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Creative Uses For Extra Drive Bays?
sheetsda writes "For many years now PC cases have included 3 or 4 or even more external 5.25 inch drive bays. These days with the proliferation of USB thumb drives and gigabit Ethernet, even my DVD drive has been gathering dust since OS-install-time. Before that when combination CD-RW and DVD drives were nonexistent or expensive that still leaves and extra drive bay or two. What exceptionally inventive, useful, or clever uses have the community found for this extra space? Bonus geek cred for solutions making use of the power rails inside the case."
'Nuff said.
You can read a little about it here: http://wiki.auroralinux.net/wiki/SPARCplug
Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
It even uses the power.
for cheap.
I simply tuck the excess ribbon and power cables in the empty drive bays. Even easier if you get some cable management clips, the kind with adhesive to stick to the wall of the bays. This way you maximize airflow and such.
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START
Three 5.25" drive bays above each other can hold a case with four 3.5" drive bays and a 120mm fan. Thermaltake sells them, as do zillions of other companies.
I'd rather you rationally disagree than irrationally agree.
Bonus geek cred: Heated.
Card readers / more front ports
If you have old-ish disks around, you can build a RAID array (0, 5, whatever). It will increase the performance of your machine.
For some reason I always liked how 5"1/4 bays provided a lot of space in between 3"1/2 disks, which is probably better in terms of heat management. I remember putting up to 10 disks in a medium tower, using all 5"1/4 bays for disks (who needs a CD when you can install your OS on USB?).
Build a software RAID array. Your disk performance will be significantly faster since reads can be parallelized out to multiple disks.
Warmth and vibration for your Fleshlight.
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
For only $600 a month. Barely used, like new!*
Guaranteed bay view.
*Driver not included
In soviet Russia, God creates you!
A cup holder, of course.
then start collecting usb thumbdrives and make a RAID array with them.
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
Creative [labs] uses an extra drive bay :) ?
You can fit a water-cooling pump and controller system in a 5.25" drive bay.
How about a toaster
http://www.crazypc.com/other/misc/toast.htm
I recently just dropped one of these in my system the other day. Doing a search for "front panel" on DX can yield quite a number things to fill up those front bay slots with.
I've been through the days where I wanted to do zillions of case mod's to my desktop PC; everything from a 5.25" toggled-switch fan controller bus to microcontroller-controlled lighting system that steals/slaves the 5v power from the PSU (which was pretty bitchin', btw).
All I'm saying is if you're super duper struggling to find a DIY solution to extra 5.25" bays in your PC and went as fas as to ask slashdot'ers what they think, I'd either: 1) just buy a new, slimline case that doesn't have extra bays, 2) take your girlfriend/wife/best friend out to lunch or 3) keep the money in the bank; anything else is just going to be a geek-fad money pit that'll die out sooner than it takes you find another idea to use that empty space for.
Use the space as a shelf and place your external networked backup drive inside. Just because it's logically separate doesn't mean it has to clutter up some corner of the room all by itself. Or your wifi station, though you'll need to let the antenna stick out of course.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
...for those times when you need to clean your keyboard.
A key secured storage space for things like usb thumb drives and my password mini-list. Stuff that's important enough to not leave lying around, but not so important it would really hurt if someone else got it. (like root passwords, full password logbook, credit/debit cards, etc.)
How about a small fridge unit, enough to cool a few cans of beer? I'm sure ThinkGeek could come up with something that'd fit right into two bays, with a separate spring-loaded bay for each can.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
My PC is as far away as possible in the corner under my table. I have a USB DVD player on my desk and a USB connection for all my other things I want to connect to it (Camera, ...)
But if I had to select something, I would go for this: http://us.gizmodo.com/gadgets/images/beer_pc.jpg
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
http://goo.gl/BLBo Too bad they don't sell these anymore. Mine works great!
I'm rocking a toaster, got 3 drive bays and a power supply that's otherwise wasted... might aswell have toast while i rip sh*t... keeping the butter solid is my most recent quandary...
