Unboxing
I got my e-TRAYz on a cold November day and the first thing I noticed when touching the e-TRAYz is the freezing temperature of it's body. So even you may be happy and love your e-TRAYz on first sight, don't lick it, your tongue may stick to it :)
You saw it on pictures and thought it was small? Then you will be surprised that it looks even smaller in real. It feels very solid in your hands and although the sticker at the bottom states "Made in China" it looks way far from that! The top, the bottom and the sides is one whole piece of brushed aluminium which provides a classy look. Black metal is used for the back plate and the front is covered by a black shiny plastic panel which looks like the front you may know from the Xtreamer. Reminds me of the shiny biking pants that I still need... the e-TRAYz looks more valuable than what you would expect from a €99 device, good job!
After unlocking the front panel at the bottom you can lift it up to unveil what's inside the e-TRAYz. Of course you'll find nothing inside as the empty space needs to be filled with one or two harddisks via bay A and bay B. I chose two Samsung EcoGreen F2 1500GB (154UI) for the first test runs because a lot of users will use this model. Later I will replace them with two Samsung EcoGreen F1 1000GB (103UI) for daily usage because both 1.5TB disks will be used externally.
Both disks can be pushed in very smooth until you feel that the eSATA connectors snap in the eSATA plugs of the e-TRAYz. After putting back the front panel and connecting the power cord and the network cable you're good to go.
The front side has 5 LEDs . Make sure you have the install guide ready when switching it on coz in there you'll find what the different LEDs indicate. Why do I mention this? Because a lot of people inserted a disk in bay A and wonder why the LED of bay B is flashing... the back side has of course the 40mm fan (which will turn out to be NOT so silent later), a Kensington lock, the power switch (works as power on and soft shutdown), the power and network connector, 2 USB host slots, a COPY button and a RESET switch (also used to start the e-TRAYz from a RAM disk if you have problems during first installation).
These are the first two videos ever made by a user. They've been taken by garibald75, who is also part of the small e-TRAYz betatester group.
I like the part where he throws the UK adapter back into the box :)
This and the following pictures should give you an impression of what you can expect if you are planning to order a unit.
