Although not a new concept as such, especially as the company has already launched a a similar product for a single NVMe SSD, Icy Dock's new ToughArmor MB842MP-B dual NVMe SSD dock, could be handy for those that need to move large amounts of data on fast storage units. Another alternative would be for video professionals that want easy access to multiple projects, without having to access the projects over a network. The NVMe drive docks are tool-less to make it as easy as possible to add the NVMe drives and drives in the 2230 to the 22110 M.2 form factor are supported.

The dock itself features a PCIe x8 interface and tops out at PCIe 4.0 speed. However, there's no bridge controller on the card, so a system that supports PCIe bifurcation is required, or only one drive slot will be accessible. Each of the docking units feature an activity light and it's even possible to connect the PCIe card to the hard drive activity LED on a regular PC case. The ToughArmor MB842MP-B retails for US$249.99, with additional drive trays costing US$34.99.

The ToughArmor MB924IP-B supports 24 x 2.5" SAS/SATA SSD/HDD up to 7 mm in height and only uses 3x 5.25" device bays. It has 6x MiniSAS HD (SFF-8643) connectors in the rear to support 24 x drives with up to 12 Gbps transfer speed per drive, significantly reducing the cable clutter to improve system airflow and offer easy cable management. The large 80 mm fan with 3-Mode fan speed control working along with intelligently placed ventilation holes keeps your drives in optimal temperature. To further improve reliability and security, the housing and trays are made with ruggedized full metal construction to ensure long-lasting durability. Moreover, with the removable EZ-Slide Nano trays, you can interchange drives within seconds without open the PC case.

MB924IP-B connects 24 x 2.5" SAS/SATA SSD/HDD with only 6x MiniSAS HD (SFF-8643) & 6x SATA 15 pin power connector for easy cable management and better system airflow. These are essential for high-performance PC builds. The MB924IP-B supports data transfer speed up to 12 Gbps per SAS drive and 6 Gbps per SATA drive.

The ToughArmor MB872MP-B supports 12x M.2 SATA SSDs from 30 mm to 110 mm (2230 / 2242 / 2260 / 2280 / 22110) in just a single 5.25" optical drive bay. It uses 3x high-speed OCuLink (SFF-8612) connectors in the rear to support twelve M.2 SATA SSD with 6 Gb/s transfer speed per drive while reducing the amount of cable clutter for optimal system airflow and easy cable management. The removable drive tray design with an innovative adjustable M.2 locker allows you to interchange M.2 drives without using tools or screws.

The 40 mm fan with 3-Mode fan speed control working along with intelligently placed ventilation holes keeps your drives in optimal temperatures. The device and trays are made out of heavy-duty metal to ensure long-lasting durability. The ToughArmor MB872MP-B's high storage density design makes it suitable for high-performance systems with limited storage space, such as high-performance PCs, home servers, workstation PCs, and data centers. It's designed for systems that require high IOPS, high capacity, and low latency storage access.

Icy Dock has introduced their new ToughArmor MB840M2P-B, a PCIe adapter that allows you to connect a single NVMe drive through an open PCIe port. To do so, it makes use of 4 PCIe 3.0 lanes, as per the NVMe protocol, but that's not its call to fame, however practical that may be in older systems without any M.2 form-factor support. Rather, the ability to hot swap NVMe storage drives is. Not all drives support such a feature: you'll have to check specific drive models that allow you to remove them from operation even whilst your PC is turned on.

The ToughArmor accessory from Icy Dock features a tool-less design meant to make it easier and faster for you to hot-swap your drives (30 mm to 110 mm in length), and the chassis is made of aluminium and features an integrated thermal pad to improve heat dissipation of your M.2 SSD, thus alleviating any throttling issues. A header allows you to connect it to your PC's HDD activity gauge. It's a pretty flexible design, featuring both full-height and low-profile PCIe expansion slot covers, and as other PCIe add-in cards, it can slot in any PCIe slot from the lowest-supported links (4 lanes) all the way to a 16-lane connector. No pricing information was available at time of writing.

Introducing the ToughArmor MB720M2K-B, the world's first quad drive ruggedized M.2 NVMe SSD removable enclosure. M.2 NVMe SSDs no longer requires to be installed on to a motherboard or a riser card with a tiny screw and can now be installed and accessed from the front of your computer without any tools. The ToughArmor MB720M2K-B comes with patent-pending tool-less M.2 drive installation design which will alleviate the pain that many user experiences when installing M.2 drives and offer easy drive maintenance and system upgrading.