An acquaintance of mine converted his extra bays in a full-size tower to a storage space for often-needed electronics. There were drawers for transistors, LEDs, regular diodes, some ICs, and the other little bits he used often in his robot-building hobby. The top bay had a current limiter in it, cleaning and isolating the power supplied to plugs on the front, fed from the PC supply.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/989051/
I realize not everyone runs RAID 5 on their PC, but I do and for maximum convenience and cooling, convert 2 of those bays into 3-drive hot-swappable goodness.
http://www.istarusa.com/rackmount_chassis/product/BPU-230SATA/2x5.25_inch_to_3x3.5_inch_SATA2.0_Hot-Swap_Backplane_Raid_Cage.aspx
There is a large fan behind the drives which keeps drive temperatures very low (especially since I've only got single-platter 500GB Seagates in there).
This is a MUCH better option than multiple single-slot 5.25" trays with their tiny fans and lousy cooling.
I'm pretty sure this manufacturer does even larger units occupying 3 bays (RAID 10 anyone?)
From hell's heart I fstab at /dev/hdc
Comment removed based on user account deletion
build a monitor in the drivebays http://tweakers.net/ext/f/yH7HML9VL2L3Rk5OK5grdosF/full.jpg full story (dutch) http://gathering.tweakers.net/forum/list_messages/1359397/0//scherm%2Cdrivebay All credit goes to Terw_Dan here, not my mod. Very impressive, and most useful solution of the drivebay space i've seen so far.
- I have a sound card with a front panel bay with RCA inputs, mic/headphone jacks and volume controls as well as some sound preset buttons which takes up one bay.
- Three other bays (my case has 7 total) has a 120mm fan enclosure for air intake (cold air in front of the case means i don't recycle warm air from the back)
- Two bays have a BD-RE/HD-DVD combo drive and a DVD-RW
- The last bay has a fan speed control bay with four nobs to tune fans in my case.
Some other interesting things I've seen are water cooling reservoirs with see-through ports; looks cool if you use fluorescent liquid additives. Also, some HUD-like bays that display system status info; I've even seen some with USB connections to get info from within the OS like HDD/RAM/CPU usage and temperature information.
-SaNo
When I finish a build, I fill a ziplok poly bag full of all the stuff which I got with the parts I used for the box. Then I stuff it in a 5.25" bay which doesn't block ventilation. Sure beats looking though the stack of paper under my desk or in boxes or spare part bins.
Lost in space at an early age. Survived the vacuum. Now rebuilding castle in air.
You put your weed in there!
I have on of those http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=2542 Also, It depends on what you prefer.If you are a "usefull hardware" guy, take a hard drive bay, if you are a system administrator, buy a toaster or a coffe mug holder(unless you use cd-drive tray for that).
Stick a 5.25 inch floppy disk drive in there, just for the pose value.
Nine external 5.25" bays and some fan modules(120mm) that fit in three bays with mounts for three 3.5" drives. at first you might thing it is a waste of space to put one 3.5" drive per 5.25" bay, but the extra space allows for airflow around the drive keeping them nice and cool. Thermaltake M9 and there are a few others with an identical 9-drive configuration.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
EZ Bake oven is the ultimate in easy quick snack goodness!
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/ezbake.shtml
I'll meet you at the intersection of "Should be" and "Reality"
I much prefer the Cigarette Lighter and Cup Holder Bay Insert, guaranteed to break up fellow geeks, and it holds cups, too!
I'm a dreamer, the world is my playpen. But hey, I'm a serious person, I can't dream all the time.
http://yourdaily.blogspot.com/2007/03/pc-beer-dispenser.html
how about a mini aquarium? would look funny...
I have a nice HD bay fan It works out great, because my HD bays are directly in line with my CPU heatsink, I got a couple more MHz out of my overclock upon installing this,
you can put your weed in there
Grow you favorite flavor of head stash, a Micro Grow
- Snack storage (no chocolate)
- Snack machine (no chocolate) (lots of work)
- Keep warm storage for coffee and pizza (ducted from CPU/PS exhaust)
- Book case for tech manuals
- Lit insulated goldfish bowl (space theme)
- Insulated ant farm (plus points for backlight and transparent colored sand)
- Small 3D TV (looks like the things are inside your PC)
- All kinds of blinkin' lights and readouts attached to various signals (lots of work)
- Lit glass terrarium for super hero figurines and other useless collectables
Keep your non-prescription pharmacy in there.
