Easy mod to add more 2.5" or 3.5" drives to a T20

[Gnarf]

I found exacly the same. But over 20 € for a two bay hdd cage!???? Thats $ 28!.... And thats the price without the caddys!

 

I want a good solution for 3,5" HDD Nr.- 5 + 6 but not so expensive.

[ikon]

Unfortunately Gnarf, I think you may be dealing with the laws of Supply And Demand. They probably just can't sell that many of these cages overall (thousands to hundreds of thousands rather than millions) so the cost per unit goes up.

[Taffeys]

Are there any equal alternatives? The price for the KC230 incl. shiping to germany is too high.

Keep looking; find a local company that liquidates/dis-mantles old PCs and Servers. I found mine in the US for ~$6 each.

[Taffeys]

The cage is KC230.

The sleds are U6436 or YJ221.

The sleds from the T20 do not fit.

I tried both the U6436 and YJ221 sleds; while they both will fit into the cage I found the "locking" tabs protruded too far and interfered with the case edge and side. I will use the GJ617 RJ824 KM503 sleds instead ( http://www.ebay.com/itm/181473314363? )

Edited August 22, 2014 by Taffeys

[schoondoggy]

I tried both the U6436 and YJ221 sleds; while they both will fit into the cage I found the "locking" tabs protruded too far and interfered with the case edge and side. I will use the GJ617 RJ824 KM503 sleds instead ( http://www.ebay.com/itm/181473314363? )

Good call on the GJ617 nice fit!

[schoondoggy]

Prepping for the Meet Up, I pulled the cage and clean off the double sided tape. I cut to metal strips to add strength to the bottom and give me a mount point:

I used my handy hole punch:

I riveted the pieces in place measuring to be sure the width was the same top and bottom. Using a marker I set the points for the mounting holes. I had to punch the front hole in the case. The back bolt will mount through the mesh of the cage below:

In place and two #6 bolts with lock washer nuts:

And filled with drives:

Dell T20 with room for six 3.5" drives, two thin 2.5" drives in a small Orico and two tall 2.5" drives in the ODD bay.

Of course you need to add a controller to have enough ports.

[ikon]

Nice job schoondoggy.

[Joe_Miner]

Beautiful Pictures Schoondoggy!!

 

I love a build where I get to cut/drill/solder/Dremel something(s)

[Taffeys]

Great work! Very professional install! I'm glad you got rid of the double-sided tape and went to metal-to-metal contact on that cage. OEMs go to great lengths to ensure everything is grounded for ESD mitigation.

 

BTW, I'm still working on my T20; going to cram seven 3.5" HDDs and three 2.5" SSDs into it. Got the physical details down, working on cooling. I'll post the results.

[Tommi]

I also made this mod which schoondoggy introduced it this thread.

 

I just want to show my mod and to say that this mod is possible without any modifications to the original chassis -> no "warranty void" problems IMO. At least there are no visible signs of modifications in the chassis, the way I did this.

 

The parts are the same which are mentioned in this post earlier.

 

I just fitted those parts by myself. No so pretty, but it works and as I said, I didn't need to modify the T20 chassis. Just added the HDD cage.

 

Thanks to Schoondoggy for the idea to do this mod. =)

Edited February 4, 2015 by Tommi