3.5" hard drive bay. This can be a problem if you would like to have more than a single drive or would like to have two drives to run a RAID-1 array for data security or RAID-0 for fast speed, as both of the setups required two hard drives or SSDs. With the standard case setup this would not be possible.

Icy Dock Europe has a solution to this problem that allows to mount 2 x 2.5" drives in a single 3.5" bay with a screw-less design.

                         MB990SP-B

MB990SP-B 2 x 2.5" SATA/IDE SSD & HDD bracket is a simple and economic way to run a RAID array with Mini ITX case. With MB990SP-B’s tool-less design, you can slide the drives into the bracket and lock them in, press the two tabs of the bracket and slid the bracket into a 3.5" bay. Connect the SATA cables from the drives to the motherboard. Setup the RAID in BIOS and now you have a RAID array in your small system.
 
It is not possible to run a RAID array on a Mini ITX motherboard that doesn’t have an onboard RAID chipset since there’s no room for a RAID card. The MB982SPR-2S has a built-in RAID chipset that supports RAID-0, -1, PM and big functions. It allows to use two 2.5" SATA HDD/SSD in RAID in a single 3.5" bay. With its screw-less design, you are able to put two drives in without tool or screws.

Screwing the MB982SPR-2S into a 3.5" drive bay only required 4 screws. Setting up the RAID array can either be done by using the built-in hardware RAID switch or the RAID manager software. Next connect the SATA cable from the MB982SPR-2S to the motherboard, plug in the SATA power connector and you have a standalone hardware RAID array in your system.