Mediasonic H82-SU3S2 ProBox 8 Bay 3.5" Hard Drive External Hard Drive Enclosure - USB 3.0 & eSATA

CONS:- I'm using Win7 now, but this does not work correctly under Windows 2008 Server. I had multiple drive issues using that operating system (some worked, some didn't). Also, If you are on a Mac, be sure to read other reviews, some people seem to be having trouble.- I was also having issues with the "drive sync" feature which manages drive power, I disabled this (by pushing the button on the front) and things work better. (This is for a file server, and I don't need sleep mode). I think this "drive sync" feature may be causing many of the issues other people are describing.- Seems like many people have issues with the eSATA connection. If you do want to use the eSATA, be sure to buy the recommended PCI card to ensure compatibility. I'm having no trouble with USB3, speed are very quick.PROS:- I have it connected to a Windows 7 machine and it's working great. No additional drivers or software required for Win7.- I have it fully loaded, with 8 HDs, all different brands and sizes. Totaling 18TB. They all are recognized and working well in Win7.- I get between 30MB/s to 100MB/s on drive to drive transfers. (I think the speed depends on the speed of the drives, some drives consistently get 100MB/s transfer rates)- The drives appear as all separate drive letters, which was expected, but I was able to create virtual links in one folder. So this way, I can use my Plex media server to point to a single directory, which has subfolders (junction links) to all the separate drives of video files. I recommend "Junction Link Magic" for Win7 (free software, just google it)- fans are reasonably quiet, considering how many drives are in there.- Much cheaper than an 8-bay NAS

I have three of these Probox 8 Bay Enclosures. I bought one in 2011, one in 2012, and one February this year. They are connected to three separate computers. Two of them are on USB 3.0, and third on eSATA, and they all are directly connected to the motherboards. The two USB cases are used one for games, and the other for movies, the eSATA is used strictly for my miscellaneous storage machine. All three computers use a Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5 motherboards with an AMD FX-8350 CPU and 16gb memory. Each Probox 8 Bay Enclosure has 8 x 2TB Western Digital drives of various models. I have mixed WD 2TB hard drive models, (red, blue, green and black labels). The 5400 rpm drives works right along the 7200 rpm in the same enclosure. I guess I am like "the guy who buys a new car every time the ash tray is full". Some day I will be bold and daring and start learning how delete and format drives...lol.I can access all three Proboxes through the network via the computers and a network router. I was impressed that the BIOS recognizes them on boot up. I like to mess around with different OS's. I am able to boot up various Windows OS (NT, 2000, 2003, XP, 7, and 8) and LYNUX from hard drives within the enclosures. I can access all the drives though the motherboard boot up menu which is separate from the BIOS menu The sleep modes of the enclosures work great (never shut them off), and auto fan controls are always working. I must say that the one I bought in 2011 works just as good as the one I bought in February of this year. I do like the "tray less drive bays easy for swapping drives. My cases are very quite. I recommend the Mediasonic H82-SU3S2 ProBox 8 Bay External Hard Drive Enclosure. I hope this was of some help to you.

*** UPDATE ***I have finally been able to get the ProBox to work consistently with a Retina MacBook Pro using this DATOptic U3eSATA USB 3.0 to Esata Adapter:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005DCCMII/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00The U3eSATA is a dongle-sized USB adapter that supports the port multiplier chipset in the ProBox. I've been using the Probox for 2 days over eSATA without the errors and hangs on the Mac.The U3eSATA bridge appears to be slower than Mediasonic's built in USB 3 port, and it's an extra 40 bucks we shouldn't have to spend.The best case scenario would be that either Mediasonic can fix the incompatibilities in their device logic, or Apple will fix the incompatibilities in their USB 3 drivers in the future so that I don't need a workaround.But the ProBox has a unique form factor, feature set, and price point that is unique -- to the point where I found myself expending irrational effort to try and make it work.But please DON'T expect something plug and play on a Mac, at least for the time being.** Original Post **It's a bit of a stretch claiming these drives work with OS X (at least over Apple's native USB3 ports). Indeed, the device starts up, drives mount, you can use it to copy/read/write, but once those tasks are done and the drives spin down, you will find your Finder access locked down and -50 errors when you try to create or modify any data (even as simple as creating a new folder.)A number of users on the Mediasonic Forums have been struggling with nearly identical problems with these drives running on Macs. In my case it's a brand new MacBook Pro Retina, Mountain Lion 10.8.2, with all current firmware updates. (USB3 is built-in on my model, but other users with USB2 Macs are seeing the same issue.)I see this behaviour in a mix of 2TB and 3TB SATA II and III drives in JBOD.Moving the drive(s) to ANY other FW800 or USB3 enclosure or Voyager USB3 dock immediately eliminates the problem. The problem is with the ProBox and/or how it communicated with the Mac's integrated USB port, no matter what the Mediasonic support suggests.The Mediasonic_Admin may ask the user to:* (Re-)Partion and/or format the drives using the Probox* Setting System Preferences > Energy Saver > Drive Sleep to OFF* Setting System Preferences > Energy Saver > Drive Sleep to ON* Use a USB2 connection (not an option for Mac laptop users anyhow)* Upgrade the USB3 firmware (which are Windows files only, and affect the USB port, not the enclosure -- and I have no idea what the specific USB chipset is on my Retina MBP. Do you?)`I purchased the ProBox to consolidate my drive storage for a yearlong project in East Africa. I really wanted this to work, but I have pulled out a lot of hair with idiopathic behaviour of gear like this over the years and it's almost always a waste of time. After wasting nearly a month with it, I have no choice but to return this drive as it does not work as needed by any reasonable standard, there are other options that cost more, promise less but ACTUALLY WORK, and the hassle and cost of shipping a potentially defective product back and forth from Africa will not be an option.