PC drive bay mod

One of my PC is in an old case reused from a previous machine.  It was from the old days before long GPU was a thing. Between the GPU and tower CPU heatsink, I loses 3 HDD bays due to mechanical interferences.  

What I wanted is to rotate the drive bays by 90 degrees with the connector side facing side of the case so that they can easily be worked on.  I have decided to take matters into my own hands literally.

Not the first time I modded something in this PC.  I have swapped out the USB 2.0 connectors with USB3.0 on the front panel and Intel heatsink mounting brackets on my AM4!

My new PC case sort of does that and they even have removable drive bays. At the last minute, someone decided to put the connectors other side of the case so you'll still need to open up the panel on the other side to plug/unplug the cables.  They could have done the minimal like what I wanted by simply rotating the drive so that the connectors are accessible at the front.  See my Corsair 100R Hotswap style drive bay upgrade for how it could make swapping drives easier.  Obviously the OEM could have easily sold an optional $50 midplane upgrade.

The before picture

I removed the drive bays panels by drilling through the 8 rivets that held them in place.  I used my Dremel with a cutting wheel to cut and trim the panels into 2 sets - one for the 2 bays for the front and the other for 5 bays that are rotated by 90 degrees.

The thick cutting wheels I bought from aliexpress are great.  The 2 disc lasted enough to finish the job and finally broke when they were worn down to a bout 1 cm in diameter and got caught.  A bit of clean up with a rough file for finishing/deburring and the panels are good enough to be used.

A bit of free hand work with a Dremel cutting wheel

The front drive bays are mounted back where they belong.  They are short enough that they don't need additional supports.  The problem is the much taller panels that needs some for bracing on the cut ends.

I designed a 2 parts drive bays for a removable 2.5" SSD that is also mechanically strong enough to be used as bracing.

The bay is printed vertically with the blocked side on the plate.  4 large 6-32 nuts are inserted into the slots at the back.  The large nuts provide a lot of contact are and help to spread out the forces.  

The caddy is printed as is without support.  Here is what they looks like printed in PLA+.  The opening and the standoffs allows for some air to reach on the bottom side of the case.  The hexagons allows for some flexing of the studded sides for screwless mounting.

It took a lot of trial and error to get the cantilevers working with the right stiffness and those silly mounting studs to be of the right shape/length and sizes.  The latches handles are still too flimsy, but the latches are deep enough that they are locked.

Here is a picture of one the the early mechanical fit test.  They are a bit claustrophobic as the two bays barely missed the other.  The printed part was stiff enough for bracing the cut panels, so I didn't have to look for additional supports.

There are too many places I could mount the drive bay as portions of the bottom case have raised shaped for added mechanical strength.  I have to use piece of FR4 to raise the mounts. This is actually the second  mounting spot as it left just enough clearance for a 15mm fan.   It reminds me of the Simpson diagram of carving a Puffer fish.

This is what my new drive bays look like.  There is enough clearance of 28.5 cm for a long GPU.  This leaves just enough space for my new GPU (in my other PC). B580LE : 272 mm x 115 mm x 45 mm

Top drive bay shows how much space the 3.3" HDD would take up before the modification.  The clearance of old drive bays was so bad that it would interfere with even the shorter GPU I have.  There isn't a whole lot I can do for really long GPU in this tradition PC case.  My newer case has the PSU on the bottom and cleared up space to the edge of the case, so it can take really long GPU that have broken the PCIe mechanical specs.

Now I can add/replace HDD and the connectors  as they are easily accessible from the side of the case. 

Now I just need to order a 120mm x 15mm fan.

Files at my github 3D page.