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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."

29 of 366 comments (clear)

  1. The SPARCplug by bhima · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You can read a little about it here: http://wiki.auroralinux.net/wiki/SPARCplug

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    1. Re:The SPARCplug by hitmark · · Score: 2, Interesting

      didnt gigabyte demo a motherboard with built in atom cpu and kvm?

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    2. Re:The SPARCplug by Cylix · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Better add another monitor so you can compute while you compute and not worry about a second monitor or x session.

      http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?C=1257&ID=1481

      --
      "You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours." -- Yogi Berra
    3. Re:The SPARCplug by stonewallred · · Score: 4, Interesting

      PC cases make great micro grow cabinets if you are into growing your own pot. Seen one where they put some really small mother board in the back section, and made the main case into a grow box. Complete with a carbon scrubber to kill the odor. Fully functional computer with a small plant growing inside. Dude got almost an ounce off it when dried and cured.

  2. Re:More hard drives. by Nkwe · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    Five drives actually.

  3. Front-panel goodness by Shrubbman · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

  4. Whats the point? by adosch · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

  5. Re:First toast by adonoman · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Personally, I prefer the cup holder / cigarette lighter.

  6. One idea by JanneM · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.
  7. Lockbox by meerling · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.)

  8. Re:More hard drives. by click2005 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I prefer 8 2.5" drives in two 5.25" bays.

    http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/PCICase-8-Bay-SATA-SAS-(SFF)-Backplane-needs-2-x-525-Slots

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  9. Re:First toast by Forge · · Score: 5, Interesting

    http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/plusdeck.html Sorry I couldn't do the link properly. busted keyboard :(

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  10. Power supply by Sarten-X · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

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  11. multi-drive hot-swap kit by Rudeboy777 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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?)

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  12. Re:First toast by mcmonkey · · Score: 4, Interesting

    My first thought was an Easy Bake oven

    http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/ezbake.shtml

  13. monitor by Emmeau · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  14. Re:More hard drives. by actionbastard · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Three 5.25" bays hold twelve 2.5" drives with a combined capacity of twelve TB.

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  15. EZ Bake Oven by Lifyre · · Score: 2, Interesting

    EZ Bake oven is the ultimate in easy quick snack goodness!

    http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/ezbake.shtml

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  16. Grab a cold one by bjs555 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    http://yourdaily.blogspot.com/2007/03/pc-beer-dispenser.html

  17. Fans fans fans by WiglyWorm · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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,

  18. Lots of spare drive bays? by Peet42 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

  19. CD/DVD storage by Yvan256 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    http://www.xpcgear.com/cdhomesblue.html

  20. Re:Umm, more drives? by networkBoy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I use one of these: 4x 2.5 sata.
    With 500 gig Scorpio blue drives hitting $55 it's actually price competitive with high quality DVD media, and certainly is space competitive.
    (when figuring out price competitive I accounted for the fact that nearly 700 meg of a dvd is often wasted in file backups).

    I wrote a perl script that computes and saves to the host and drive a hash table of all files on the archive so I can check for bit-rot.
    -nB

    --
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  21. Re:More hard drives. by WuphonsReach · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Three 5.25" bays hold twelve 2.5" drives with a combined capacity of twelve TB.

    Ick, ick, ick. So you're proposing to fit a case with a bunch of noisy, underperforming, low air volume 40mm fans? And not just 2, but 6? And you expect those fans to last for more then a few months before they start making even more noise?

    At least the earlier linked 2.5" backplane uses a pair of 60mm fans. Which are going to be quieter and more likely to last. I'd bet they move enough air to keep those 8 drives cool as well, even in a warmer location.

    --
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  22. Built-in Vaporizer? by billstewart · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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
  23. How about 4x 2.5" hot swap SSD's up front? by AllynM · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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

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  24. Silent HDD coolers by Richard_J_N · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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).

  25. 3.5", not 5.25" by arashi+no+garou · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.)

  26. Drive Bay UPS by ledow · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.