Using the floppy bay in a P180 for a hard disk

[MobsterOO7]

Just for those of you who don't know what the inside of a P180 looks like:

I'm not sure the drive will actually fit because I have never tried this, but assuming that it will fit: Is putting a hard drive in there a bad idea? I do realize that there isn't much ventilation in that area, but I have run out of places to put them. The drive I would be putting in there would be a green drive used for media storage so it wouldn't run as hot as normal drives.

[Abram]

Out of desperation and a lack of molex connectkrs, I had to shove a 7200rpm IDE into a fully enclosed floppy bay, and it's been running for years.

Of course i woudln't do that to one of MY hard drives, but mostly out of paranoia.

[Paradigm Shifter]

I had one there for a while, ran pretty hot, but worked fine. In fact, I think the case helped to act as a heatsink for it as I've seen no-airflow HDDs run even hotter...

[packerfan]

Cause 6TB isnt enough?!? :P

Could always upgrade your existing disks or run it esata to an enclosure?

[MobsterOO7]

I could replace some drives, its what I've been doing for a while now; but if I can get out of replacing one that'd be nice wouldn't it?

[packerfan]

I thought about this some more, and I am guessing it would be fine.

I have used multiple 7200rpm drives in enclosures as tight as that externally so basically 0 airflow also and they don't have any heat problems so I would guess a green drive would be fine.

[X-Warrior]

Media storage. Does that mean it won't actually be used all day?

In that case I'd suggest an external harddisk. Or is there an obvious drawback you really don't want that I'm missing?

Alternatively, there's the expensive option: get yourself a NAS server.


Then again, afaik the size of a normal HDD is the same as a floppy drive, so it should physically fit.

[Gecko]

I'm not sure the drive will actually fit because I have never tried this, but assuming that it will fit: Is putting a hard drive in there a bad idea? I do realize that there isn't much ventilation in that area, but I have run out of places to put them. The drive I would be putting in there would be a green drive used for media storage so it wouldn't run as hot as normal drives.

I imagine it would be fine. If you are concerned about heat, bust out a drill and pimp it out, Yo. :wink:

[skeeder]

the P180 has 4 5.25 bays. why not take something like
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817994028

And use that.

[MobsterOO7]

There is two reasons I don't use one of those things that takes up 4 bays.
1) I wouldn't have room for an optical drive.
2) In the P180 the bottom 5.25 bay is separated from the top three.

But I am using one in the top three bays:


Trust me when I say I have exhausted all other spaces for hard drives except the empty floppy bay.

[Mesh]

I forget the name but there are some adapters that are both to silence drives and allow 2 3.5" hdd to fit 1 5.25 bay. I've also seen 3x5.25 to 4x3.5 bays so you'd have 1 leftover for the optical.

I've used 3 such coolermaster bays to make my storage tower. 9x5.25 spots = 12x3.5 hdd spots.

Just a thought but if some of those drives don't need top speed you could get external enclosures too ...

[Paradigm Shifter]

You might be interested in something like these...

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Jou-Jye-ST-3051SS-525-%283-Bay%29-Backplane-for-5x-35-SAS-SATA-HDD

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Supermicro-Black-CSE-M35T1-5-Bay-SATA-Hot-Swap-Rack-fits-into-3x525-Bays

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Icy-Dock-MB-455SPF-3-x-525-Bays-Hosting-5-HDD-Drives-SATAII-Hotswap-Best-Seller

I found one a while back that had 120mm fan on the back to cool the HDDs without being loud... but I can't find it any more. :(

[packerfan]

Yea, everything PS linked to is expensive but it would probably be good future proofing. That way when you don't need a certain drive you can just yank it out, downside is keeping track of what is on each drive i suppose.

[MobsterOO7]

The only thing different about those bay converters from the one I already have is that they are hot swappable. I don't really mind pulling out the unit to replace drives. I'll post results once the new drives come in.

[Mesh]

I found one a while back that had 120mm fan on the back to cool the HDDs without being loud... but I can't find it any more. :(

Something like these?:
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11130AC7312

[skeeder]

I found one that mounted 5 into 3x 5.25" bays. (I have the P180), it should fit. There are different models available.

Even then, wow...um...You ever heard of a NAS unit?

Or a server?

It looks like you need a full tower. Like a old school chieftec.

[packerfan]

Or one of these.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811219021

Windows home server or similar on it (seems like lots of people use WHS with this case on [H])

[Mesh]

The most likely problem is probably if the drive is sata, I've had a drive whose plastic sata connector broke off on it's own after running in too much heat, and only on the slight weight from the cable, not from any major force.

No such issue if it's ide though.

Depending what else is in the case you could get one of those rack type things that screws into the pci brackets and gives you mounting points to put harddrives in really odd positions.

Sunbeam pci rack or something if I recall correctly.

[Paradigm Shifter]

Yea, everything PS linked to is expensive but it would probably be good future proofing. That way when you don't need a certain drive you can just yank it out, downside is keeping track of what is on each drive i suppose.

My intent is to get my act together and start using a setup like that. Need to swap everything into my TJ07 from my P180 though. And that means watercooling too, as the TJ07 isn't that great at direct cooling...

The only thing different about those bay converters from the one I already have is that they are hot swappable. I don't really mind pulling out the unit to replace drives. I'll post results once the new drives come in.

Um... from the picture your bay fits four. The three I linked to fit five... extra drive in same amount of space...

Something like these?:
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11130AC7312

Something like that, but it was hotswappable and fitted five drives.

Or one of these.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811219021
Windows home server or similar on it (seems like lots of people use WHS with this case on [H])

Want. Would be useful. Noisy as hell, though, if it's a typical datacentre case.

[MobsterOO7]

Um... from the picture your bay fits four. The three I linked to fit five... extra drive in same amount of space...

Quite right you are, chap. I didn't look closely enough. Since it is another 100 bucks or so, that little device is going to have to wait though.

Without the fan it's also a bit larger than by current unit; but I've also got drives sticking out the back of that one so the one you linked might still work fine with the fan on it.