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How best to make a PC with lots of 5.25" bays
I'd like to set up a machine with a relatively high number of 5.25"
slots - maybe between eight and a dozen - but am struggling to find suitable chassis hardware. To illustrate what I have in mind, you could think of the front of the finished machine as looking something like the following (monospaced) +-----------+ | | +-----------+ | | +-----------+ | | +-----------+ | | +-----------+ | | +-----------+ | | +-----------+ | | +-----------+ | | +-----------+ | | +-----------+ The slots would be occupied mainly with trayless HDD hot-swap caddies like these: https://www.startech.com/en-gb/hdd/hsb100satbk but 5.25" bays are universal and there could be other things in some of the slots such as a panel for USB and other ports, an optical drive or two, etc. And one slot could be taken up with an array of up to six bays for 2.5" drives such as https://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=231 That would make a sweet server - which is its purpose. Unfortunately, pre-built cases with many 5.25" slots are in short supply and I have my doubts about how well they cool the hard drives. (I have a machine like that at the moment but I believe its poor cooling led to some drives overheating; I want to avoid that in the next build.) So I am thinking of making my own case. The problem is partly that getting the mounting holes precisely located in order to match up with the trayless caddies would be quite challenging even if the sides were made of perspex. I wondered if there was any premade metal chassis which would provide, say, three or six such slots, such as one would find as the front part of a normal tower PC, but I cannot find any. I found plenty of cages which would adapt some existing 5.25" bays to 3.5" drives but I found no metalwork which would provide the 5.25" bays in the first place. So, that's the problem. Any ideas for a good way to do this? -- James Harris |
#2
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How best to make a PC with lots of 5.25" bays
James Harris wrote:
I'd like to set up a machine with a relatively high number of 5.25" slots - maybe between eight and a dozen - but am struggling to find suitable chassis hardware. To illustrate what I have in mind, you could think of the front of the finished machine as looking something like the following (monospaced) +-----------+ | | +-----------+ | | +-----------+ | | +-----------+ | | +-----------+ | | +-----------+ | | +-----------+ | | +-----------+ | | +-----------+ | | +-----------+ The slots would be occupied mainly with trayless HDD hot-swap caddies like these: https://www.startech.com/en-gb/hdd/hsb100satbk but 5.25" bays are universal and there could be other things in some of the slots such as a panel for USB and other ports, an optical drive or two, etc. And one slot could be taken up with an array of up to six bays for 2.5" drives such as https://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=231 That would make a sweet server - which is its purpose. Unfortunately, pre-built cases with many 5.25" slots are in short supply and I have my doubts about how well they cool the hard drives. (I have a machine like that at the moment but I believe its poor cooling led to some drives overheating; I want to avoid that in the next build.) So I am thinking of making my own case. The problem is partly that getting the mounting holes precisely located in order to match up with the trayless caddies would be quite challenging even if the sides were made of perspex. I wondered if there was any premade metal chassis which would provide, say, three or six such slots, such as one would find as the front part of a normal tower PC, but I cannot find any. I found plenty of cages which would adapt some existing 5.25" bays to 3.5" drives but I found no metalwork which would provide the 5.25" bays in the first place. So, that's the problem. Any ideas for a good way to do this? They used to make things like that, 20 years ago. https://www.servercase.com/Merchant2...e1to11-300.gif There was one brand famous for making stuff like that, but I've forgotten the brand. Maybe "Inwin" ? This example is a shadow of its former self. https://www.in-win.com/fr/gaming-chassis/GRone/ ( https://www.in-win.com/fr/gaming-chassis/list/71 ) ******* But one thing to remember, is modern drives have the SATA connector, and the SATA power+data are designed for "backplane" use. That means the connector is capable of hot swap. What you ideally want, is for the power to be switched off, and the spindle stopped moving, before popping the latches and pulling the sled away from the backplane. This is why SATA docks work. They have a connector, where the drive can be slid into place. But the dock has the unfortunate orientation of "vertical", as in "toaster", and docks aren't all that stable when standing up. The backplane concept extends to rackmount servers. They have a backplane, with cables coming off the back end, going towards other equipment inside the server. The drives slide in from the front. To make a backplane concept work, the slots only need to be 4" wide for the 3.5" drives. The platters are 3.5", the outside of the drive is a different size. And if the drive is a bit constrained (connector always has same offset from the bottom of the drive), then no matter whether a 3.5" drive is 0.8" high or 1" high, it will slide along the surface and the connector will mate. The width dimension is constant so all the 3.5" drives will fit on width. Depending on your penchant for tipping over the assembly, having a restraint to prevent tipping damage would help. If the server tips over in an earthquake, the SATA connectors could get snapped, because the 0.8" drive has "wiggle room" vertically in its slot. But having 5.25" slots, that might have been a necessity when IDE ribbon cables existed, and ribbon cables were not backplane compatible. By switching to another connector standard, perhaps you could make a hotswap carrier for the less-than-ideal IDE drives. But now that SATA exists, the housing can be a bit smaller, and it can take advantage of the backplane compatible SATA connector design. SATA was designed from the ground up for backplanes. It's usage in desktops was an afterthought, which is why the first generation kit had no "cable retainer" and the cables used to fall off on desktops. Paul |
#3
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How best to make a PC with lots of 5.25" bays
On Tue, 22 Dec 2020 16:00:15 +0000, James Harris
wrote: I'd like to set up a machine with a relatively high number of 5.25" slots - maybe between eight and a dozen - but am struggling to find suitable chassis hardware. Last and most I had in an 8-bay was probably 6 5.25s and 2 3.5". I was running 4 DVDs in it, and though that would have been before SSDs, 5.25 hot-swap enclosures were in use, just not recognized yet as does the modern OS (to require a restart). Cooling wouldn't have been stellar, as I recall running extra fans from splitters I'd variously arranged, for nonetheless a somewhat hot case, at that time, maybe pre-1GHz processors, certainly below 2GHz prone to stability issues where approaching 120F and over. Skipping forward, eventually an Antec "Lanboy" case design showed up, a popular item among cases at half off on a $50/US sale. All aluminum case design with nylon carry-straps, promoted for carrying to lan-location game gatherings or some such notion. The aluminum actually is quite impressive, even for dated and still within its modern 120-200mm fan provisions for a direct cross-flow, front and lower intake to mid-tower backplane exit. The upper 4 5.25 bay cage, though aluminum, along with an additional 4 5..25 bays behind the front intake, are half-&-half tradition and cross-mounted HDDs (longer HDD length mounted side-to-side both case sides, with two 3.5 drive enclosures old-style and connectors facing the back-plane). Proprietary shock rail interfaces for the lower section. Somewhat of a mess to look it up for better visualization. I run with a caseside panel removed (opposite the MB, though I haven't cooling issues to deal with them), which may be tricky for mechanical drives. As for an all aluminum tower, its probably smaller by 6" to slightly more, than the first towers, and looks to be about 20" tall sitting next to me. I'd watch out for the aluminum design. It may seem as soft as a beercan, but handle it well and its addictively light. Like I said, read and weep for on occasions a $50 sale item then. God only knows what (usually expensive) cases are at now in aluminum, hopefully not $300. Making one might be interesting, although that's perhaps what I might be thinking were I fabricating -- Home Depot or whoever else carries sheet aluminum. (Probably easily enough to cannibalize if results needn't look especially pretty, brushed and dressed.) |
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