Lots of old drives that are too small to be useful?
Try screwing a drive into every second bay. Make sure you use at least four screws per drive, preferably six...
The extra mass and rigidity of the drives will damp vibrations and make your computer sound *much* quieter. You don't need to actually wire the drives to anything.
You're welcome.
keep the original media and doc ready
That's all you need.
http://www.xpcgear.com/cdhomesblue.html
You put your weed in it.
I have one of these. I charge my celphone with it using my car charger if I forgot the usb cable. However, once I needed to clean a (diferent) pc case and got the bright idea of using one of those 12v mini car vacuum cleaners. It lasted about 1.5 seconds before the PC just up and died. Fortunately no permanent damage was done. There probably was a warning about that somewhere in the discarded small print... I think the cup holder was supposed to be an ashtray actually. I use it to hold extra screws and stuff like that. The actual lighter on mine broke long ago though.
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
And you can modify your old inkjet printer to spray butter!
...hundreds and thousands of blinking, beeping and flashing lights.. blinking and beeping and flashing.. they are flashing and they're beeping..I can't stand it anymore! They're blinking and beeping and flashing.. Why doesn't somebody pull the plug...?!
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
Fill'em with drives?
Isn't that what they are for?
I find it strange that that thing says it supports OS X when I can't think of a single machine it would even fit in. The towers don't have 5.25" bays like that and the rest of the line doesn't have bays at all.
Big apple, new Yorik, undig it, something's unrotting in Edenmark.
For many years now PC cases have included 3 or 4 or even more external 5.25 inch drive bays
That doesn't sound very typical. How many cases actually come with external drive cases as standard? If you can't think of what to do with the external cases, then just buy a standard case that's just a case.
... and then they built the supercollider.
Toss in a 12v LED panel and power it plus fans from the 12v lines. I have a nepenthes growing in the case, now, and the drive bay section holds all the wireless monitoring equipment.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Hey, your PC's generating too much heat anyway, might as well use it?
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
I thought it might be interesting to get a whole bunch of small ARM boards (eg the sheevaplug motherboard or similar), and mount loads of them inside a single case with a single power supply... I believe they use a 5V power supply, so a standard psu should be able to drive lots of them.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
How about using the power rails inside the case to generate high voltage and light obsolete neon display devices? http://www.illuwatar.se/project_pages/nixieclock2/muxnixie.htm
Each processor would proceed sequentially as if it had been better for them not to rise against Saul.
Back in the day we used to mount buttons in extra face plates. We would wire them to the hardware volume control pins on put soundblaters and then wire the others to the parallel port based on a schematic we found that would let us use the buttons to control WinAmp, launch applications etc... I know your question was perhaps more focused on the bay space ielf but don't forget Fun With Faceplates!
Take an old CD drive, glue the faceplate to the tray, dremel out the tray and rip out the reader components. Find a small cardboard box to attach to the remaining ejected tray bit... and remove the button. Whenever you need to get at your secret stash, use a paperclip to activate the button...
I did this over a decade ago. I put a DPDT toggle switch in the drive bay cover and wired it to the DRIVE 1 and DRIVE 2 jumpers on a pair of MFM hard drives. With the flip of a switch I could boot into DOS or AIX. Back in the day, it required a pair of identical drives. But today the BIOS will auto-detect at boot so you could do it with the MASTER and SLAVE jumpers on IDE drives or get real creative and tap into the CSEL lines on the ribbon connector. Heck, I might try hot-wiring a rotary switch to the multiplier jumpers on a MOBO just so I can turn the processor speed up to 11.
Fixed that for you.
Attach a small air pump to the power supply and write some kind of app that will blow air into one of those party noise makers, you know, the kind that shoots out and sounds like kazoo? Make it so that it goes off on start up and randomly throughout the day.
It contains the thermite incindiary that will fire if you give three wrong passwords.
