Custom SSD Dock Build (Success! sorta)

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Sadly, my Linux skills are less than stellar.

Happily, you have a happy little Linux Family here lining up to help you reach for the Linux Sly . . .
What a wonderful community we live in . .

You can say that again!

[rossdv8]

Sadly, my Linux skills are less than stellar.

Happily, you have a happy little Linux Family here lining up to help you reach for the Linux Sly . . .
What a wonderful community we live in . .

You can say that again!

Happily, you have a happy little Linux Family here lining up to help you reach for the Linux Sky . . .

I hate it when my poor O L D fingers and my keys don;t work in conjunctivitus with each other. It really was 'linux sky' NOT L:inux Sly'

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Happily, you have a happy little Linux Family here lining up to help you reach for the Linux Sly . . .
What a wonderful community we live in . .

You can say that again!

Happily, you have a happy little Linux Family here lining up to help you reach for the Linux Sky . . .

I hate it when my poor O L D fingers and my keys don;t work in conjunctivitus with each other. It really was 'linux sky' NOT L:inux Sly'

LOL!

Don't feel bad; I didn't even see the typo until you mentioned it here (I'm blind in one eye and can't see out the other one). I did catch the malapropism and typos in this post, though.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Since I have yet to find any SATA to USB cables that support TRIM (some claimed to but did not when I tried them), I've been considering cutting down one of my Cable Matters enclosures to make a cable but was loathe to take a chance on destroying one. However, now that I have an overabundance of them, I decided to take the plunge.

One reason for wanting a cable is it will take up less room in my laptop bag than a full enclosure. Also, the new dock doesn't like running with one or more slots empty as much as when they are all full. There also may be times when I might be wanting to do something with a fifth drive while the dock is doing something else with four drives in it.

Something I don't understand is why Cable Matters doesn't make a USB to SATA cable that supports TRIM (the one cable they do have doesn't). They have the technology to do so.

Back to the ranch...er...topic... I started by tucking some masking tape under the connector and around over the top of it to hopefully keep chips out of the connector while cutting down the enclosure case.

Being the coward I am, I added another piece of tape over the first one to make sure chips couldn't sneak under the first piece of tape.

After cutting off most of the enclosure, I blew out chips, removed the tape, then blew it out some more to make sure I didn't miss any chips, especially inside the connector. Here is how the truncated enclosure looks (I've added a cable to it; one of the shortest ones I have).

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Here is a shot of the truncated enclosure, with the cable plugged in, from the other end.

I had left the original enclosure cover on when cutting it down but removed it for the photos so you all could see the connector better. Here, I've replaced the cover.

Leaving the enclosure connector recessed like that will help to protect it and, to a lesser degree, the connector on the SSD.

Here, I've connected the "cable" with an SSD connected to it to test it. I really like how close I could tuck it up against the computer, freeing up space on the top of the desk. It's hard to see in this photo but the new dock is currently running a TRIM operation on the four backup SSDs plugged into it. The new "cable" appears to be working just fine. The hardest part of this project was to file the saw marks off the end of the truncated enclosure (I hate filing!).

A pet peeve I have about USB to SATA cables and other cable connected USB devices is most have a cable permanently connected to the device. In every device I've ever had like that (which is pretty much all of them), the cable was either way too long or was just short enough to annoy the <ahem> out of me and/or it had the wrong connector type. With this setup, I can choose what ever length cable I need with the correct connector on the computer end.

I still need to sticker bomb the "cable".

I'm really tempted to make one or three more of these so I can keep one or two in my desk drawer and one or two in my laptop case. I can't see ever needing to use more than one or two at a time.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...I'm really tempted to make one or three more of these so I can keep one or two in my desk drawer and one or two in my laptop case. I can't see ever needing to use more than one or two at a time.

Well, I "dood" it (apologies to Red Skelton, Bugs Bunny, and Tweety). I figured that if I was going to make any more, now, while my little bandsaw's fence was still set up for cutting these, would be the best time to do it. I also sticker bombed them while I was at it.

I've tested them and I'm going to keep two in a desk drawer with a couple of cables (one Type C to Type C and one Type C to Type A) and the other two in my laptop case (with the same two kinds of cables).

Now, what to do with the other six Cable Matters enclosures...?

(I'll probably just leave them in storage until who knows when).

BTW, I still hate filing!

