Jury rigging a 2.5in mount in a case.

[jamerson9]

I'm using a 2.5in notebook drive left over an upgrade as a cache drive for my UnRaid server. The only drive bay space I have left over is 3 5.25in bays, but the problem is they use proprietary "clips" to mount 5.25in stuff so I haven't been able to just screw the drive to the rails.

 

I suppose I could buy a 2.5/3.5 to 5.25 cages, but I'm not sure if they will fit nicely into the "clips". I was thinking about sandwiching the drive between four slim foam bars on each lengthwise corner of the drive and rubber banding them together. Then duct taping the package on the floor of the case making sure that enough air can pass through freely.

 

Any drawbacks to this method or other good suggestions?

[chanders]

You might be able to get away with something like this

 

[jtown]

A loosely mounted hard drive can experience reduced performance because the drive can wiggle around as the heads move.  Best to mount it firmly, even if you only bolt it to the case on one side and maybe prop the other side up with a non-conductive shim of some sort.

 

You could also pick up something like the Scythe Slot Rafter which lets you mount various things (hard drives and/or fans) on a frame that plugs into a PCI slot.  And I swear I saw an inexpensive "docking bay" that fit in a 3.5" or 5.25" bay but now I can't find it.  I know supermicro has a 2.5" 4-in-1 but it's expensive and has more bays than you need.  Found a SIIG dual 2.5" SATA dock for $30 at Fry's.

[mbryanr]

 

 

You could also pick up something like the Scythe Slot Rafter

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817984008

 

And I swear I saw an inexpensive "docking bay" that fit in a 3.5" or 5.25" bay but now I can't find it. 

 

Something like this work around the clips?

http://www.amazon.com/Scythe-Bay-Rafter-drive-conversion/dp/B002EJJG0U

[WeeboTech]

You could also pick up something like the Scythe Slot Rafter

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817984008

 

I use the slot rafter for my SSD's.  you can fit four 2.5" drives on it.

[DoeBoye]

+1 for the elastic mounting technique. It is a fairly common tactic in silent computing. I'm quite sure, if done correctly, it would be fine to use. If you move the case around, I would confirm that nothing shifted, but otherwise...

 

Here's a thread with a bunch of DIY jobs.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=19147

 

I personally would stick to the technique Chanders posted, as it is the one that comes with silent-designer chassis (for example: Antec Solo and P150 IIRC) and does a fairly good job of keeping everything firmly in place...

[unraided]

This is the first that I've seen disks being mounted in this fashion, what happens if the elastic band gives way? With the constant air flow and cold to warm air passing thru over it a period of time, wouldn't it deteriorate? I'm imagine it wouldn't be a good thing for the band to give way while the disk is running, and certainly not a good way to mount several disks this way, one on top of each other. I'd rather put my faith in the old screws mounting or silicon shock absorbed mounts.

 

You might be able to get away with something like this

 

[DoeBoye]

I've never heard of the elastics giving way over time, however, that said, I've always elected to use the silicone grommets or regular screws myself when presented with the option .

[unraided]

OK, the reason I question it is because I used to (in the past years ago and not any more) use standard elastic bands to secure cables (IDE, SATA, Power, etc...), and now looking at these supports (4 and even 2+ years later), the bands have given way to heat, air and time, leaving the cables to go loose.

Seeing that cables don't need much resistance to hold them back, and the fact that disks weigh or apply more pressure regarding its weight, I would think that within years, the bands would give way. If it isn't the case (maybe these specific bands are built from a silicone-based rubber), it would last a very long time as silicone can with stand loads of heat and rough conditions without losing its properties. Cheers.

 

I've never heard of the elastics giving way over time, however, that said, I've always elected to use the silicone grommets or regular screws myself when presented with the option .

[DoeBoye]

Some excellent points. In fact, I decided to Google for some more info, and lo and behold, I found a thread discussing this very thing:

 

http://www.osnn.net/general-hardware/85307-antec-p150-case-rubber-band-suspension-bad-news.html

 

Here's another one discussing the same problem:

 

http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=28322

 

I think the difference between what Antec used and other solutions is that Antec was using straight rubber bands (Like super thick elastic bands) that would be more susceptible to heat damage, where other solutions I've seen were using multiple rubber bands wrapped in a cloth sheath (think bungie cords). The thread just above has someone mentioning using hair elastics from Walmart...

 

Frankly, after reading those threads discussing the design flaw in the Antec solution, I would be more weary going the elastic route. I'm quite sure there is probably a purpose-built elastic solution (I would poke around the silentpcreview forum to find it) that will not break, but I would be cautious...

 

The Sycthe Rafter thing is quite interesting. I've never seen something like that before... Do they make one for 3.5 inch drives as well?

 

 

[mbryanr]

The Sycthe Rafter thing is quite interesting. I've never seen something like that before... Do they make one for 3.5 inch drives as well?

 

 

 

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817984005

 

Edit:  I see that is Out of Stock @Newegg.

 

 

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[jamerson9]

Thank you for all the suggestion. However, it become a moot point for me as this 3 year old 2.5in laptop drive, even though it spins at 7200rpm, is slower than writing directly to the array and not worth taking up a SATA port. 

[unraided]

It's been brought up a few times on the forum using 2.5" disk in a unRAID server, but to purposely use this disks for a server would cost about 3x times the amount than to use 3.5" of the same capacity. Unless you had a stack of them at hand, the benifit to use them might be OK, as they would consume far less power, emit less heat and produce less sound as well. The downfall of these disks is lively hood of they life span, (to my opinion) do not live as long as 3.5"s, do not run as fast as 3.5"s in practical speeds and were not designed to run as long as 3.5" are engineered to (again, personal view).

I guess if you had one sitting around, perhaps you might be interested in using it as a cache-only drive for your server, but as you mentioned, the speed might be pointless using it for this purpose.

 

Hope this helps, thanks.

 

Thank you for all the suggestion. However, it become a moot point for me as this 3 year old 2.5in laptop drive, even though it spins at 7200rpm, is slower than writing directly to the array and not worth taking up a SATA port.