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PC Cases with Side or Top Mounted Drive Bays?
Coplan asks: "I'm a computer musician, and I have a couple of those drive-bay interfaces in my computer. While it is nice to have such cables and ports easily accessible, they can easily get in the way on the front of your case. Ideally, the ultimate case would be one where there were drivebays on the sides or the top of the case for this purpose (or even a special shaped case). I'm not into modifying my cases with dremel tools and the like, but I havn't exactly found a commercially available solution either. I believe that someone in the slashdot community might have similar needs, and might have found such a solution. Does anyone have any recommendations?"
After searching in vain, I finally gave up and bought a rack mount case. Supermicro has a nice 2u case that has 6 (six!!!) spaces on the front for removable HD chassis.
There are pleanty of SCSI removable chassis for $25 or less, and a couple of solutions for ATA drives. I'm using a SCSI system myself, but the new ABIT board with the over abundance of ATA interfaces (something on the order of 14 devices IIRC) would probably be a good match.
The only drawback is the lack of ports on the front. I fixed this by making a 1u plate out of annodized aluminum with all of the jacks that I'd need on the front.
This all sits in a nice anvil-like case that I built out of MDF and carpeted. There's a trunk-like spot in the top that holds my 15" LCD, keyboard and trackball.
I don't use the computer too much for gigging, but when I'm recording with the band, it comes in handy.
Good luck!
There's so little difference between politics and jihad lately...
How many interfaces do you have in the front that it's causing such a mess? Anyway, I would go with the 1u rack mount option like the guy above. There's a ton of small rack boxes, I use one for my solid state guitar rig. I plan on buying a 1u rack mount case and building a custom PC for recording and for holding synth hardware. Otherwise, learn how to use that dremel you mentioned.
--- Think of it as evolution in action ---
No need to weld anything. Check the Yeong Yang cube case (02 serie), or the Chenbro server line. Plenty of room in any of those (up to 12 5 1/4 bays in the SR101).
But I think the original poster asked for a case with bays not only facing in front, but also either up or on the side (so his cables would go in different directions and be less cluttered).
For that, one of the small P4 cases recently featured on Slashdot might be useful, as a secondary case, or any minitower for that matter.
Consider looking at http://www.spinserver.com. These are rackmount cases that are designed to bring the expansion slots to where they're accessible; the front. However, they also make perfectly reasonable desktop-style (flat, not tower) cases; several of my friends use them that way (I recommend the 3U for this purpose). What you would want to do is use the whole thing backwards... have both drives and slots away from you. The only wire blocking your desk would be a power wire... I don't know of any case that comes closer to your demands, although admittedly this isn't perfect. Also, if you have other musical gear, the 19" rack formfactor may be a selling point. If not, take off the ears and just put it on the table.
I've had this sig for three days.
Is this correct?
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