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Last Friday, I swapped out the eight desktop computer data backup drives I keep at home with their counterparts I keep in my safe deposit box at my credit union (I do this at least once a month). I also ripped a bunch of BDs to my computer over the weekend so I had plenty of material to give the new SSD dock a serious workout. It seems to be faster than the old method of updating the backups but, tying up only one port--the Thunderbolt 3/USB 3.1 Gen 2 port, leaving three ports free--and not tying up most of the available space on the top of my desk (which isn't much) was priceless, especially since the NTFS backup drives can take up to 20 or more hours to finish running TRIM (I usually let it run overnight).

Additional gains were being able to put my laptop backup drives and the desktop data drives into a desk drawer since they now are bare drives and to be able to multitask while updating backups. I was able to do much of the ripping while the backup updates were running since I had a USB port available for an external ODD (Optical Disk Drive). The laptop was able to handle it all without breaking into a sweat. I love it when a plan comes together!

This is the final result.

It's a known fact that stickers increase the speed.

I replaced the switchable cube tap with another one that has a lighted switch on it to help remind me to turn off the power to the Thunderbolt hub's PSU when I'm not using the dock. I plan on turning the power strip it's plugged into over so I can position the cube tap in a different outlet that won't partially block one of the two remaining outlets. I'll post a before and after picture when I do that.

[antikythera]

That looks very good although one concern for me would be heat dissipation. What were the drive temps like during the serious workout?

[Lady Fitzgerald]

That looks very good although one concern for me would be heat dissipation. What were the drive temps like during the serious workout?

Thanks!

I didn't actually check them while doing the updates this time around but, although they got a bit warm, they weren't too hot to comfortably hold. I did check temps in the past when I still had them bundled tightly together in full enclosures and they stayed well within the range for Samsung drives. Since these have more access to air, I'm not worried at all. Also, the same drives inside the computer also get less air and they stay well within their rated temperature range.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I just ran into a snag. While trying to update Laptop 2 this morning, the dock wouldn't work on it (it still works fine on Laptop 1). I checked in the BIOS and it shows that Thunderbolt is enabled. I then tried it on Laptop 3. Same thing. The only thing I can think of is the Thunderbolt ports on both of them are damaged (I bought both of them used). I know that port on Laptop 2 will work with USB.

Needless to say, I'm pretty P.O.ed. I did buy a five year warranty with Laptop 2 but I've got too many other things going on right now to deal with it, not to mention my mood is pretty darned lousy (to put it politely). For now, I still can update Laptop 2's data drives to and from backups using the cables I made or using enclosures like I had before. A plan may be to find a USB 3.1 Gen 2 powered hub and hope the plugs coming from the dock will line up with the ports on the hub (otherwise, I would have to rebuild the dock) but there would be a 50% speed penalty if I up date four drives simultaneously (it should be able to handle two drives full speed). I probably won't worry about it until later this year or early next year unless Laptop 1 decides to die.

[MurphCID]

I just ran into a snag. While trying to update Laptop 2 this morning, the dock wouldn't work on it (it still works fine on Laptop 1). I checked in the BIOS and it shows that Thunderbolt is enabled. I then tried it on Laptop 3. Same thing. The only thing I can think of is the Thunderbolt ports on both of them are damaged (I bought both of them used). I know that port on Laptop 2 will work with USB.

Needless to say, I'm pretty P.O.ed. I did buy a five year warranty with Laptop 2 but I've got too many other things going on right now to deal with it, not to mention my mood is pretty darned lousy (to put it politely). For now, I still can update Laptop 2's data drives to and from backups using the cables I made or using enclosures like I had before. A plan may be to find a USB 3.1 Gen 2 powered hub and hope the plugs coming from the dock will line up with the ports on the hub (otherwise, I would have to rebuild the dock) but there would be a 50% speed penalty if I up date four drives simultaneously (it should be able to handle two drives full speed). I probably won't worry about it until later this year or early next year unless Laptop 1 decides to die.

That is odd that neither would work. Mint 19.3 right?

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I just ran into a snag. While trying to update Laptop 2 this morning, the dock wouldn't work on it (it still works fine on Laptop 1). I checked in the BIOS and it shows that Thunderbolt is enabled. I then tried it on Laptop 3. Same thing. The only thing I can think of is the Thunderbolt ports on both of them are damaged (I bought both of them used). I know that port on Laptop 2 will work with USB.

