Rosewill RSV-S8 External Drive enclosure

Posted by: Pete Stagman on 12/30/2009

When I first built my Windows Home Server, I built it using an old Intel Server cabinet because I wanted a lot of drive bays, 6 to be exact. I filled it with 6 500GB hard drives, for a total of 3TB of drive space. I figured that would last me a while for file storage and backups of the computers in the house. I was right. . . for a while.

But then I started Ripping my DVD movie collection and that 3TB was being used up pretty fast. So I swapped out those 6 500GB drives for 6 1.5TB drives for a 9TB drive pool! That would surely last me for a long time!

But that was not the end! Oh no, then came 2 new drive space munchers!

Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 with it's new ability to automatically "Archive" recorded TV shows from Media Center. Since I'm an avid MC user and DVR damn near everything, every day more and more TV was being moved to the Windows Home Server.
Blu-Ray! I started getting all my movies in Blu-Ray High Definition, and since I hate having to handle disks when I can just keep them stored on a server, I began Ripping all my new movies to ISO files. Each movie takes approx 40GB!

Here we go again. That 9TB of drive space is nearing the end. But my 6 Hard Drive bays are full of 1.5TB drives. I could swap them out with 2TB drives, but that would be pretty expensive to only get a 1/3 increase in drive space. So I started looking at External Enclosures.

After looking at 10 or so different enclosures I settled on the Rosewill RSV-S8.

I purchased it on Newegg.com for $309.99:
Rosewill RSV-S8 SATA 3G 3.5" HDD 8-Bay RAID 0/1/10/5/JBOD Storage Enclosure System

It's an 8 bay SATA-II enclosure. It comes with a 2-port eSATA controller card and a Port Multiplying Backplane. The controller card is a PCIe x1 card, it comes with an optional half height bracket. Included in the box:

1 - RSV-S8 (Sil3726 chipset)
1 - PCIe x1 slot card (Sil3132R5) & Optional half height bracket
2 - eSATA Cable
1 - AC cable
32 - HDD Screws
1 - Setup installation & Driver Disk
1 - Software User Manual. (No hardware setup instructions)

The unit supports RAID 0, 1, 10, 5 and JBOD. Since I was planning on using Drive Balancer, RAID didn't matter to me.

I read through the Reviews on Newegg before purchasing the unit. Most of the negative reviews dealt with:

Packaging - For me it came packed double boxed, with air bags all around the unit. Rosewill must have heard the complaints and redesigned the packaging.
Mac support - Not going in a Mac, so I didn't care.
RAID Management software - I wasn't going to install the software. I planned on using the Windows Home Server Drive Balancer, so, RAID wasn't important to me at all.

While unpacking, the first thing I was impressed with the unit. It was smaller than I thought it would be. It's only 13.5" High, 13.5" Deep and 6" Wide, which makes it only slightly larger than a Hewlett-Packard MediaSmart Server!

Here's a pic of an HP MediaSmart Server Next to a RSV-S8 in my Server Cabinet. (For Size comparison ONLY! You cannot add this unit to an HP MediaSmart Server! My actual WHS box is on the shelf above.) You need to be able to install a PCIe card in the server.

MediaSmart Server Compared to RSV-S8 for Size

I pulled 4 of the trays out and put my old 500GB drives into them. There were some complaints on Newegg that the trays could be damaged by not lining them up into the tracks correctly. That was true, if you don't get the trays lined up just right, they can become wedged into the tracks and bent. I put them back in very carefully to make sure I didn't bend them.

(edit) Once I closed the drive tray lever I had to give the tray a gentle push to seat it all the way in. This seems to be a problem with all SATA drive trays, they don't seat all the way in unless you give them a gentle nudge. Thanks to whoever it was that reminded me of that!

I shut down my Windows Home Server and popped open the case. I installed the controller card with no problems.

Then I grabbed the 2 eSATA cables. They are about 3 feet long so I had no problem running them between the units. The Back of the RSV-S8 has the 2 ports marked "Port 1" & "Port 2" with Port 1 on the top. The back of the controller had no markings, so I decided to open the case back up and see if there were any markings on the card. Good thing I checked, on the card Port 1 is on the bottom.

Once I had the cables run correctly, I buttoned everything back up and turned the RSV-S8 power on. I waited a few seconds then turned the Windows Home Server on. No smoke or bright flashes so, I guess everything was hooked up right.

I popped the provided driver CD-ROM into the Windows Home Server and from my laptop I RDP'd into the Administration Console of the Windows Home Server. I cancelled the autorun since I didn't want to install the RAID Management software.

I went into device manager and found the RAID Controller listed under "Other devices". I clicked on "Update Driver" and browsed the CD to find the Driver/Windows/32bit folder. Installed the correct driver and within seconds the controller was correctly found and the 4 drives I had installed were detected.

I then opened the Windows Home Server Management Console, the 4 "New" drives were listed there as "Non-Storage Hard Drives, Not Added" I clicked on each drive and added them.

