Busy (Custom 5.25" bay device)

Project: Busy

**Project has been canceled**

I can't really work on any major case mods as I'm at school and don't have much space or time. I still have the urge to mod so I came up with the idea of building a custom 5.25" bay device.

The name "Busy" is to reflect the fact that this project is being done while I am also very busy with other things. Also because this essentially is a multifunction device it as a whole can do many things at once making it in a state of being busy.

The idea for project Busy started because I currently have an Aerocool Powerwatch multifunction panel in my computer. The temperature sensors got damaged so I can't use the fan controller. I'm only using it so I can have a card reader and front USB and audio ports. The ports on my case are poorly positioned on the side where they get blocked. I however happened across a memory card reader and front panel audio hookup I salvaged from a busted eMachine. Neither fit in a standard bad so I decided to make my own bay device so I can get rid of the Aerocool panel I'm not really using.

The card reader is too wide for a 3.5" bay, but is rather short so I've decided to add a slimline optical drive from a laptop with an IDE adaptor. I'm using the housing from an old CD burner for my device.

Ok enough talk time for pictures! :D

All the main components I plan on using for this build:

-5.25" CDRW for the housing
-Card reader with usb port
-Mic & headphone connections
-Slimline optical drive with IDE converter
-Hard Drive

I started by removing the CDRW guts:

Everything was nicely held in a plastic frame so it came out nicely.

Leaving me with an empty 5.25" bay box:

I also pulled the card reader from it's original housing:

While looking at the audio ports I realized they were in a smaller casing surrounded by a larger casing. I cut/ripped the large bulky casing out and got this (I just hope I didn't damage the cable pulling it out):

Here is a general idea of how the front will look with it together:

As you can see the card reader seems to stick out of the front by a few millimeters:
Some of this will be included in the front bezel. I might try to move the HD out the back a tiny bit for that extra bit of clearance.

Another shot of everything in the positions I want:

As you can see the idea is for the slimline to be mounted on the top of the device and the card reader on the bottom. I plan on putting the audio ports in the little gap created by the cutout in the slimline. I also may mount a tiny switch to the left of the slimline that i can use for whatever later.

I still need to come up with a design for the front bezel, probably just plain black for now. I could always make different ones later.

What concerns me is the HD. I plan on mounting it under the slimline behind the card reader. Unfortunately this is very little clearance and I worry about the drive getting hot and possibly affecting other components. I may just leave it out or make is a bay for 2x 2.5" laptop HDs.

looking great!... one idea i have from looking at this: those audio jacks, maybe you could strip the casing off of them and turn the jacks sideways...so your cd drive can sit more flush? just a thought

I tested all of the components to make sure they are functional and not broke. Good news, everything works.

Some pics of the card reader and slimline temporarily hooked up just because I can:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by b4i7

looking great!... one idea i have from looking at this: those audio jacks, maybe you could strip the casing off of them and turn the jacks sideways...so your cd drive can sit more flush? just a thought

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I don't really think there is a problem with the way they fit now. I'll have a better idea once I start getting things mounted. I already took a lot of the casing off of these, and I kinda like where it is now keeps them together.

looks great fella, nice idea of stuffing all that stuff in the cd case, the layout looks cool too :) cant wait to see this unit up and running

"PHOTOGRAPHY IS PROHIBITED" lol

[QUOTE=What concerns me is the HD. I plan on mounting it under the slimline behind the card reader. Unfortunately this is very little clearance and I worry about the drive getting hot and possibly affecting other components. I may just leave it out or make is a bay for 2x 2.5" laptop HDs.[/QUOTE]

It might be getting too far away from the original idea (which is very neat) but, what if you fitted a hard drive cooler something like this maybe cut the drive bay in half and replace the top or bottom half with the cooler.
Just an idea as it would be cool to get it all in one case.8)

If there would be enough space for it.

I'm getting tempted to hunt down and kill this person.

Who the hell is "dreamath" I've just received the biggest spam email ever but I see that it's been removed from here already.
(Hates people that spam forums!)

Yeah, it was huge.

Hey Man really cool mod. I've done a bay cover mod myself but not quite like this! I love it man! +rep for ingenuity!