Drop the case, get a smaller one. In my case, the computer is in the drawer which is part of the desk table, the server is in a cupboard. i got rid of those ugly cases, they serve no purpose anyways.. and cost money for nothing.. and have no chicks for free..
I've been using one of these for over a year. Handy for having your OS on a 4x SSD RAID. Uses only one 5.25" bay:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816710003
Be sure to get the beefier model (with the fans) if you want to use 4x VRaptors.
Allyn Malventano
Storage Editor, PC Perspective
this sig was brought to you by the letter
1) VU meters
2) Blinking lights.
After many years of just this sort of question [*] I though 'bugger it' and started buying Macs. iMacs, MacBooks, MBPs, and since Saturday I now have a Mac mini. No drive bays: I can just get on with writing code without worrying and wasting time and money on such things.
The same likely applies to people who buy only laptops these days.
[*] to which the answer is nearly always: more hard disks. Which just makes the problems worse when you reach 12 3.5" disks in an ATX case.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muA5EBmpDhA
Unless you have an OEM PC that already has this, thats a good use. Its about a 19 dollar dohickey that fits right in that hole there and had usb audio and firewire.
I have a Mac.
Grow Weed? http://www.pcgrowcase.com/flowerboxlst.htm
I will tell you what I did with all MY extra bays:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817998031
Love it! Combine Linux with AHCI with these racks and have kewlness! Throw in any number of regular, cheap SATA 3.5" drives. Hotswap. Activity light. Create a software RAID (that is what I did, and it really works). Use it for removable backup that stores more than a USB drive and is much faster. Play around with different boot options.
I put in four of those suckers. The 5th bay is my DVD drive. Oh- and the floppy bay? Do this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817998038
And now I have dual hotswap 2.5 inch drives in the mix too!!
Snakes on a backplane???
(sorry, somebody had to say it!)
My apologies if this was already posted.
I suggest creating a self destruct button... Something along the lines of: http://hackaday.com/2008/09/16/how-to-thermite-based-hard-drive-anti-forensic-destruction/
Scott Swezey
Oh wait, nevermind - got one already.
Around 15 years ago I had a 7-band digital car equalizer/booster in my overclocked full-tower 486 (AMD 5x86 @160Mhz, 4*40, very nice CPU)
It was *almost* a perfect fit, only had to dremel the case and the amp a little. It was powered from a MOLEX connector (using an homemade choke to filter out unwanted spikes and whine) then hooked up to the sound card and a set of 4 4ohm loudspeakers (no surround, just stereo though). At 120W RMS it kinda killed the original power supply while playing an intense mission in Tie Fighter :(
(It was a half-din Radio-Crap digital EQ/amp, I think I might still have it somewhere in my locker)
My modified 11W CB could probably be fitted in a 5.25 bay too, I just wouldn't know where to put my 102" whip antenna, I could ask my landlord If I could put it on the roof with a ground plate :p
But, it might be a fun project for the week-end, I have an old InWin Q500 full-tower lying here doing nothing, and I'm pretty sure I still have my old Blaupunkt head-unit too (tape, Montreal model IIRC)
Besides, I'm always looking for new excuses to use my Dremel :p
Tape deck, EQ, and CB would take 3 bays, CD/DVD-ROM would take another, and I still would have one to spare (card reader or drive caddy)
I've got better things to do tonight than die.
I only ever use the 5.25" bays, and find the 3.5" ones useless.
For example:
http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/harddrivesolutions/smartdrive-neo
takes a conventional 3.5" disk, and both cools and quietens it.
The effect is quite dramatic: I cannot hear my PC at all.
(I already put a silent CPU heatsink in, and a very-quiet PSU).
Perhaps not the most creative use, but it seems every single item I connect to my PC needs a different cable - mostly USB, but there are so many versions to choose from these days. Plus other stuff like headphones, a portable hard disc, spare batteries for cordless mouse etc. Generally I'd got a pile of bits and pieces centred around a desktop with 7 empty 5.25" bays.
I've got a few of these: http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/caseaccessories/kama-cabinet-abk - they're just little storage drawers, but they're helpful for organising all the bits that go with the PC.
Funny, I can only fit 2 external drive bays in my pc, But i have to rip out 3 or four of those pesky internal cages first!
