Looking for idea to utilize space

[ldrax]

I recently got an NZXT Tempest 410. With Mini ITX board, there's just so much space left (picture attached). I got two spare SATA ports, so the first thing that crossed my mind is that if there's any way I could fit in perhaps a 2-bay drive cage there, but no idea how to secure it.

 

Would love to hear any suggestion, cage or no cage.

 

(excuse the cabling, tidy-up in order)

[SidebandSamurai]

Will This work for you?

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817998183&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-SSD+%2f+HDD+Accessories-_-N82E16817998183&gclid=CN-HxcnAnboCFcs9QgodhmQAsQ

 

Its used for SSD's but could work for a 1TB 2.5" drive.

 

This one can mount two 2.5" laptop drives into a PCI slot:

http://www.scythe-usa.com/product/acc/064/slotrafter_detail.html

 

If you want to use 3.5" drives then you would basically have to fasten the hard drive directly to the PCI bracket plate.  I have seen it done, it not pretty but works very well.  The other way is to customize yourself a 3.5" bracket made out of copper clad PCB, you etch the PCB so there is no copper and mount the drive to it.  then secure the assembly into the empty PCI slot.  This project again demonstrates 2.5" drives but could be adapted for 3.5" as well.

 

http://www.electrocave.com/home/projects/2-5-inch-hard-drive-in-a-pci-slot

 

-- Sideband Samurai

[ldrax]

forgot to mention about 3.5" drive preference (as they are of much bigger capacity).

 

The 3.5" PCI bracket seems possible, but not sure if it can hold the weight of the drive which is considerably heavier than that of 2.5" drives, with vibration and all.

[sacretagent]

I have one of these sitting on my case floor between the case drives and my psu in my lian li case

 

http://www.coolermaster.com/product/Detail/case/case-accessories/4-in-3-device-module.html

 

take a few meassurements and see if it can sit on top of your PSU ...

 

just put some rubber mat between it for vibration noises... mine is sitting on an old mouse mat ...

[ldrax]

Thanks sacretagent

[garycase]

I don't think there's enough height in that area for a 3-bay unit (whether 3-in-3, 4-in-3, or 5-in3;  but it looks like a 3-in-2 unit should fit okay.  Measure to confirm you have enough clearance for 2 standard 5.25" bays -- if so, just get one of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817994026

 

[ldrax]

thanks garycase.

I have a concern about drives (or drive cage) that is just lying there without being fastened to the chassis one way or the other. But will explore the options further.

[garycase]

I have a concern about drives (or drive cage) that is just lying there without being fastened to the chassis one way or the other. But will explore the options further.

 

I'd Velcro the drive cage to the motherboard plate (since it's not being used at the point where you'll be putting the cage).  A couple fairly large strips of Velcro will provide a LOT of "holding power" 

[doorunrun]

It involves some drilling, but you could use a expansion slot cover drill two holes in it that match the 3.5" drive's side hole spacing.

 

From the hardware store get two nylon standoffs (1" maybe?) and longish 6-32 screws. The idea is to mount the drives so the rear of the drive is pointing up towards the case's side panel. Luckily, many insulated terminal crimp tools feature small bolt shearing provision and 6-32 is one of them.

 

These bracket adapters are made for 2.5 in drives. For 3.5" you'd have to adapt the idea. What is also needed is some sort of U shaped plastic thingie mounted to the case's base to take some weight off the bracket.

 

Sounds easy! 

[garycase]

I had thought about suggesting modifying a bracket adapter as well; but decided the weight of a 3.5" drive is probably too much -- 2.5" drives weigh FAR less.

 

[ldrax]

interesting, worth trying.

 

I got a pair of this bracket that can hold together 4pcs of 3.5":

http://www.orico.com.cn/product/21_230.html

 

And the height is just nice, allowing just a little clearance under the SATA controller card. The side panel fan directly blows towards this direction, too. Will try this soon, and find a way to velcro it to the PCI brackets; I guess a little will be better than nothing at all.

 

[garycase]

That looks like it should work -- you could even cut off part of it with a Dremel if the height is too much.    You do need to figure some way to provide some degree of attachment -- either by screwing it in to something or with a couple strips of Velcro.    I'm a big fan of Velcro ... as long as you use a reasonable size strip of it you'll be surprised how well it holds.

 

[ldrax]

will try soon.

 

[off topic]

but first thing first, the new 8-port SATA card that's supposed to give me extra ports, I need to RMA it because half of the ports are not working. I got recurring timeout and 'failed to identify' errors for drives on these ports during NOCORRECT parity check.

After replacing it with the previous 4-port working card, subsequent NOCORRECT  parity check returned 5 incorrect entries. sigh.

[garycase]

Mr Murphy strikes again 

 

... it's amazing how often Murphy's Law strikes at the most inopportune times !!

 

[ldrax]

garycase if you don't mind, can I ask here whether I'm doing a correct procedure here:

 

1) parity check #1: NOCORRECT -> 5 errors

 

2) check SMART status report: entries looks OK for all drives for these attr:  Current_Pending_Sector and Reallocated_Sector_Ct (0)

    Got some values for UDMA_CRC_Error_Count and UDMA_CRC_Error_Count, but the numbers have not changed since long time ago

 

3) re-sit the memory, check and re-plug power and SATA cables, making sure they're not tied tightly together

 

4) parity check #2: NOCORRECT -> exact errors at same sectors

 

so next I'll be doing memtest.

 

I read that if there were just a few incorrect parity entries, the suggestion is to just run parity check again with correction option, and then run it one more time to see if any more error shows up. Only after that the above steps are necessary.

 

 

[garycase]

Personally I'd just do a correcting parity check.    It is ALMOST always the case that sync errors are on the parity drive -- not the data drives.

 

I was a bit skeptical of Limetech's claim that this was the case at first (5 years or so ago).  But EVERY time that I had sync errors (only ~ 3 or 4 times in the 5+ years I've used UnRAID) I did a correcting check [actually, I never do non-correcting checks anymore];  then did a complete comparison of my backups against the array [This takes ~ a week ... but is mostly "computer time" => the only bit of "my time" involved is to swap a disk when it's done, as my backup disks are all off-line] ==> and have NEVER found a data error.

 

Starting about 18 months ago, I generated checksums on the array disks for all of the files;  so in the future if this happens I can simply do a checksum validation and won't have to bother with the backup disks (unless, of course, an error is detected).    But I haven't had a sync error since I started doing that 

 

Probably more than you wanted to hear !!  But the simple answer is Yes, you're doing fine.    Do a correcting check;  then do another one and confirm that it has zero sync errors.

 

[ldrax]

Thank you! will skip the memtest for now.

 

Probably I _wanted_ to hear more!

Checksums sounds like a good idea for peace of mind.

[00b5]

Sounds like all you need is an extra internal drive cage? Surely most case manufacturers surely sell?

 

http://www.silverpcs.com/lian-li-internal-floppy-cage/

 

You might want to look at different case makers to find one that fits the way you want. Just Velcro it down, as previously mentioned.

[JohnWys]

I had a similar desire to fill all of the empty space in my box with drives.  Here's a post on what I did:

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=25401.msg221130

Basically, I used a Caselabs MAC-101 drive cage in an empty fan opening.

http://www.caselabs-store.com/standard-hdd-cage-assy/

All you need to do is find a place to screw/glue it down.

 

[ldrax]

looks and sounds good JohnWys!

I figure I can glue/velcro it to either the PCI bracket mounts or the PSU. Hope the glue/velcro won't melt.

[Rick Sanchez]

Thanks John this saves me buying a new case