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How Do You Use Your Spare Drive Bays?
red_flea asks: "I've got a couple of CDROM bays that I'm not using. Besides another CD or DVD ROM drive, what else can you put there? I know some people who use that space to cool their Cheetah or Raptor drives. Anything else? Please reply with gratuitous linking to products, articles or modder blogs."
Keeps my grilled cheese nice and tosty warm.
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
I always wanted a fu-fme, but sadly they aren't OS X compatible. :(
On a more serious note, I'm considering one of these to help convert the mounds and mounds of greek cassette tapes my parents have from the 60's. If only something like that existed for 8-tracks..
I jam a house current 110,3 in. fan in there. fastened with nuts and bolts to the drive space covers.seems to put much more air through than a dinky 12v.
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
If it can't be empty, you should definatly go with the "oven drive".
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/ezbake.shtml
I stuff all the wires which I don't need there. I hope that improves the air circulation...
See pictures of tits
I activatly use my spare drive spaces as place holders for future expansion points.
zenray
Well, you could suspend your 3.5" drives in a 5.25" cage to get rid of vibration (reducing noise).
I was thinking of suspending a smallish 3.5" cage inside the 5.25" one.
Anyone knows where one can get old, possibly broken, computers for free in the Toronto area for such experiments?
How about one of these?
Mini Fridge (if you have a very nice cooling system), otherwise you could use it to make beef jerky.
Smoker? - Hummidor
CD Storage - duh
How about a drive bay book - about drive bays!
This can't be. You cannot be a geek AND have a spare drive bay in your system.
I always thought it'd be awesome if I could get a raid-array for laptop harddrives. I figure if you inserted them vertically they'd only take two bays and you could probably fit 5 of them... not that I've ever seen that.
But it would be realy nice, and what looks more 1337 than having redundant harddrives? With many nice large tower server cases with 5 or more drive bays open I think this could sell for the homeserver/self-hoste website crowd.
Anyone know if this actually exists somewhere?
Your CPU is not doing anything else, at least do something.
Storage: 5 megabytes
Weight: 4 pounds,
Spin-up sound: Impressive,
Geekness factor: High,
Power Usage: Excessive,
Shutdown method: c:\dos\park.com,
Interface: ISA card,
Linux support: Yes,
Windows support: No,
Badsectors: Probably,
Transfer rates: Who cares?
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
I'm on a laptop you insensitive jerk!
But if I had an extra drive bay and all the hard drive space I needed, I'd go with a tape deck.
Alex.
You could try to stop (gasp!) adding to your machine.
antipaucity
This is a very cool waste of space and you don't have to worry about DRM.
From time to time, I'll assemble a new old pc out of old parts and end up having a couple large openings left on the front of the system because I can't find the plastic covers for them. I'll just pretend it's good for airflow.
Ya know, its been a long running joke that geeks would marry their computers if they could.
With that in mind, I propose making a drive bay mounting system for a fleshlight.
Hey, at least it would be nice and warm all the time.
no content.
Your CPU is not doing anything else, at least do something.
If you have four drive bays available, may I hubly suggest kitticulture? It's a wonderful hobby, and the space is just the right size for your project. The warmth of the CPU and the devices in the 3.5 inch bays will help your subject mature comfortably, and your PC will purr as never before! Mounting railas will help you to remove the project easily at maturity, and your pet can supply fluid to a liquid-cooling system for your CPU. Also, if you have available power leads from your PSU, you can help to stimulate muscle growth in your project while keeping the subject confined indefinitely.
I have used an empty removable ide caddie (with all the wiring removed) as a draw for storing jelly beans.
Unfortunately the kilo (~2.2lb for you un-metric types out there) of Jelly Belly jelly beans only lasted until the morning of the third day in the office, so it was a jelly bean draw for only a short time...
Bryn
Or words to that effect
...one of those multiple flash card readers in a bay. Or a ramdisk.
I push floppies into my spare bay slot, and then call tech support to complain that my computer isn't working right...
"Not an actor, but he plays one on TV."
Great for stats, gamers, and drivers works in linux!
'nuff said
I have a Mac Mini you insensive clod :p
My P3 has 3 drive bays:
1) DVD reader
2) SCSI 4x CDR
3) 3.5" drive in a 5.25" drive enclosure bay
(I couldn't put the 3.5" floppy in the usual position because I have 3 hard disks)
Once I put my 100MB Iomega Zip drive (external parallel-port) into an empty drive bay. It looked pretty ugly because the Zip drive I have is not nicely rectangular. But it did what I wanted at the time (less clutter, less cables, always available, freed power point).
You wanted links and pics, see here: http://www.themodwiki.org/index.php/External_Water _Cooling
I actually didn't have enough in case room, so I built an external water cooler.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
I keep music CD's there.
With covers, they are called "Internal physical storage", without their cover they are called "Space reserved for ventilation purposes".
In reality mine contain tapes, CD's, screwdrivers & whatever else should be very close to the computer without getting lost.
I fill em with more drives! 2 x 400 GB plus the superdrive.
I love that these have a mechanical lever and they make mechanical farts when booting. Retro cool and functional.
-jpeg
I like to fill my spare drive bays with these on my beige boxes, and these for my more modern and stylish systems. When these devices occupy your extra drive bays, you may have some money leftover when you find something useful to put in their place.
-Turkey
One of my systems has 4 drives mounted on 3.5" - 5.25" brackets, with a single 120mm fan in front of them; keeps them around 35c, which is a good deal better than the 50c badly ventilated drives seem to live at.
The better solution is of course a case that doesn't suck and let your drives melt, but finding them can be tricky, especially when you want them to be fairly cheap and not suck in other ways.
Personally, i've always liked the idea of putting an LCD screen that can pop out the front of your drive bay...
