MediaSonic ProBox - Unboxing and First Impressions!!!

Hi All!
My external hard drive enclosure recently started misbehaving, so I thought it was time for an upgrade! Join me as I unbox the HF7-SU3S3 - a 4-Bay SATA Hard Disk Enclosure from Mediasonic!
This thing features USB 3.0 AND eSATA, along with capacity for up to 4 10TB HDDs - exactly what I need for my huge Plex library!!!
Thanks for stopping my my channel and I hope that you enjoy the video!!! If you do, please consider Liking, Commenting, and Subscribing!!!
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Mediasonic PROBOX on Amazon: amzn.to/2nfY23z
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[@GEORGE-jf2vz]

I own 3 of these and they worked right out of the box. Very happy.

[@ChaplainDaveSparks]

_"See if it blows up"?_ What you should check for is the _"escape of the magic smoke"._ 😃 This is a well guarded secret among electronics techs -- electronic components work because of a small amount of _"Magic Smoke"_ hermetically sealed inside. When the smoke escapes, the device no longer functions. 😃

[@michaelmcallister711]

You have no idea HOW HARD I was looking for this video review! I'm completely sold! Thank you for making this video!! I'm gonna get one next month!!

[@DDayGaming]

Hey Michael! Glad to hear it helped! I’ve been running mine for months now without any issues - Love it! Thanks for taking the time to comment!

[@yourmaninlondoncollecting5749]

I think they redid the design to add more airflow with ribbons at the bottom front. As i see this videovis 6 years old in 2024.

[@miguelescobedo5112]

Woah the MediaSonic ProBox looks pretty great.

[@DDayGaming]

+Miguel Escobedo Hey Miguel! It hasn’t blown up or overheated yet, even with my media server stuff running all day, so I’m happy, LOL!

[@miguelescobedo5112]

that's great news dday can't wait for next live steam.

[@gunstargizmo]

The new model can use 18TB HDDs and 12TB SSDs. An HDD will never utilize USB 3.0 transfer speed. Stop with the constant hand motions.

[@ChildOL]

The sucky part of knowing I need to mirror the volumes for redundancy is having to accept half the capacity.

[@gopolarisstudio]

Anyone ever find out if this can vent as good as the other model?

[@TheWorstGamerr]

5 years later still working good?

[@JeremyWilliamson]

Soooo did you do an actual review video after using it a while?? Im contemplating getting this model, but not sure because I can't find much on it.

[@DDayGaming]

Hey Jeremy! I don’t think I ever actually went back and did an actual review on it - still using it every day though, and haven’t had any issues out of it! Have a couple of large WD Black drives in it hosting all of the content for my Plex media server, so it’s been on 24/7/365 since the video was made! Working great! Hope that helps!

[@JeremyWilliamson]

@@DDayGamingAWESOME! thanks so much!!

[@zefitech]

Nice video! Thoughts on it 3 months later?

[@DDayGaming]

Hey Matthew! Thanks!!! It's been great so far - I haven't had any issues out of it at all. I'm primarily using to host my Plex library as well as for long-term KZbin video archiving, and even under the constant load from 40-50 Mbps video playback (from WD Black drives, no less), it's still running strong, which is exactly what I was looking for! I've ended up just leaving the fan on Auto at this point, and haven't experienced any toasted drives, random USB disconnects, or anything like that that I was dealing with on my older OWC unit - it's really working out well! Hopefully that helps, but if not, let me know! Thanks!

[@AlvinC-sz3li]

I have a same one. How do you deal with overheat problem? By leaving front panel open?

[@DDayGaming]

Hey M C! I haven’t had any overheating problems with mine so far (using Western Digital Black HDDs), but I have read that a lot of folks that do have issues with overheating do just leave the front open to solve it! Some fixed it by just turning off the smart fan speed setting and forcing the fan to spin at max RPM all of the time as well. Hope that helps!

[@AlvinC-sz3li]

Thanks for your reply!

[@epsileth]

Just ordered one of these, is wd black still a better drive than wd red for this?

[@DDayGaming]

Hey Kyle! The WD Black drives are typically faster and a little more expensive (and cap out at a slightly smaller storage capacity on the top end), and the WD Red drives are typically a bit slower (cache and RPM), a small bit cheaper, and have larger storage capacities available. So really just depends on what you need. I wanted the fastest drives possible, so it’s 100% WD Black for me! They are both excellent choices, though! Can’t go wrong with way!!!

[@epsileth]

​@@DDayGaming Trial and error on my part (also not reading instructions properly, or paying attention in general?), need to hold down interface while booting the device to switch between usb 3 and esata. Also, no 3.5" to 2.5" brackets included, but trying a ssd bare, it just reaches the front brace rail.

[@lifeofsam3279]

how was the transfer rate? did u setup a raid on this volume?

[@DDayGaming]

Hey Sammy! The transfer rate is great from my PC’s internal SSD to the 7200 rpm WD Black drives I have running in this thing. There doesn’t seem to be any additional enclosure-caused throttling to the USB 3.0 bus, with the limiting factor just being my spinning drive speed. Transferring between two drives within the enclosure is still very fast, but noticeably slower than SSD-to-Enclosure transfers, as you’d expect (since the drives are slower and the same USB 3.0 bus is in use by both drives for the read/write). I’m not currently running a RAID on mine, but may set up one at some point. This particular device is available in both a hardware RAID version and one without the extra hardware as I recall, which is nice for folks who aren’t planning on running one. Hope that helps, and my apologies for the delayed response!!!

[@Tagalized]

can run it for 24/7??

[@DDayGaming]

Hey Kua raN! Mine has been powered up 24x7 since it was installed, and I haven’t had any issues with it (use it mostly for media playback as a part of my Plex media server, so I need it available 24x7, along with my PC that never shuts off). My last device (totally different brand) would overheat and disconnect/shut down after so many hours consistently, so this one has been much better! Hope that helps!