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."

Comments

First toast

[Ethanol-fueled]

'Nuff said.

Re:First toast

[n1hilist]

Pfft, nVidia have been doing that for ages! And now with 3 way SLI I can do 3 slices at once!

Re:First toast

[adonoman]

Personally, I prefer the cup holder / cigarette lighter.

Re:First toast

[Forge]

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

Re:First toast

[mcmonkey]

My first thought was an Easy Bake oven

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

Re:First toast

[Hognoxious]

Enough is enough! I have had it with these motherfucking snakes in this motherfucking PC!

Re:First toast

[Splab]

They do, they even come with a monitor you can open and close over the keyboard - they call it a "laptop".

Re:First toast

[ScrewMaster]

Personally, I prefer the cup holder / cigarette lighter.

Install an electrically-fired ZIP gun in the thing ... anyone tries to break into your files, you set it off and have a "drive bay shooting".

The SPARCplug

[bhima]

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

Re:The SPARCplug

[Anonymous Coward]

Yo dawg, I heard you like computers, so I put a computer in your computer so you can compute while you compute.

Re:The SPARCplug

[ApolloX]

Yep, and they should sell a USB stick that goes inside that, that functions as another computer!

Re:The SPARCplug

[hitmark]

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

Re:The SPARCplug

[Cylix]

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

Re:The SPARCplug

[stonewallred]

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.

cable management

[Vandil X]

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.

More hard drives.

[RobVB]

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.

Re:More hard drives.

[Nkwe]

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.

Re:More hard drives.

[click2005]

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

Re:More hard drives.

[actionbastard]

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

Re:More hard drives.

[WuphonsReach]

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.

Re:More hard drives.

[drsmithy]

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.

Re:More hard drives.

[Spazmania]

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.

Fleshlight

[Anonymous Coward]

Bonus geek cred: Heated.

Re:Fleshlight

[Bieeanda]

We had these back in '99. http://www.welookdoyou.com/fufme/index.shtml.html

Card readers / more front ports

[Joe The Dragon]

Card readers / more front ports

Fleshlight mount

[sharkey]

Warmth and vibration for your Fleshlight.

BAY AREA SMALL SPACE RENTAL

[blai]

For only $600 a month. Barely used, like new!*
Guaranteed bay view.

*Driver not included

install lots of usb ports

[FudRucker]

then start collecting usb thumbdrives and make a RAID array with them.

Re:install lots of usb ports

[Heratiki]

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

Re:Umm, more drives?

[hedwards]

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.

Front-panel goodness

[Shrubbman]

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.

Whats the point?

[adosch]

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.

One idea

[JanneM]

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.

toliet paper storage...

[xeroedouttwice]

...for those times when you need to clean your keyboard.

Lockbox

[meerling]

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.)

F U F Me

[gmiernicki]

http://goo.gl/BLBo Too bad they don't sell these anymore. Mine works great!

Power supply

[Sarten-X]

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.

multi-drive hot-swap kit

[Rudeboy777]

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?)

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

monitor

[Emmeau]

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.

Store User Guides, Manuals, Invoices, Warranties

[Cycloid Torus]

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.

5.25" floppy?

[toonie]

Stick a 5.25 inch floppy disk drive in there, just for the pose value.

EZ Bake Oven

[Lifyre]

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

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

Grab a cold one

[bjs555]

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

Fans fans fans

[WiglyWorm]

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,

Lots of spare drive bays?

[Peet42]

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.

CD/DVD storage

[Yvan256]

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

Re:Umm, more drives?

[networkBoy]

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

Warning - 12v outlet not for accessories...

[aapold]

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.

One slice toaster!

[kawabago]

And you can modify your old inkjet printer to spray butter!

Built-in Vaporizer?

[billstewart]

Hey, your PC's generating too much heat anyway, might as well use it?

Re:Another idea

[Hognoxious]

And you want to put the heat created from cooling those beers where?

Into the hotplate for keeping your coffee warm. Do I have to do all the thinking round here?

How about 4x 2.5" hot swap SSD's up front?

[AllynM]

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

Snakes on a backplane

[CapOblivious2010]

Snakes on a backplane???

(sorry, somebody had to say it!)

Automatic retractable cup holder

[sprior]

Oh wait, nevermind - got one already.

Re:Umm, more drives?

[KlaymenDK]

It's a very interesting solution, and good to know that its price and space competitive -- but what about noise? Yes, I realise that you may just not care, and that's fine, but I do, and that's why I'm asking. Don't four drives make an awful racket, what with both spindle noise and their cross harmonics? Are they suspended/dampened/cooled in a sensible way?

Silent HDD coolers

[Richard_J_N]

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).

Storage

[asc99c]

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.

3.5", not 5.25"

[arashi no garou]

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.)

Drive Bay UPS

[ledow]

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.