Total installation time from unpack to up and running was less than 1 hour!

Another thing to mention is how QUIET the unit is. It has a 300Watt power supply and a 120MM fan. With the 4 drives running I can barely hear it. When I first turned it on, I could hear the drives spin up, but once they were up, it was very quiet.

Since I never installed the RAID Software I can't comment on the ease of use or even whether or not it works. But the RSV-S8 worked exactly the way I hoped it would. It was easy to install, the drivers worked great and my Windows Home Server has more storage space and still some free bays for the future!

If the $309.99 price tag is too much for you, there are a couple of other Rosewill options:

The RSV-S5 5-bay unit for $199.99 :

And the RSV-S4-X 4-bay unit for $149.99:

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32 Comments

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- Dec 30 2009, 7:07 PM John Zajdler
- Thanks for the review. However,seeing the RSV-S8 esata box next to the MediaSmart server makes a false assumption that you can connect it to the MediaSmart box. This is not true and should be mentioned.
- Dec 30 2009, 7:42 PM Pete Stagman
- You are right. This unit can't be added to a MSS. I've added that disclaimer to the picture. Thanks for pointing it out! --P
- Dec 30 2009, 8:46 PM Glenn
- What kind of controller is it? Is it just a controller with 2 eSata ports or something? I dont have an PCIe slot on my mainboard so I want to know if I can buy a PCI card that I can use instead of the PCIe card.
- Dec 30 2009, 8:55 PM Pete Stagman
- Glenn, It's a RAID card. I've heard of other people using RocketRAID 2302, 2304 or 2314 cards instead of the SiL card that comes with it. Whatever you get, it has to support Port Multipliers.
- Dec 30 2009, 9:25 PM Shiqing
- What kind of Intel Server cabinet for your WHS. It looks very good.
- Dec 30 2009, 9:36 PM Pete Stagman
- It's an Intel SC5650 chassis. http://www.intel.com/Products/Server/Chassis/SC5650/SC5650-overview.htm They're made for Intel MoBo's and I have an Asus MoBo in there, so none of the switches or lights work correctly. I've hacked the cable to the Asus motherboard so power and reset buttons work.
- Dec 30 2009, 10:25 PM welchwerks
- I love this unit!! i have it connected to my EX470 (due to the dual esata's i can only use 4 Bays but i plan on a work around so as to utilize all , it works great( till i find a work around i have the 2 esata connected to my HTPC very cool 1 tower to computers
- Dec 31 2009, 12:30 AM Zac Soard
- What program do you use to rip the blu-rays to iso files? Do you rip them to a pc and then transfer the files to your whs or rip them directly? What do you use to play your blu-ray iso files on your tv? Thank you so much
- Dec 31 2009, 1:47 AM Glenn Maples
- Do the drives in the enclosure spin down when they are not being accessed? what about noise? Thanks
- Dec 31 2009, 1:50 AM Glenn Maples
- Sorry, just actually read it and (of course) you commented on quietness
- Dec 31 2009, 8:06 AM Pete Stagman
- Zac, I use AnyDVD-HD to rip the Blu-Rays. http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvd.html?aid=51257 It will rip them directly to the Movies share on my Home Server. To play them back I use a combination of Media Center, MyMovies and Cyberlink PowerDVD Media Center Plug-in. You also need Virtual CloneDrive from SlySoft to mount the ISO files. http://www.slysoft.com/en/virtual-clonedrive.html
- Dec 31 2009, 8:07 AM Pete Stagman
- Glenn, I honestly don't know if the drives spin down, manual says it's "supported", if I should happen to notice if they do I'll let you know.
- Dec 31 2009, 9:06 AM welchwerks
- ANYDVD HD does Blueray to ISO perfect......................................
- Dec 31 2009, 10:09 AM Zac Soard
- So you use a htpc and not a media center extender to play them on your tv? Why use iso over video_ts files? I am sorry for all the questions. Right now I rip my dvds using handbrake and play them with an apple tv that connects to itunes that is installed on my home server. However, apple tv is very buggy and have been looking for a new way to play back my movies. I just haven't been able to find the "perfect" setup.
- Dec 31 2009, 10:23 AM Pete Stagman
- Zac, A bunch of reasons. My Media Center is attached directly to my Big Screen. PowerDVD can only read Blu-Rays in ISO format. There's no Blu-Ray decoder on extenders, so unless you convert them to something else, the extender can't play them. Some people don't mind the conversion, but you lose all the Menu's, Chapters, Special Features, FF/Rew ability, I'd rather keep them in Blu-Ray format. I'm planning on doing a post on Ripping, Storing and Playing Blu-Rays. Probably in the next couple days.
- Dec 31 2009, 10:35 AM Zac Soard
- Pete, thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions! And I will be looking forward to your post!
- Dec 31 2009, 2:09 PM Zac Soard
- Sorry, it's me again. So you have to use ImgBurn or CloneDVD to actually make the iso?
- Dec 31 2009, 2:38 PM Pete Stagman
- Zac, Huh? No. Why? If you have AnyDVD-HD you can just rt click on the fox icon in the running tasks and select Rip-to-image select the drive to rip from then tell it where to place the rip.
- Dec 31 2009, 6:19 PM Zac Soard
- Haha sorry about that. I was using the demo version. Got it working! Thank you again!
- Jan 01 2010, 4:28 AM Irma Dingbat
- That was a very good overall review of the Rosewill 8-slot box. I've been looking for a decent hard drive box to put a bunch of 2 TB drives into to add to my WHS. Unfortunately, I bought a HP ex485 and not an ex495, since the ex495 has port multiplier eSATA already built into the unit. Do you suppose this Rosewill box will work with the eSATA ports on the ex495 unit? That is if I can find somebody to buy my 6 TB ex485 unit? Happy New Year! Ima
- Jan 01 2010, 10:24 AM Pete Stagman
- I'm not sure how many drives the HP controller supports. But since the RSV-S8 needs 1 eSATA port per 4 drives, the most bays that would work is 4.
- Jan 04 2010, 2:16 PM sxt173
- So, here is a silly question: 1) Your main WHS O/S drive stays in the main chasis, correct? 2) If you already have files on your old drive in the WHS and want all storage to be on the Rosewill, you would have to add the Rosewill 8-slot box, add new drives, run drive balancer and then physically move the old drives to the Rosewill so WHS can re-balance, correct?
- Jan 04 2010, 3:14 PM Pete Stagman
- The O/S drive is in the main chassis, yes. I left the original drives in the old chassis. (You can see that in the photos)
  If you want to move the drives to the new external drive box:
  1) add at least one drive to the new box that's large enough to hold data from one of the drives in the main chassis.
  2)Add the new drive to the drive pool.
  3)select an old drive from the drive pool and select "Remove".
  4)Once the removal process is complete, put that drive into the new box and add it back to the pool.
  5)Repeat for all the other drives you want to move.
  