Introducing the ToughArmor MB606SPO-B ruggedized mobile rack for hot-swapping 6x SATA/SAS SSDs and HDDs up to 7mm in height, and 1x Ultra-Slim 9.5mm CD/DVD/Blu-ray ROM optical disk drive reader for the external 5.25" bay. Featuring industrial full-metal construction inside and out, and designed for commercial applications such as military and medical systems, airborne and shipboard PCs, in-vehicle systems, servers, workstations, and mobile computer systems. Maintain optimal drive temperatures with the user-configurable 40mm cooling fan and plenty of ventilation holes throughout the enclosure. Advanced removable trays with anti-vibration protect drives in harsh environments, and built-in individual status LEDs give you drive updates at a glance.

High-performance computing (HPC) has been the new trend in our recent times. The applications for HPC range from big data, IOT (internet of things), AI (artificial intelligence), deep learning and blockchains, requires advanced computer hardware to perform their intended functions. From time to time, the performance of HPC has been limited by data storage hardware due to its slow transfer speed, which caps the I/O intensive requirements for these applications. The evolution of data storage from mechanical hard drives to NVMe (non-volatile memory express) SSDs have eventually unleashed the next level of high-performance computing and its applications.

It's clear that installing NVMe U.2 drives requires not only a whole system upgrade but also a system that allows for easy maintenance. Enabling hot-swap functions on NVMe U.2 SSDs and finding the proper equipment in a computer or rackmount system has become a new challenge for many companies, as the current computer chassis are not optimized for NVMe U.2 SSDs. With more than 20 years of expertise, ICY DOCK, who specializes in enterprise data storage enclosures, has already implemented to this drastic change in data storage technology and created the world first NVMe removable drive enclosure, the ToughArmor NVMe series. The ToughArmor's removable drive caddy allows for easy NVMe drive installation and system maintenance for any companies who wish to utilize the benefits of using the next-generation NVMe U.2 SSDs.

Our most dense storage enclosure yet, the ToughArmor MB516SP-B. With space available for 16 x 2.5" SATA / SAS drives up to 7mm in height, it fits in only two 5.25" bays, making it perfect for high density storage applications. It features our unique EZ-Slide Nano trays that make installing drives a snap, and are compatible with several other ToughArmor models such as MB998 series. Its large 80mm user-controllable fan runs quietly, utilizing its many ventilation holes for maximum airflow at minimal RPM ranges. The fan has 3 modes the user can set; high, low, and off. The MB516SP-B features a rugged heavy duty full-metal housing designed to meet high IOPS requirement which are generally found in Enterprise environments, Military systems, Medical systems, high performance computing and industrial settings.

Introducing the Icy Dock ToughArmor MB607SP-B full metal quad bay 2.5" SATA 6Gbps hard drive or SSD hot swap rugged mobile rack cage for use in a single external 5.25" bay. The MB607SP-B is predicated off the incredibly popular ruggedized mobile rack MB994SP-4SB-1, while taking its general concept, but built with cost effective structure without sacrificing anything in the way of strength. For better compatibility, the original 4 pin power connector has been replaced with a more, popularly used, 15 pin SATA power connector, and reducing cable clutter. The MB607SP-B takes 4 x 2.5" SAS/SATA HDD/SSD from 7mm to 15mm height, and supports hot swap for quick and easy drive replacements. The single 40mm cooling fans has an additional 3-Mode Fan Speed control, allowing the best flexibility - Turn off / low when using SSD's and high when using mechanical SATA hard drives. The MB607SP-B is constructed of rugged robust metal to survive the most demanding conditions making it a perfect storage upgrade kit for Medical & Military systems, embedded system, and industrial PC.

Ensuring drive protection and longevity are the foundation of a high-quality data storage system design/build. The MB607SP-B is capable of withstanding the harshest environments due to its rugged heavy duty full metal construction from the outer shell to the inner trays. The ToughArmor's full metal design is perfect for industrial and medical systems that may require a flammability rating as the full metal design is considered to already comply with most requirements.

Cost effectiveness is a key factor that drove many successes in a well established company. With ICY DOCK's ToughArmor series removable 2.5" SSD / HDD enclosures, we are introducing a different kind of cost effectiveness or we called it "space efficiency" by creating flexible configurations for data drives in a standard drive bay as seen in many HP and DELL workstations or servers. Whether you need to add 8 x 4TB 2.5" SATA SSD in a single 5.25" bay of your HP workstation, or replace the slim optical disk drive with hot-swappable 2.5" HDD/SSD bay, the ToughArmor got you covered!

• Key features of ICY DOCK ToughArmor series:
• Ruggedized Full Metal Construction
• Heavy Duty Removable Drive Caddy
• High Storage Density Design for Space Saving
• Approved and Used by First Tier Company such as HP and GE
• Complimentary Technical Support with 3-Year Warranty