Mounting SSD

[Craig234]

The NZXT Phantom 530 lets you mount an SSD under the MB on the back of the case in a slick little slot, or in a normal drive bay.

Which seems better? The downside to the 'discrete slot' is that they say it runs hotter but 'well within specs'.

 

[FFFF]

No problem at all for a SATA SSD, you can go ahead and put in the special spot if it makes life easier for you.

 

[Craig234]

No problem at all for a SATA SSD, you can go ahead and put in the special spot if it makes life easier for you.

It doesn't really, it's just 'it's there and seems kinda neat so why not'.

 

[Elixer]

Or, you can use velcro, and stick the SSD wherever you want. 🙂

 

[VirtualLarry]

I just plug in a locking SATA cable, and the PSU SATA cable, and leave the SSD dangling or banging around in my case... 😛 (Ok, not always, if the case has a dedicated 2.5" drive / SSD spot, then I put it there.)

 

[BonzaiDuck]

It offends my sense of Deutsche Ordnung to do that sort of thing on more than a temporary basis.

I took a long time building the signature Skylake (and need to update that sig, too.) It resulted in a very fine-tuned combination of air-flows. There is, for instance, a square/rectangular array of 1cm-dia holes in the motherboard pane directly underneath and surrounding the rear of the processor socket. Air is drawn across the motherboard from both these 1cm holes and from the rear edge of the visible left side or top of the motherboard together with the I/O plate. It is pulled from both input sources by a single barrel-fan -- 12" long. The mobo is recessed from the case right side-panel by maybe 2+cm -- I'd have to measure it. But there is plenty of room there for mounting SSDs affording cabling convenience according to my cable-dressing-plan. And you could mount those SSDs so as not to interfere with the custom filter I designed for those mobo-pan holes. Everything is designed to assure that you don't have to remove something else before removing a component, although I do have to remove a fan-filter to get at the conventional forward drive cages, and disconnect the PWM plugs.

Still -- "C'mon, now." Unless you are really building a compact rig, or unless you have every SATA port connected to an internal drive, why should you really need anything more than conventional mountings? The dual-SSD/2.5"-HDD bracket that fits probably all cases on the market costs maybe $10, and I keep spares, because it saves trouble to have them. I keep track of the appropriate screws.

I'm about finished building a system with 4TB of storage, split across three disks, between two Oses. I would get by with two, but one disk must be shared by OSes in operation one at a time, and the others include volumes that must be separated. I'll be lucky if I ever fill half of it, or when I do, I'll be looking at newer models. I consider three drives as a modest luxury. But in this case, it's a viable combination that I shouldn't ever need to change much. I mean -- how many storage devices should you need, and for what? It would vary -- if only because I store a lot of files on a home server, and other people may only use a single desktop and would never think of dropping a CAT6 cable from their attic bedroom to the ground floor. Some people buy a lot of mobile external backup disks or devices. I use them sparingly. So it all depends.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Still -- "C'mon, now." Unless you are really building a compact rig, or unless you have every SATA port connected to an internal drive, why should you really need anything more than conventional mountings? The dual-SSD/2.5"-HDD bracket that fits probably all cases on the market costs maybe $10, and I keep spares, because it saves trouble to have them. I keep track of the appropriate screws.

Well, I was being a bit cavalier, showcasing the fact that you don't need much in the way of mounting for an SSD, there's no moving parts and no vibration to worry about like a HDD.

For customer builds, in cases that lack dedicated 2.5" HDD / SSD mounting bay, I use those IcyDock (IIRC) dual 2.5" to 3.5" bay mounts, that are plastic, with the quick-release snaps. Those are great to work with. You screw them into the 3.5" bay, then you just slide the SSD in until it "clicks", and then plug in the wires. (Or do that beforehand, the SSD goes in quite a way before it gets latched.)

Then, if you ever need / want to swap SSDs, just push the latch release, and it pops out. Easy-Peasy.

 

[Rifter]

My ssd has been duct taped to the bottom 5:25" bay since i got it many years ago. You can pretty much put these things anywhere.

 

[VeryCharBroiled]

one of my systems has 4 ssds and two spinners. 3 of the ssds are all just stuffed any which way into a 5.25" drive bay, one is mounted with a 2.5 to 3.5 adapter. on my old htpc i had the ssd taped to the bottom of the case.

 

[Ichinisan]

I like to stealth mount mine between the motherboard tray and that side of the case. Just used double-sided foam mounting tape.