You might want to consider using one or more mobile racks to install in your desktop PC's vacant 5 1/4" bays so that you will then have the advantages of one or more removable HDD/SSDs in your system.
We equip every PC we build with at least one mobile rack/removable HDD/SSD. The advantages of this configuration are enormous as I will explain.
Here's the mobile rack we've been using for quite a number of years...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817995104
In your particular case since you're working with eight drives (if I've counted right!) the use of a mobile rack will accommodate all eight drives since each of those eight drives (if so desired) could reside in a removable tray that's simply inserted or removed in one or the other mobile racks (as will be explained below).
1. The beauty of installing removable HDD/SSDs in a desktop PC is that the user can easily work with multiple installed drives, each effectively isolated (when desired) from any other installed drive. Thus, multiple operating systems may be installed on different drives installed in the system and no conflicts will arise from this situation since each drive can be completely isolated from another both physically and electrically. In addition, the use of removable drives facilitates accommodating different storage/backup needs that the user may desire since it's a simple matter to add, remove, modify a HDD/SSD using a removable drive in the system.
2. With removable HDD/SSDs desktop PC users have an UNLIMITED number of drives to work with should they choose without the need for opening their computer cases to install (or remove) the drive in the machine. Again, each removable drive is isolated from the other internally-connected drives at the user's option.
3. Assuming the drive in the mobile rack contains an OS, simply by pressing its power switch the user can thus boot to this or that drive without the need for any "bootloader" or any other multi-booting software, as well as avoiding the need (in most cases) to access the motherboard's BIOS to change the boot priority order in order to boot to a particular HDD/SSD that contains a different OS.
4. The mobile rack we use is a two-piece affair - a removable tray and the rack itself which is affixed to the desktop PC's 5 1/4" bay (identical to affixing an optical drive or some such 5 1/4" device). This model contains a small fan that is dead silent in operation.
The rack is dead-flush with the case's front bezel.
Installation of the rack is a simple affair; no more difficult than installing an optical drive.
5. Should a removable HDD/SSD become defective or dysfunctional and needs to be removed & replaced in the system, it's a simple & quick process for a user to remove & replace it from the comfort of his or her computer chair without the need of disconnecting/uninstalling the disk from the motherboard's internal SATA connector.
This particular mobile rack model is equipped with an ON-OFF power switch button, a most desirable feature in our opinion. Assuming a user is working with multiple removable hard drives in their mobile racks (or has also installed a fixed internally-connected hard drive), it's a simple matter to press the ON-OFF button and "on-the-fly" temporarily disable one or more of the mobile rack's hard drives without the need of using the rack's lever to remove the rack's
tray (caddy) containing the HDD from the rack's internal SATA power/data connectors.
Of course should the user choose to do so it's a relatively simple matter to press the removable tray's lever release button and thus physically disconnect the removable tray containing the drive, thus disconnecting the rack's HDD/SSD SATA data/power connectors from the mobile rack's connectors. A simple pull of the tray's lever is all that is necessary.
And should a user desire to employ additional HDDs for one reason or another, he or she can simply remove the present disk from the tray and plop a different one in. Thus, users would have an UNLIMITED number of drives at their disposal. A simple no-nonsense procedure.
So with a removable HDD, one gets the speed advantages of an internally-connected drive and the absolute security of the backup/storage data on that disk by easily disconnecting/uninstalling the disk from the system whenever it's needed by the user.
The one negative to this particular mobile rack is that it's designed to house 3.5" drives and not 2.5" drives (SSD), however, for nearly 5 years now we've been installing SSDs (or 2.5" HDDs) in the rack without any significant problems. We simply cut up a couple of foam pieces (the type of stuff you frequently get as packaging material) and butt the pieces against the 2.5" drive so that it's firmly situated in the rack. Seems to work fine. Another alternative is to drill two small holes in the bottom of the rack so that they're oriented with the screw holes found on the bottom of the 2 1/2" disk. Then screw the drive to the rack. Works quite well as long as you can properly orient the drilled holes with the screw holes of the drive.
And I'm aware of other users who simply use packaging tape for this purpose.
Over the years we've probably installed a few hundred of these racks in the desktop PCs we've built and for other users. We've encountered very few problems with these racks.
Based on our tests over the years we have found no negative implications involving performance & longevity aspects between drives installed as removable drives and drives directly connected to the motherboard's SATA data & power connectors.
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