[SOLVED] Adapt 5.25" bay into 3.5" and cover front panel hole

[sati-edimax]

I have an option to buy for like 20$ a prebuilt HP 280 G1 PC and convert it into a backup/storage PC for me and my family.

The PC case has 2 3.5" bays and 1 5.25" bay with a DVD drive in it (don't need the DVD drive for my setup). What do I need to convert the 5.25" bay into an additional 3.5" drive bay and to have the front panel covered?

I've did some photos how this looks:

https://imgur.com/a/E8qVCZl

View: https://imgur.com/a/E8qVCZl


The dimensions are: DVD 14,8cm4,1cm17,0cm. The screws are 8 cm apart. +/- 1 mm on everything.

I'm totally green in this area 🙁

I did for the test put the disk directly there on the plate visible on 3rd photo, but it's not really a stable construction imo and I would prefer to have it secured better with some screws or something. (the short SATA power cable also doesn't help)

Thanks and have a nice day

 

[USAFRet]

A multitude of adapters for this.
https://www.amazon.com/Vantec-3-5-Inch-5-25-Inch-Converter-HDA-525P/dp/B00BHAKS7C

https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-3-5in-5-25in-Bracket-Adapter/dp/B000HLZXH2

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

You could get an idea like this. 5.25 inch Hard Drive to 3.5inch Front Bay Mount Bracket Converter for Laptop Hot | eBay

 

[SkyNetRising]

I'm totally green in this area 🙁

Just get a normal pc case with more drive spots.
Storage pc with just 2 drives is not serious.
What will you do, when in couple of years you'll want to add another 3rd or 4th drive ?

This is how storage oriented pc case would look like.

 

[USAFRet]

Also, this adapter:
https://www.amazon.com/Adapter-Floppy-Drive-Computer-Mounting-Supports/dp/B084ZJ7GRP

 

[sati-edimax]

@USAFRet and @Fix_that_Glitch - thanks, this is what I was looking for, the best that I was getting were sledges which left the front open and would hold the drive only on one side. Now only to find something similar in shops in my region 😀

Just get a normal pc case with more drive spots.

Yes I know that

But I'm doing what I can at the moment with limited budget that I have - I did a calculation of a full prebuilt Storage-PC and just the case for it was like 200$ where I live (I'm doing a conversion to $), where the whole HP costs me like 20$ (with everything: psu, cpu, mobo, not just the bare case). When I will actually need more space I will probably search for a better case, but why not buy a 5$ adapter suggested above and be "ready" for a 3rd drive (my plan is to get 2 drives at start and then add more when needed, maybe I won't need more than 2 drives for next 5 years? 😛) vs searching when I actually need it vs getting a 8 drive case like in your image and having 3/4 of it empty...

I might get a new PC for myself faster than getting a 3rd or 4th drive and then I will most likely use the case from my current PC for the storage PC (as it has 6 3.5" bays and also 2 5.25" bays with frontal covers in the box).