Needless to say, I'm pretty P.O.ed. I did buy a five year warranty with Laptop 2 but I've got too many other things going on right now to deal with it, not to mention my mood is pretty darned lousy (to put it politely). For now, I still can update Laptop 2's data drives to and from backups using the cables I made or using enclosures like I had before. A plan may be to find a USB 3.1 Gen 2 powered hub and hope the plugs coming from the dock will line up with the ports on the hub (otherwise, I would have to rebuild the dock) but there would be a 50% speed penalty if I up date four drives simultaneously (it should be able to handle two drives full speed). I probably won't worry about it until later this year or early next year unless Laptop 1 decides to die.

That is odd that neither would work. Mint 19.3 right?

Right.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I've done some more fooling around with LT2 to try to see why the dock doesn't work with it. I needed to condition the new battery I bought recently anyway (fully charge, then discharge five times per the manufacturer). First, I tried the Driver Manager to see if I was missing a driver. No such luck. Then, on the odd (really odd) chance Thunderbolt wasn't physically installed on this machine (even though the BIOS indicates it was), I looked up the make and model of LT2 online and found a review from 2016 that stated it did so that ruled that idea out.

While I was fooling around with LT2, a kernel update appeared so, after making a Timeshift snapshot, I ran the update, rebooted and tried the dock again. Bupkis.

I then tried running Mint 19.3 on LT2 from my Ventoy disk. No joy. Same for when I ran Mint 21 from the Ventoy disk. I'm totally stumped now. And more that just a little annoyed. I still don't want to resort to invoking the warranty just yet (that can be a whole 'nuther bag of grief).

It strikes me as really odd that both of the used machines, both different brands built on the same Clevo chassis would have a broken Thunderbolt port. It makes me wonder if the Thunderbolt port on LT1 is also going to fail. I guess time will tell.

I had originally planned on using LT1 as my daily driver only until its warranty ran out on April 3, 2023, then replace it with LT2 since it will still have almost four years left on its warranty and let LT1 "nap" in my laptop case for use away from home. For now, unless I can fix, or get fixed, the Blunderbolt issue, it looks like LT1 will stay my daily driver for the foreseeable future, LT2 will be the travel machine, and LT3 will be the emergency backup or parts machine.

I'm currently updating LT2's data drives from LT1's backup drives, two at a time using the two USB to SATA "cables" I made while running on battery power while conditioning the new battery. Updating two at a time via the "cables" is not nearly as convenient or fast as using the dock would have been but, at least, it's doable, I still have two USB ports available when updating backups, and the "cables" easily fit in my laptop case.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

That looks very good although one concern for me would be heat dissipation. What were the drive temps like during the serious workout?

Thanks!

I didn't actually check them while doing the updates this time around but, although they got a bit warm, they weren't too hot to comfortably hold. I did check temps in the past when I still had them bundled tightly together in full enclosures and they stayed well within the range for Samsung drives. Since these have more access to air, I'm not worried at all. Also, the same drives inside the computer also get less air and they stay well within their rated temperature range.

Edit: I update the DT1 backup drives every Wednesday (not TRIM; that I save until after the end of the month). This morning, I ran all four backup drives from one of two sets simultaneously in the dock. In this first batch today, one Samsung 4TB 850 EVO had no data that needed to be written (there were no deletions from any of the four drives this time around), another one needed only 2.4GB written, and the third one needed only 6.8GB written. The temps for these three drives never went above 28°C the entire time (ambient was 25°C). These drives are rated by Samsung for 0-70°C operating temperature.

The fourth drive, a Samsung 8TB QVO, needed 387GB written which took a total of an hour and seven minutes. It's temperature maxed out at 44°C about half way through the update, which was sustained for the remaining writes. In comparison, the same drive that is installed inside the laptop and was being only read ran at 53°C. Samsung does not list an operating temperature range on their website for the 8TB QVO but the other sizes in the QVO series are also rated for 0-70°C. I assume the 8TB would be fairly close. Anyroad, I'm confident even 53°C is comfortably within the maximum temperature rating.

The 8TB QVO backup drive cooled down to 35°C within ten minutes, suggesting heat transfer to the aluminum shell is fast despite there probably not being a thermal transfer pad inside (there wasn't one in the 128GB 840 Pro I opened up after it died after just shy of five years use, the only SSD to die out of the three to four dozen 2.5" SSDs I've ever had, and I never saw one pictured or mentioned in reviews). The 8TB QVO inside the computer cooled down to, and stabilized at, 44°C within ten minutes.

