AMS VENUS mini T5J SATA RAID & JBOD Enclosure (DS-2250J) 5 Bay 2.5" drive eSATA RAID Storage System

Ultimately I had to toss this.First, the fan is obscenely noisy. I tried to replace it with a quiet 50mm fan only to find it uses a super small connector that's a bit uncommon.The "reset" button should not stick out like it does. Myself, like a few others, hit that by accident once or twice while getting things setup. Not fun.The hardware "quirks" I could have gotten around, except for the software problems. The drive would occasionally stop working (Win10), requiring a restart. Sometimes even going to far as to need a rebuild (RAID 5) even though nothing untoward had happened. The drive wouldn't be available for a few minutes after startup causing Dropbox to lose its mind. All in all, very much not worth the hassle, and I simply couldn't trust that it wouldn't just lose my data.

A solid, basic piece of hardware with a simple interface.The worse thing I can think of to say about it is that the fan is a little on the noisy side.Works great, good price.I'd buy another in a heartbeat.

Very good!. The unit works as advertised. It was easy to set up. I have had for over two month and have not had any problems.Yes I would recommended it for making use of old hard drives.

no support from the company. hardware failed after a few months.

I would have given it 5 stars if I could run the setup through my wifi connected laptop and router and if there would be the possibility to reduce the bothersome noise of the integrated fan.

Installed the drives and it never worked. I have not had the time to trouble shoot as to why the unit does not work

Good STORAGE unit, RAID 1+0, and RAID 5 from unused 2.5" sata drives.Just insert 2.5 in drives in (completely easy, tool free), and set the proper dip for the RAID you want in the back. Turn the device on, press the reset button on the back. Done. Couldn't be any easier. Once the device's purple light (ready state) is on, connect to your eSata controller. (for models with USB 3.0 and eSata) If you wish to use USB 3.0, connect that. I picked my unit from newEgg (cheaper) but realized later there is one of these with both interfaces (Model #DS-2250C). So I picked up an eSata->USB 3.0 cable adapter that does the trick.This is a fast machine. eSata to USB is great too, BUT for Mac users... not all cables/adapters may work. I tried two... the one from OWC works, and is cheap. newEgg has one for REALLY cheap but does not work. May work for Windows PCs.The software provided on the CD for Mac supplied didn't work. However, the latest download from mfg site did. Seems to support "port multiplier" functionality as well. Not absolutely sure, since I do not use that/need that functionality right now.Cons:I truly wish the manual was more useful. It does however describe RAID setting well. The other thing I don't really care for are the bright status lights. They light up a room at night. And, there isn't a setting to dim them.

I've used only the RAID0 mode for high data-rate streaming.Pros: Compact, can be easily configured with only the DIP switches, has good throughput, works reliably on long-duration files (read & write).Cons: 1) The software GUI has problems on Windows 10 (open & close it; can't restart until OS is restarted).2) Each door has a button to open it. Pushing the button moves a slider to unlatch the door. The slider sticks out of sight when door buttons are pushed straight in so that doors won't latch when closed. I discovered that pushing the buttons at an angle in and away from the door makes it work much better. Will try a lubricant, too.Improvement suggestion: would like to have an eSATA III interface for higher throughput.