Back in the mid 90's I made a controller than ran a couple of 12" subs off the computer's sound card. On the front I had a couple of volume controls and rows of LEDs to show the output visually.
I've also got something a little special in the next series of funnyhacks which starts in September.
Funnyhacks - Wierd, unusual, and fun hacks
This reminds me of years ago when I had this system where I had like four big huge hard drives connected to my computer, that were too big to fit inside, so I left the cover off. A system only a geek could love. Well, there was this huge three foot iguana I had inherited that I made a roost for it by the computer. That was a mistake! It was calm much of the time but would suddenly and without any apparent reason would dart off like a rabbit to hide inside what qualified as the nearest hole which much to my chagrin ended up being the empty drive bays. So suddenly there's this huge monster frantically ripping a hole through the back of the computer ripping wires and chips like some crazed reverse alien being trying to get in instead of out! So I guess this might qualify as the most unique but impractical use of empty hard drive bays.
www.Migrainesoft.com - Computer giving you a headache? We can fix that!
Isn't that a fire hazard when PC is on?
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
I wanted a simple way to connect an original Xbox controller to my rig to play emulated games, and I knew that the Xbox game port is electrically and logically a USB port. So, I pulled one of the two port harnesses out of a dead Xbox, wired the ports to pin header connectors, and plugged them into the USB headers on my motherboard. The system recognized the controllers I plugged in as USB gamepads, with the help of the Xbox drivers for OS X and Windows (Linux has native support).
I found that the width of the gameport harness was a perfect fit for one of my two 3.5" bays, so I used a couple of self tapping screws to bolt them in place. Now, to use a gamepad I just open the drive door and plug it in. The most fun part for me was learning (via the OS X gamepad control panel) that the ABXY buttons can be switched to analog pressure control, just like the shoulder buttons. (Don't laugh, I'm not a regular Xbox player so I wasn't previously aware of this feature.)
Lexan fish tank mounted to the case with bettas or other fish that don't want a huge space.
I used to use it as a cooler. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v342/Phopojijo/comp1.jpg
A few years back, I noticed my DSL modem, router, network hub, etc. were around 5-6 inches wide. I figured if I could take the guts out and put the boards in custom enclosures, I could convert an old PC case to a mini rack mount, with a lot of the cables contained inside. Never came up with an enclosure solution I liked, though. Most of these devices are powered by wall warts that feed DC current, the challenge is picking devices that take 5 or 12V (there's a lot of stuff out there that wants 7 or 9V, although that can be done if you want to get creative).
...since this IS Ask Slashdot ;)
Porta Pussy!
I have a 4-bay 1u rack-mount server that I use as a living room coffee table. Bays 1 and 2 contain a raid-1 boot volume, bay 3 contains rolling papers and tobacco, and bay 4 contains at least two kinds of pot, and also a lighter.
Should fit, right?
Their they're doing there hair.
Years ago I used a bay in my full tower as a discreet safe. I put a removable HDD caddy wired up the power so that it looked real and removed the connector from the removable section. Lined the inside with foam to hold the objects I wished to keep hidden (mostly some special plant product that I don't use now). The lid just clipped on and off so no tools required to get into it. It also had a lock and key as standard so it was the perfect hiding place. Worked great.
Drive Bay UPS's aren't hard to come by. They only last for a few minutes normally but if it's something useful, practical and worthwhile.
A mate of mine removed all 4 bays and added a modified container, with door. He uses it to hold his beer whilst gaming. It's nearby and there is less chance of it spilling on keyboards etc. He's busy modifying it to see if he can add a refrigeration function to it
Is that really worth $100?
Yo, dawg, I heard you like memes, so I put a meme in your meme so you can meme while you're meming.
http://seo.propertyinwisconsin.com
We leave ours alone...
Without built-in inverter and an external battery pack an UPS could last for longer; this could fit between the power rails of the PSU.
3 bays could fit a 12V battery without any problems; only safety might be an issue when overloading the UPS.
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
I've got a PC with 9 bays, all filled with fufme's and cameras attached to "participate deep within social networking" ... ... Gives me an orgy of information!