Since the amount of data needing to be written to the three 4TB drive was so low, I updated all four drives in the second batch from only one instance. Temperatures were a degree or two warmer on the three 4TB drivs and the same on the 8TB drive.

All temperature readings were taken from the program Disks. Updates were made using four simultaneous instances of FreeFileSync which also provided information for the quantity of writes and the time used.

[MurphCID]

Nice! Glad it is working well.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Nice! Glad it is working well.

Thanks. So am I.

[vansloneker]

What a very creative solution you made!
I use several e-sata docks and external usb housings.

When dealing with all those disks, trim is not always on my mind. Why do sata-to-usb cables not support trim, isn't trim executed via the normal sata protocol?
And how about the usb cases, do they support trim?

Are the disks in your custom dock hot swappable?

I see an image where you have each usb connected separately to the laptop. Does a usb splitter give speed reduction or maybe not enough power?

[Lady Fitzgerald]

What a very creative solution you made!...

Thanks!

Coincidentally, I'm using the dock right now to update backups.

...When dealing with all those disks, trim is not always on my mind. Why do sata-to-usb cables not support trim, isn't trim executed via the normal sata protocol?...

My guess is chips that support TRIM over USB weren't available until a few years ago and manufacturers don't want to use the higher priced chips in their cables because the resulting higher priced cables would be less competitive than the older, lower priced cables. Also, having to retool for the better chips costs a lot, raising the price. The demand for TRIM compatible cables is also low to the common but erroneous belief that Garbage Collection alone is all that's needed to deal with deleted files.

Also, a lot of people, if not most, still use spinners (HDDs) which do not need TRIM.

...And how about the usb cases, do they support trim?...

The cases I used to build the dock do support TRIM. So far, I had found only two 2.5" SATA cases (one has two variants) that support TRIM (I discussed this earlier in this thread).

...Are the disks in your custom dock hot swappable?...

For practical purposes, no. I can power up the dock and, when the computer finds the enclosures in it, I can then hot swap the drives into it. However, it takes the computer around a minute to find the individual enclosures in the dock when there are no drives in them but it takes only 8-10 seconds when I plug in the drives first, then power up the dock. Plus, after safely removing those drives, then physically removing them, I have to power down the dock and power it up again to get it to find new drives. It's far more practical to plug in the drives with the dock powered down, power up the dock, do whatever with the drives (usually update them), safely remove the drives from the system, physically remove the drives from the dock, then power down the dock before adding any more drives.

...I see an image where you have each usb connected separately to the laptop. Does a usb splitter give speed reduction or maybe not enough power?

Yes to both. Even when using USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10Gbps) from the combination USB 3.1 Gen 2/Thunderbolt 3 port, I couldn't get more than two enclosures to work reliably through a conventional USB hub (splitter) due to inadequate power from the port. The same was true with the stand alone USB 3.1 Gen 2 port. Also, that 10Gbps that the ports were rated at (chances are, they won't run that fast) would be shared between the enclosures.

When I was running four separate enclosures off one port per enclosure, I probably was able to run the two SSDs connected to a USB 3.1 Gen 2 source at the full speed they were capable of. The other two ports are USB 3.0 (USB 3.1 Gen 1; I would love to "meet" the morons responsible for naming the various types of USB), which are probably sharing the same 5Gbps buss and power (common on laptops; their manufacturers should be ashamed of themselves for the deplorable practice because they never reveal it in the specs they list), would run significantly slower.

The biggest downsides to running separate enclosures was it took longer to set up and ate up far more precious desk space than the dock does. After using the dock for a while now, it is noticeably faster than the separate enclosures were.

The one downside to the dock is, if I am not running a drive in all four of the enclosures, it will take around a minute for the computer to "find" the drives. The easy fix was to make the two homemade "cables" for when I need to run only one or two drives at a time. I can get around that delay when only partially loading up the dock by putting any drive handy into the empty enclosures in the dock and just not doing anything with them. For example, all my backup drives are in sets of four, one drive per set for each of the data drives in my computer. When I update them, even if only one to three need updating, it's quick and easy just to load all four drives, then fire up the dock. That's what I did with today's updates. Only three needed updating but I just went ahead and plugged in all four.

[vansloneker]

Thanks for your extensive reply!

One more question, does it give an error when you try to trim an external SSD in a USB case that does not support it?

[MurphCID]

At least it IS working, and now the tweaking begins.