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
Small bottle of Sake, Warm Sake Good!
Warm sake has been enjoyed in Japan for hundreds of years. Warm or hot sake is referred to in general as "kanzake." Warmth increases the effect of the alcohol in sake, which is probably why most westerners who have enjoyed warm sake say that it "packs a punch." In actual fact, most sake has about 18 percent alcohol, similar to most wines. The flavor of the sake is increased by heating, as is its dryness. Because of this dryness, warm or hot sake is the perfect companion for plain foods such as sashimi (raw fish) or sushi. The dryness will also help to cut the oiliness of hot pot dishes made with fat or oil.
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
Ever heard of the BriQ? (Picture) It's an entire PowerPC computer in a 5.25" drive form factor. Very cool. I'm not entirely sure if it is still available though as the link I have bookmarked isn't coming up. Either way, I figured it warranted mentioning.
With these you can stick a 3.5" ATA or SATA HDD into a caddy which goes into a rack that fits in a 5.25" bay. These allow you to add/remove/swap drives without having to open up your case.
Some allow hotswap. Some don't.
Some are a bit flaky (but others are pretty reliable) so be warned - test first before you buy a whole bunch of them.
The parent may just shove them in, but there are companies who make pop out CD holder for a 5.25" bay.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
for when I get mod points.
One CPU cycle wasted on digital restrictions management is ONE TOO MANY.
To keep notes from people not well-trained to find things; girlfriends, relatives, landlords, et al. Note: this works conveniently only on few styles of computer cases, which have easily-removed and replaced bay covers.
you could do this.
Ross Winn "not just another ugly face..."
I just looked up, and to my horrror I have a sand dollar sitting in the empty space above my CD drive.
My grandfather's funeral notice is in there too...
STOP. You're being farmed.
... which case has the most drive bays?
I like to impress people with my uber cool 5 1/4 and 3 1/2 combo floppy drive! Though I could never find one that would handle the 2.88 floppies!
Anonymous Cowards suck.
Seriously. I hide holiday and birthday presents in unused case space. My wife/kids would never even *think* of looking *inside my machines* for *any reason* as they aren't computer-savvy.
;)
Yes, I make sure nothing I put in there can melt/burn/dissolve/explode
I'm serious about my cooling, but like to turn down the auxiliary fans when I'm watching a movie.
Car style 12V cigarette lighter
Everybody's a libertarian 'till their neighbour's becomes a crack house.
I last had empty drive bays on my Pentium III 800 system. I realized back then I didn't have a huge need for massive expansion in my desktop machine.
After that, I went to a Shuttle XPC system. Plenty of internal space for what I need, and no wasted space. If I for some reason need more then 3 hard disks inside my box, it's probably time to add more space to the network server that sits in my basement instead of getting a bigger desktop case.
I used to have a full tower case because I thought it would be a great thing to have. I quickly realized that I didn't have the cash (or motherboard resources!) to fill it full of extra drives of any sort (tape, CD, DVD, or otherwise). So, I ordered these things online that are disc trays. They almost look like CD drives, but when you press the button, the drawer slides out, and there were flip holders for 8 CDs/DVDs in each one. I got three of them, and they were great to put my frequenly used discs in. Restore discs, various Linux distro CDs, games, and whatever else. If I can remember where I got them, I'll post here again, but I just can't seem to remember now.
In the fourth space, I put a removable HD rack. That's really handy to have, especially if you have several smaller HDs that you want to make use of but not fill up your case. Or, you can use it for your offsite backups. Stick in a drive, backup to it, and take it away.
*slight crashing sound*
Don't you mean miniature 5.25" Hard Disk Bay?
...am I dating myself here?
Err, wait...
Ok, yes I once owned 5.25" 4MB MFM RLL drives. Shut up.
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
I don't have spare drive bays you insensi... oh. Wrong section.
Direct away from face when opening.
I'm sure someone has a few old data cassettes from the Vic20/C64 era that they would like to use with an emulator. It would be nice if this thing could read those too.
the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs
On the non-OSS machne (needed for software that came with hardware such as the map transfer utility for the GPS) the OS cd with key (for audit), the motherboard CD, the flashcard reader driver, the EPROM burner CD, and other drivers CD's needed for system recovery.
Keeping the CD's and keys with the machine makes a software audit easier. This copy and key are installed on this machine.
It's like New Orleans.. It's not if the system will get hit hard, but when.
The truth shall set you free!
5.25" disk-drive - seriously. Very occasionally I've been known to borrow the books with 5.25" disks in the back. On even rarer occasions, I've actually found them useful (beats re-typing code). Also, it gives the computer a kind-of retro appeal (imho, ymmv).
In the mid 90's, the small British computer manufacturer Acorn (the company whose engineers originally invented the ARM Architecture) wanted to demonstrate the adaptability of their case design.
The stackable, expandable case, meant that a supposedly unlimited number of drive bays could be added - effectively a stand-alone rack for the home.
Naturally, just adding a few extra drives is a bit deja vu, so instead, domestic appliances were installed including a Pizza Oven and a Sink , with running water.
It's still a personal favourite nearly 10 years on.
boakes.org
Personally I would rig up something like this if I actually had a free millimeter in my case: http://bit-tech.net/article/136/1 The example isn't in a bay, but bay mounting is fully possible.
I know it's late but if it's any consolation I agree with the sibling poster that you found the perfect match. I don't work for SuperMicro (or anyone for that matter... still a student). It's nicer and according to Froogle significantly cheaper than the SATAStor I found earlier. I think I'm definitely going to buy one of these when I build my next computer (going onto an internsip soon --hopefully-- so I'll have some spare change to play with).
Your CPU is not doing anything else, at least do something.