Can Confirm…
The SAS backplane is only SAS2, so there’s no reason to go for SAS3 drives unless they are the same price or cheaper.
Looking at the HD connector on the backplane…will it work with a shucked SATA WD drive?
Yes it will.
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Been using this case with my unraid setup for a few hours. Hard drives are heating up way above normal. 46c on a couple. I had the side doors off so maybe that impacted things. I have that fan hooked into a motherboard header…I may opt to put it on the backplane…maybe it will get to spinning faster. Air movement in this case may be problematic.
Edit: I think I’m going to flip that air duct 180 degrees if I can and make sure the fan mounted to it is blowing air out the front. I assume it’s pulling hot air off the motherboard/cpu and it’s exhausting to nowhere. Not the greatest design. The motherboard should have decent intake with the psu and side vents it shouldn’t need any kind of air duct. I assume maybe that was meant for some kind of passively cooled cpu.
I have ssd’s that run in the Yellow range for HD Sentinel. Let me know how your experiment works, will the bracket affix to the reverse orientation? My next solution, next time I power down, is to put a different fan in there
I’m going to rip into it tomorrow morning, really can’t tell without taking it apart. I’m thinking I may just replace that fan right outright…doesn’t seem to move any air. Short of sticking my finger in there I would swear it isn’t running but Unraid reports two fans running. I didn’t tinker with the bios settings so there may be something set up wrong in it. For as hot as the system is one fan is staying around 750rpm which seems weird.
Unraid (Basic)
Ryzen 5600G
ASROCK X470 Gaming-ITX/ac motherboard
32 GB Ram
9212-4i4e
ADATA 512GB NVME m.2 (currently sent to Windows VM)
Edit 1:
Not that hard to take that air duct off and I do believe it can be reversed. It clips in and the fan above it clips in similarly. I think that’s a 140mm fan and it’s got a lot of hub which isn’t helping matters. I’m testing it without the air duct on and added another fan to the front grill going to the 3 pin connector on the backplane to see how it does. I also played with my bios fan settings and got that big fan moving a bit quicker. I think the biggest issue is the motherboard is happy as can be but the hard drive cage is another matter. Also moved my cache drive to the opposite side 2.5" spot from the LSI card because it’s heat is heating that up. That fan in the front will probably provide some added benefit for that. It’s just temporary but I may make it permanent.
Edit 2: The OEM fan is a AVC DS12025B12E. I haven’t found what it’s rpm range is supposed to be. I went for another 120mm fan NZXT FN-120RB that has a smaller hub design…should move more air given the circumstances. Also in theory uses slightly less power than the stock fan.
Chenbro’s offering covers up most of the holes it’s supposed to be pushing air thru with the hub of the fan. I’m sure we’re splitting hairs here but not really considering where I started and where it’s ending up.
The fan housing is fairly easy to understand once you get familiar with it. The blue connector slips in and out so you can remove the whole assembly by prying out the big blue detent thingy. It’s hard to explain…
So far my temps are looking good doing it this way (reverse 180) and the NZXT fan is now connected to the 3 pin connector on the backplane. Thus far I’ve went from a few of my drives up around 48 c to now 34 to 36c but I don’t have all the panels back on so I would anticipate that getting a bit warmer. I think in the prior case they were usually around 35 to 38C. My cache drive is a bit warm for my liking but I’m not sure it’s in any danger…36 to 40C. Not happy with the CPU temp either but I got this motherboard with the CPU already stuck in and just sent it on it’s way…probably should remove and make sure it’s happy with proper thermal paste never know what ding dong put it together.
Edit 3: after a couple hours it’s heating up but weirdly the cpu is reporting cooler…go figure. So far the best solution has been to remove the air duct and stick a fan in the front grille by whatever means. Going back in for more tinkering. Edit 3b: found a 140mm fan and jammed it into the front…it actually fits fairly snugly without screws. I need to find a 3 pin extension to turn it the way I want to but for now the air duct and 120mm fan are removed.
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46C is 100% fine. I wouldn’t be concerned unless I see drive temps above 55C.
Are you sure about this? The Chenbro website describes the SR301 HDD backplane as “12Gb/s SATA & SAS.” Link: Chenbro - Products
They still make that SR301 series of products but the one in the link is an earlier version. Revision 1.1 I believe.
Thanks, good to know!
@Jhunter844 your download link is local…
@anemoiac HDD speeds won’t even touch SAS2 limits, SAS3 will not make a difference whether the chassis supports it or not.
I hadn’t had my coffee yet. 
Has anyone else had difficulty getting the HD trays to line up with the holes? In particular, WD Red 8TBs?
Pics?
The screw at the bottom right aligns ok, but the upper right is off just enough I feel as if I’m going to cross-thread it. I’ve tried different trays and different WD 8TB drives and it seems the same for all.
I’ve tried flexing, pressing, pushing the tray, but just can’t seem to get it to go in easily.
Duh. I just figured out to remove the gray “stopper” and the holes line up on the sides.
Those are holes for 2.5" drives. The drive mounts for 3.5" drives should be on the sides, not the bottom.
Yeah, I just figured that out, thanks.