First G5 Mod - Where to attach HDDs?

[adrock42]

I ended up creating my hd and fan holder with some 1 x 1/8 aluminum bar and these curtain rails

View media item 190614View media item 190613
The HDs slide onto the curtain rails with these lian li thumbscrews I had from a previous build. Then the holder is attached to the roof with more aluminum bar

Holder holder

• adrock42
• Jun 13, 2018

of note: the aluminum bar from Lowes does not bend as well as the aluminum bar from Home Depot

 

[adrock42]

HD managment

• adrock42
• Jun 13, 2018

I also took apart the cd drive and just used the bottom of it. drilled 6 holes and attached 2 HDs using some gasket material as a standoff. it works, but I needed low profile Sata Power and Data cables to allow the door to close

 

[macs_forever]

Hi!

So I bought a G5 case

It's an already modified case. The guy I bought it from installed a full ATX conversion kit with PSU mount from the Lazer Hive. As he already did most of the hard work, I'm only wondering where I should fix HDDs and SSDs inside of the case, and how. I want to install two SSD and two HDDs that I already own and use as external drives. I also want to keep the original optical drive (not shown in the picture).
So I suppose it can fit two SSD somehow, between the optical drive and the PSU, but what about HDDs? Where would the best place be to attach them, and how should that be done? I mean are there HDD bays available to purchase that can be easily adapted to a G5 case, or should I take the DIY road, and cobble together some kind of HDD fastening?

Thanks in advance for your help

for M.2 SATA drives, epoxy a m.2 adaptor to the back of the case, line it up with the upper fan for cooling -- StarTech.com 4x M.2 Mounting Adapter for 3.5-Inch Drive Bay Mount Four M.2 NGFF SATA-Based SSDs into Drive Bay (35S24M2NGFF) (on Amazon)

There is an interesting drive mount meant to adapt 2.5 drives to 3.5 G5 drive sleds that could easily be mounted anywhere with a little metal work -- DRIVESLED SMR Mac Pro Tower SSD Drive Sled 2.5 Adapter by Wegener Media (on Amazon)

Mounting 3.5 drives on the bottom front, facing downward is good for 3.5 drives (ala Sonnet G5 jive mount)

 

[macs_forever]

Another thing to consider is using 2.5" SSDs and HDDs with a mobile rack such as https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00475DQ6Y/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

I have stopped buying 3.5" hard drives and only use 2.5" drives in all of my projects. I have found a version of this small rack at my local Central Computer store.

I make up my own mounting brackets but these are designed to have the same foot print as a 3.5" HDD so mounting is never much of a problem.

Here is an example of one of my projects:

And I do use M.2 drives for my system disks in most new projects.

Good modding
neil

LOL, I've taken the next step. I only buy m.2 drives for 2TB or less. I hate spinning disks. However, if you want 10TB or 12TB drives, you have to go with 3.5 drives.