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
Two of these drawers can hold some extra dvd's, flash drives, and whatnot. They are also rather stealthy.
Clickety Click
I've put a small ramp in front. Before I go to sleep I insert a little chunk of cheese. After I sleep I usually find a freshly roasted mice inside (don't sue me Intel!). My cat loves them fresh and crispy. It stinks a bit but if I don't wash my socks for a week it's hardly noticeable. I actually dry them in slot above the trap. Maybe I wouldn't need the chunk of cheese.
I thought it would be nice to have a dock for my Android phone and for other portable devices. I started a project to empty the guts out of a 5.25 tray and make a slot formp3 players / Nexus One (or any Mini usb mobile or other device).
Like most projects I started the list of possible features grew somewhat...
Additional front USB ports (always useful)
IEEE 1394
eSATA port(s)
Hot swappable SSD bay
3.25" HDD sata dock
Addtional ethernet - possible rip apart a multi-port hub and integrate it
Various DC (5,12 and maybe 6 & 9v etc) adapters with a retractable cord.
Molex connectors
Fan headers
DC->DC power supply for hobbies
Single can peltier based beer cooler
Also like many project I start, I collected a few parts then got distracted by something else geeky.
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
That's a no brainer. Stick a 4.5"x4.5" Kleenex box in the space three 5.25" drive bays. Mill new front cover and you're good do go for ... you know, that influenza season.
I'm still waiting for ThinkGeek (or a similar outfit) to start selling an electric pencil sharpener that fits in a standard drive slot of my PC and is powered from the PSU of the PC. Keeping the wood and graphite particles away from the innards of the computer may pose a problem.
Quite a long time ago I decided to upgrade my computer, I got all the parts on newegg, and when they arrived I noticed that my tiny 250w power supply would not work for all my new junk. So, I went to Good Will and picked up a computer with another 250w power supply for like 20 bucks and built it into the empty disk drives. Was pretty fun stuff, I had the motherboard and video card off of the main power supply and everything else off of the backup. Served as a pretty good way at keeping people from getting onto my computer, "Why is it not booting?" "The hell you breaking my computer for!?"
the task of cleaning out the closet where I've been dumping my old computers and parts came to the top of the infamous honey-do list. I found 8 40gig drives a couple of 30gig drives and a 20gig drive. After testing I had 6 working 30gig drives. I tore down the others just for grins and giggles and to pass around in some of my classes. Not to mention the magnets in the head positioning system are fun to play with.
I also found an old mother board, 3 or 4 CDROM drives, RAM, a couple of power supplies and a very very old PC case. So, I built a PC. We call it Frankenputer. I got a working Athlon 1.5Ghz processor from the computer goodwill store and I lucked out and found some PCI IDE interface cards at the same place. (I had to update all the ROMs in the whole system to get it to work. Finding the BIOSes for a bunch of discontinued cards made by out of business companies was not as hard it sounds.) I had one set of rails for installing a 3.5 inch hard drive in a 5.25 bay. I found several more at computer Goodwill Computer store! I picked up a 30 dollar case at Fry's.
Thanks to google, Goodwill, and freedos I got it all working. I used FreeDos and GParted to get all the disks configured and tested as a raid. Then, I installed Ubuntu using the "alternative" installation disk.
Even though the drives were all "40GB" drives each manufacturers drives were of a different size. So, I created a partition the size of the smallest drive on each drive. Then in the extra space I created a partition of the size of the empty space on the next largest drive. The odd bits of space left at the end of two drives I just partitioned as their actual size. I used the 6 large partitions as a RAID 0, the second set became another RAID 0. The rest of the partitions just became normal drives.
I stuck an old NVidia video card and a old but good network card in there and the thing actually works. It is an absurdly fast disk server.
Every 3.5 inch bay has a drive in it. Every 5.25 inch drive bay has a drive in it.
All the rest of the stuff in the closet went to Goodwill or the dump. Recently a new item went on my list... Move Frankenputer out of the living room. Oh well. And it looks so good on the book shelf :-) For some reason she wants me to move the table saw out of the living room too. Can't imagine why? Can you?
Stonewolf