Icy Dock Tough Armor U2 SSD Mobile Rack and Peripheral Review

If asked, there really is no way to put a total on the number of systems we have built throughout the years.  It has to be above 100.  In all instances, we gain a great deal of support through manufacturers and, as I look back, there is one manufacturer that seems to get overlooked more often than not; Icy Dock.  As I look through my systems of the last few years, I always seem to be including Icy Dock cages and adpters of some type or another.

So recently… I realized that I have had two HGST SN100 Ultrastar 3.2TB SSDs lying around that have very little use, other than testing.  Yup… 3.2TB SSDs collecting dust.  So… a quick e-mail to Icy Dock and we have two FIT-Flex Trio Adapters, along with two Tough Armor NVMe U.2 SSD Mobile Racks in the mail.  This resulted in an additional 3.2TB of storage space on our newest ASRock X299 Test Bench.

So lets go through the products we have here….

ICY DOCK FLEX-FIT TRIO MB343SP

The Icy Dock FLEX-Fit Trio is a 5.25″ to 3.5″ adapter for the front of any desktop PC.  In our case, it is holding the Touch Armor NVMe U.2 Cage.  If you look at the picture above, you can see that it also holds two 2.5″ notebook SSDs in place as well, making this one versatile adapter.  It sells for $9.99 at Amazon.

TOUGHARMOR MB601VK-B

The Icy Dock ToughArmor MB601VK-B is a 2.5″ NVMe U.2 SSD Mobile Rack for an external 3.5″ drive bay, which in our case is the FLEX-Fit Trio.  This mobile rack is lock securable, has a green/orange LED that speaks to SSD operation on the front, and connects via a U.2 adapter at the rear. It sells for $79 at Amazon.

TOUGHARMOR MB994SP-4SB-1

The ToughArmor MB994SP-4SB-1 is a full metal four bay 2.5″ HDD/SSD enclosure for an external 5.25″ Bay.  We use these (or below) exclusively on our systems as we are always swapping notebook SSDs for one reason or another.  It sells for $99 at Amazon.

TOUGHARMOR MB996SP-6SB

Last but not least, we have the Icy Dock Tough Armor MB996SP-6SB which is a full metal 6 bay 2.5″ HDD/SSD enclosure for an external 5.25″ bay.  This cage is another of our most treasured peripherals as they have active cooling on the rear of the unit.  It sells for $89 at Amazon.