Best thing to put in legacy 5.25" PC bay

jim5000 · 19 Oct 2020 at 01:59

I've had the same PC case since January 2001, and it it has held many internals. I like the case dispite it's bulk it it is because I have upgraded the internals 4-5 times over the past 19 years and it is currently hosting Ryzen 5 3600, B450 motherboard, Radeon RX 5700, and 32GB DDR4 ram, 3 SSD drives an M2 PCI4 1TB drive. For reference, when I purchased the case I installed a 1GHz AMD Athlon cpu and 4GB, with I think a Voodoo 2 graphics card. The case is roomy enough that I can fit pretty much any motherboard and GFX card combo, and I purchased the case from OCUK with my first student loan back in 2001. My PC is basically Trigger's broom.

however, the front of the case has 3 5.25" bays that hold

1x DVD writer
1x Blu-Ray writer
1x Creative LiveDrive 2 audio interface for a soundblaster card I had over 15 years ago.

I would like to replace these all with blanking plates, or some kind of useful disc housing or fan control, or LED temperature monitor or something. Just anything other than drives I haven't used for years and I'm not even sure work anymore.

Does anyone have any suggestions for filling 3x 5.25" legacy drive bays within anything useful, or even where I could get just some blanking plates so I can dump the 2 DVD\BR drives and audio interface that aren't even connected internally to anything? i don't overclock anymore, as I have find running at stock prolongs the life of my equipment, but would be interested in housing more SSDs or having temperature readouts on the front or something.

jim5000 · 19 Oct 2020 at 02:38

Yes, the mechanism for holding the blanking plates is plastic slots, but the internal metalwork contains screw fittings for mounting drives. I'll have a look at the freecycle thread if I can find it.

I take slight umbridge at calling it a retro PC

I can play Flight Sim 2020 at pretty much max settings!!!!

jim5000 · 19 Oct 2020 at 23:29

Acme said:
Haha you know what I mean.

Someone in there might have some old 5.25 blanks they can spare.

As far as the internals go it is is newer than my PC.

Yes, agreed, I was trying to be amusing by 'taking umbridge'

jim5000 · 19 Oct 2020 at 23:44

Shaolin Chicken said:
That's got to be one of the oldest cases still in use.
Congratulations are in order!

Do you think I can get something free from OCUK? I did purchase the case from them 19 years ago, and all the various internals since! I still have the original OCUK sticker on the front and remember back even in 2001, being amazed at the next day delivery they gave.

Maybe OCUK could 'sponsor' my case with free upgrades, to see just how long it can keep going!!!

In reality, when upgrading, because the case has been so roomy, I've just never felt the need to replace it as it adds to the upgrade cost and I have no interest in RGB lighting. The case is well made, Alaska I think, has thumbscrew access and a slide out motherboard tray and has just never really needed to be upgraded. It's pretty ugly but it has always sat under my desk. I only upgraded from an Athlon X2 and 8GB of RAM that I bought off members market about 8 years ago this spring....

Currently rocking a fairly decent setup

AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core 4.2GHz
Gigabyte Radeon RX 5700 Gaming OC 8GB GDDR6
Crucial Ballistix Sport LT Gray Micron E-Die 16GB Kit (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200
MSI B450-A PRO MAX (Socket AM4) DDR4 ATX Motherboard
Sound BlasterX AE-5

For those that want to see what you can put inside a 20 year old case!!!

Thanks for all the great suggestions so far! I will report back on what I put in the drive bays, a fan input sounds best at the moment as I do hit 70-80 degrees in Flight Sim 2020 and the front fan is disconnected as it would just suck in dust from the floor.......

jim5000 · 20 Oct 2020 at 02:24

Plec said:
What's the cooling like, what about a large intake fan?

You use to be able to get a 120mm fan mounting/brackets that would fit the x 3 bay slots - you would probably have to modify for colour match if still available etc. Or mod and fan/mounting yourself...

A quick google example:

I'm interested in where I could source such a bracket, doesn't seem to be much on OCUK along these lines or on 'the bay' but it seems the best solution for my 'fill three 5.23" bays with something useful' conundrum!

jim5000 · 22 Oct 2020 at 00:42

fadingfool said:
Inspired by LGR on you tube - you need to find one of these:

Thermaltake Xray A2021 5.25" Drive Bay Kit with Beverage Tray and Cigarette Lighter

I think this is the winning suggestion so far!!!!

sastusbulbas said:
The fan bay is by Kama, I was in a similar situation years ago, went from a case pretty much like yours to a similar black one and added the bay more to improve cooling.
To be honest I could not get on with that case, these days cases run cooler with better airflow, are quiet and have dust filters.
Dont actually need windows or rgb, but dust filtering and decent cooling are a must lol.

The case I have, apart from being beige, really has no real problems with it. It's a metal box at the end of the day. I have one input cooling fan (currently disabled due to dust, even though it does have a dust filter), and there are three extracts at the back - the main case fan, the PSU fan, and GFX fans, all extracting the heat. The case is so roomy to work with that airflow isn't a problem, even with a massive GFX card. CPU idles around 39 degrees, 70 degrees under stress (Flight Sim 2020), but from my research this is perferctly normal for AMD Ryzen 2 chips.

Also, who doesn't love a thumbscrew and removable motherboard tray!!!