3.5 case expanders?

warzer

Member
Aug 2, 2001
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i saw a picture of a case with like harddrive bay expanders. adding more 3.5 drive slots to towercases with the room to expand.

but i don't know what they are called or where to find them. i have a pic of them in a case but don't know how to attach a pic to this forum. if anyone knows what they might be called or where to find them i would be greatful. i have looked through about half of the links in the cool case mods section but haven't seen them.

Warzer
 

warzer

Member
Aug 2, 2001
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hm.. ok i guess my description sucks wish i could show u the picture. i don't need an adapter. i am looking for something to expand the amount of hds i can add to my tower case. the pic i see shows 3 of these chained off of eachother and they mount by screwing into the hd mounting bracket already in the case. and they go down to the bottom of the case.


[normal hd bracket from case]
| | <---attached here is the expanded hd bracket.
[ . .]
[ .]
[ .] <----------new space for 3 more hds. and u can chain the brackets togeher until u hit the bottom of your case.

hm.. it deleted my space when i posted :(
 

akira34

Golden Member
Jun 26, 2004
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I think I might, sort of, remember something along those lines many many months ago. I think the reason you can't find it now is due to lack of demand/interest. You might be better off hooking up with a metal fabricator to make such an item. Although I have to wonder what you have for a case that you'd need to use such an item for hard drives. Or are you going beyond what the majority use for drives?
 

akira34

Golden Member
Jun 26, 2004
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What's the break-down optical, hard, floppy, other... ALso, what case are you using? It's probably going to be a lot easier to find a case that will hold the number of drives you want than to try and adapt the case you have.
 

akira34

Golden Member
Jun 26, 2004
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Originally posted by: stevennoland
Originally posted by: warzer
well i already have 8drives and want to add 4 more.

Why not just get bigger drives? Why do you need 12 drives?

Good point... I already have 4 hard drives inside my system. My case will accept two more drives without any problem at all, and I could put another in the empty 5.25" bay (if I don't put another burner in that). Before I'd go beyond 6 hard drives inside my rig, I'd upgrade the smaller ones to larger drives (go to all 250GB models).

250GB hard drives are pretty cheap these days, so there's really no good reason to not get them. Unless you already HAVE 4-6 of them, then look to get some 400+GB drives and start replacing them. Keep in mind, that's one hell of a lot of p0rn.
 

imported_Kiwi

Golden Member
Jul 17, 2004
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A company with the name "FMI" makes a drive bay hangar that carries an existing drive bay for 3 1/2 drives down to hang three more under the last one in the original bay. They call it an "Extender", and CompUSA sells them for 15.00 a set (one for each side).

Check under Computer Upgrades >> Computer Cases and you'll find it on their web site.

I used one on an older mid-tower I've been using that only had room for a 4-2-1 drive setup (4 external 5 1/4, 2 external 3 1/2, one internal 3 1/2). It works just the way it should. Saved me from having to buy a replacement case when I added a 3 1/2 size Card Reader and didn't have a place left for my second Hdd.

:music:
 

akira34

Golden Member
Jun 26, 2004
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Originally posted by: warzer
the case of the picture i have has 3 sets of these expanding the drive space.

Care to translate into something that makes sense?? Trying to descramble that sentence (if it can be called one) is likely to cause people's heads to explode. :shocked:
 

warzer

Member
Aug 2, 2001
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forgot to say if u want to see the pic of what i am talking about i can send it to ya via email.
 

akira34

Golden Member
Jun 26, 2004
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Do you actually have such an animal?

Who, in their [even close to] right mind, would try to cram 23 hard drives into a case? The only possible reasons I can come up with are it's either a huge-assed server, or the drives are old, and tiny, ones that could probably be [all] replaced with just ONE new hard drive.
 

imported_Kiwi

Golden Member
Jul 17, 2004
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Originally posted by: warzer
I have a picture of a case with 23hds in it. and it uses these expanders to accomplish that task.
Damn thing must be larger than a 1967 model IBM 360 HEAVY IRON mainframe to get all of those inside of it. And all it does is remind me of college hijinks similar to seeing how many young people could squeeze themselves into one phone booth, or one car, doing it just to do it. Surely there's no single PC-grade system that could ever *NEED* so many all at once!



:p
 

warzer

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Aug 2, 2001
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its just an amazing site. and i just happen to have a case very similar to the one in the picture, and well i wanted a few more hd spots so i figure i would try to find the expansion rails as Kiwi found for me. i am amazed that it would work with just one psu also. but if any of u want to see the pic or want to share it some how i can send it to ya.
 

JohnDoh

Senior member
Nov 2, 2004
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Anyone seen 3.5 drive extensions cheaper?

Ive been looking for them and there hard to find, $15 for a piece of metal is too much! Id just soon get a used case for under $10 and cut out the drive bays.