  Yes it's time consuming, that's why I left all the old drives where they were. :-)
- Jan 06 2010, 6:25 AM Paul Cole
- From what I can tell it looks like this is the same as the Edgestore DAS801t in the UK with the best price being £217 on LinITX.com
- Mar 23 2010, 2:27 PM mike
- i just got the rosewill case and 8 2TB hard drives. i am doing 2 volumes @ raid 5. i am striping the first one now, and it is taking a really long time. does anyone know how long this is supposed to take?
- Mar 23 2010, 4:55 PM Pete Stagman
- This is a software RAID 5. It's going to take a LOOONGG time to create the stripe set. I wouldn't be surprised if it took over a day or two to do 16TB.
  
  If this is on a WHS box, you don't need the RAID set, you can just add all the drives seperately.
- Apr 13 2010, 8:31 PM Jason
- I also recently got this case, along with a HighPoint RocketRAID 2314 (instead of using the bundled card). I'm using 8 of this drive - http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=773 I used the bios on it to start the creation of the raid 5, so far its been going for 25.5hrs. ..I almost wish I used the software to create the raid so maybe I would have some sort of progress report on it. As it is now, there's no end in sight, and I don't have a clue on how long this is supposed to take.
- Apr 14 2010, 10:46 AM Jason
- So I guess it was an easy mistake since the manual doesn't point anything like that out.. the RocketRAID Management Console has different ports you can connect to, I was assuming since they all said localhost that they'd all be the same, they weren't.. I finally found the one that showed my Raid 5 Array, and here after 39.5hrs ...its still going.. the progress bar shows it as only being 50.9% complete. So I guess to anyone else doing this setup, ..expect to wait around, or just over 3 days for it to complete.. at least with this particular hdd anyway.
- Aug 25 2010, 9:05 AM targeted email marketing
- I am really impressed with this product. I love its gloss black finish. I would like to buy one of its kids as it is easy to install and is perfect for backups. It is awesome to know that this black beauty can hold up to 8 hard drives with a huge storage space with 8 SATA 3G HDD. I am sure that it can create can create anything from a bunch of drives to RAID 5.
- Aug 25 2010, 6:31 PM Chris
- I'm looking at this enclosure, does anyone know if it'd work with an HP smart array controller? ie, P800 or E500 or something? Thanks
- Aug 25 2010, 10:05 PM Pete Stagman
- I don't know those particular controllers. But the drive enclosure should work with any Port multiplying SATA controller. You would need 2 port multipliers on the controller, each port controls 4 drives in the enclosure.
  
  -- Pete
- Aug 26 2010, 3:37 PM Chris
- Thanks Pete, I believe they will work since they do have 2 4x ports and support both SAS and SATA. One way to find out for sure I suppose

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Rosewill RSV-S8 External Drive enclosure

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