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How Do You Use Your Spare Drive Bays?

Posted by Cliff on from the getting-the-most-from-that-extra-space dept.

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."

13 of 135 comments (clear)

  1. big fan by flyneye · · Score: 1, Interesting

    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.

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  2. wires by myukew · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I stuff all the wires which I don't need there. I hope that improves the air circulation...

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  3. suspension by alexo · · Score: 5, Interesting


    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?

  4. Sound Blaster Platinum by lexarius · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How about one of these?

  5. Is there a laptop harddrive RAID array? by CaptainPinko · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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?

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    1. Re:Is there a laptop harddrive RAID array? by CaptainPinko · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Exactly, but mounted vertically. Might take three bays actually, but then you could fit a few more than two drives... and perferabbly not so candy coloured. Yeech. Oh, and the linked one only supports RAID 1. Something like this but I can't find more specs on it... http://www.jmr.com/solutions/collateral/serial_ata /SATAStor.pdf .

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      Your CPU is not doing anything else, at least do something.
  6. An opening by dtfinch · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

  7. Re:Mac Mini by CaptainPinko · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It was a joke... I meant you could install a mac mini in an empty drive bay.

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    Your CPU is not doing anything else, at least do something.
  8. 5 1/2" floppy by mister_jpeg · · Score: 5, Interesting
    bonus points if it's hooked up.


    I love that these have a mechanical lever and they make mechanical farts when booting. Retro cool and functional.

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    -jpeg
    1. Re:5 1/2" floppy by 91degrees · · Score: 2, Interesting

      A disk format with a maximum of 1.2MB storage is hardly all that useful in this day and age... Perhaps it would be possible to attach the cover to a DVD drive though (the type where you slide the disc into a slot), to get that retro look with modern functionality.

  9. Obligatory Reference by ReverendLoki · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I'm sort of surprised I haven't seen anyone mention the ubiquitous cup holder yet.

    Personally, i've always liked the idea of putting an LCD screen that can pop out the front of your drive bay...

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  10. Nothing fancy in mine by Piquan · · Score: 2, Interesting
    While the cupholder+cig lighter, cassette deck, EZ-bake oven, etc are all cool, I go with some more practical stuff. First, I have a set of fans in one of my bays. The other bay holds dials to change the speed of my other fans.

    I'm serious about my cooling, but like to turn down the auxiliary fans when I'm watching a movie.

  11. Re:On a related note... by OnoTadaki · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The Coolermaster Stacker has 11 bays http://www.coolermaster.com/index.php?LT=english&L anguage_s=2&url_place=product_list&p_class=614 I want to get one and put eleven http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/ezbake.shtml If my calculations are correct I could output enough baked goods to open a small bakery.