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Creative Uses For Extra Drive Bays?

Posted by timothy on from the mousetrap-in-the-dark dept.

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."

10 of 366 comments (clear)

  1. More hard drives. by RobVB · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.
    1. Re:More hard drives. by drsmithy · · Score: 2, Informative

      The five-drive cases suck rocks when it comes to cooling. There isn't enough space between drives to move the air. Thermaltake's 4-drive converter actually keeps the drives cool, improving their life span.

      I have 4 of these in an Antec 1200, and with the stock fans replaced with Noctua NF-B9 fans, it's not only nearly silent it keeps the drives under about 38 C (100 F). Since Google's research showed no appreciable correlation between drive temperature and failures rates until ~45+ C, that's good enough for me.

    2. Re:More hard drives. by Spazmania · · Score: 2, Informative

      You mean on this report: http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/labs.google.com/en/us/papers/disk_failures.pdf

      Figure 5 on page 6 shows drives running at temperatures over 35 degrees exhibiting distinctly higher failure rates after year 2. So if you plan to retire your drives after 24 months, then you're probably OK at 38 degrees.

      I wish they'd separated 15-30 degrees into 15-20, 20-25 and 25-30 groupings. The data confirms that running drives too cold is almost as bad as running them too hot but it doesn't offer any hints as to exactly where the problem spikes.

      I've used your supermicro 5-drive cages before. They're the best of the bunch. The front air intakes are quite respectable compared to most 5-drive cages. But even they are crammed too close and there aren't enough holes in the backplane to let the fan drag enough air through the cage.

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      Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
  2. Re:Umm, more drives? by hedwards · · Score: 2, Informative

    If I weren't using those drive bays for my radiator, I'd probably use them for hotswap SATA drives. Makes it a bit easier to dual boot and do backups.

  3. Water-cooling pumps by Freddybear · · Score: 1, Informative

    You can fit a water-cooling pump and controller system in a 5.25" drive bay.

  4. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 3, Informative

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  5. Store User Guides, Manuals, Invoices, Warranties by Cycloid+Torus · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.
  6. Re:install lots of usb ports by Heratiki · · Score: 2, Informative

    You mean like this? http://www.bigbruin.com/reviews05/thumbraid_1

  7. Warning - 12v outlet not for accessories... by aapold · · Score: 2, Informative

    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.

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    "Waste not one watt!" - CZ
  8. Storage by asc99c · · Score: 2, Informative

    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.