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Creative Uses for 5.25" Drive Bays?
ZeLonewolf asks: "Like I'm sure many slashdot readers, my computer has a number of free 5.25" drive bays free. After the requisite burner, DVD drive, maybe a tape drive, there's invariably a few slots free. Do any slashdot readers have any creative suggestions for filling the gap?"
6 types of memory cards, 2 front USB ports, a firewire port, and audio in/out
Everything we do echoes in eternity...
--didn't we have a story here about a complete PC that would fit in one of those size bays? That would seem a good thing to add. Like jello,there's always room for more! A "spare" PC could be used for any number of purposes, perhaps for your router or any other dedicated purpose you might not want to do constantly with the main mobo, etc.
Think a mini home rack system, or microrack.
One I was working on with my junk,one that is still sitting uncompleted of course with my other unfinished projects, would be some way to have a vcr in there, the slot appears just large enough to accept a VHS cartridge. I actually would like something like that. It looks easy enough if you cut the case and had it load out the side, I wanted it to be normal front slot loading, just like the cd and floppy. I was limited by only one spare vcr I would contemplate cannabilizing,and it just isn't designed correctly for the task, so I skipped that really, put it on hold for now, but maybe if you were to look around hard at used vcrs and find a different designed one that might fit better. The VCRs that come as a combo unit with the 12 VDC TVs look a lot more promising in initial design for that. We have one like that here, and when my girlfriend caught me eyeballing it and when I started mumbling about doing a project like that she goes NO YOU DON'T because it's sorta kinda technically her TV she watches, so.....
That's funny because just the other day i actually installed a 5.25" floppy in my Athlon XP 1700 w/ 512 Ram. Just so I could play games made in 1984 (Sierra * Quest games, running under Linux with emulation). I felt like there was something morally wrong with what I was doing though. :)
A tape transport ripped from a car radio could easily fit into a 5in drive bay, the audio in/out spliced into the soundcard.
Advanced project: implement an interface to the Play/Reverse/Stop/Rew/FF via Parallel, serial or USB port and its corresponding MCI driver or IOCTL block device.
With two open drive bays and some careful plexiglass work, it's the perfect place for a Siamese fighting fish (betta). Add some lighting; I'm sure fellow geeks would appreciate the "betta tester."
Since it'll be nice and warm, you could instead use it as a terrarium...and keep a small tarantula in there. You will have 100% guaranteed that no one will ever feel tempted to mess with your computer again, especially if they are female.
Another idea, that preserves ventilation: use two sheets of plexiglass and make an ant farm. Be sure to back light with red LED's or cold cathode.
How about a Q job? Any international spy...uhm, geek, could use a computer with hidden access to a handgun, or perhaps an emergency Mountain Dew. The right key combination send a command to the drive bay doors, and the top one swivels up, the bottom swivels down.... Voice recognition, "HAL, open the pod bay doors!" I once wrote an application that used a voice recognition SDK, I had several commands programmed in there and ST:TNG computer acknowledgement sounds, so I could walk into the room and: "Computer," "Current time!" . Despite all that, I'm not as geeky as one might think.
If my extra bays weren't being used for cooling, I'd probably just install a Cardbus/CompactFlash/Firewire/video access panel, but you asked for something creative....
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