Hivemind advice on a bay mount issue

Hardware and technical stuff
1

My harddrive crashed on Friday (thankfully it was a datastore and my data is backuped). I suspect it was a heat issue because I was consistently getting 50+ deg C from that drive.

So I spent the whole of last 2 days reorganizing my components and redoing my cabling. The Cool Master CM690III is really good for this.

I took a trip down to the hardware stores and found a 5-bay hotswap SATA internal bay (it occupies 3 traditional optical drive slots, front panel loaded) for just SGD70! It’s refurbished. I think the original retail price was SGD200++. Was so happy with the find until I got home.

Because of this…

IMG_6201.JPG1456×1958 741 KB

The drive bays cannot go in because the CM690 “helpfully” has small seats for individual DVD drives etc. So it blocked the 3 bay expansion.

Question is this:

Should I surrender and return the nice find?

Or should I somehow mod the case? If so how can I do it? The metal rack in the CM690III is extremely well made and tough. I cannot imagine somehow bending the small seat protusion.

Escpecially since I was actively looking for an affordable multibay Sata Internal Enclosure that dont cost so much. It’ll be a shame to return it. I thought it was a terrific find. I’ll post the pict of that when I get back.

Any advice?

2

it’s just sheet metal. You have two choices:

  1. Pound it with a hammer and it will bend back. The problem I see is that it you should pound it out with a block of wood behind it to keep it from denting, and it looks to be hard to get something behind it.

  2. Get a cheap 4" grinder & grind those protrusions off. In the states, I’d recommend one of these from harbor freight. $15 USD

WEAR FULL WRAP AROUND GLASSES.

In both options, take everything out of the case before doing your modding.

3

Thanks for the tip. I’ve pondered over this since I last posted and decided against mucking around with my case. I dont have the right workspace at home for the “heavy” lifting required.

Thanks though.I suppose with the right setup it can be modded relatively easily.