4 ms·

Why don't massive new ATX cases have 5.25" drive bays anymore?! I get that an optical drive on a laptop is a bit extra, but I still need to burn media, backups

Why don't massive new ATX cases have 5.25" drive bays anymore?! I get that an optical drive on a laptop is a bit extra, but I still need to burn media, backups and images! Where is the IO panel? Where are the hot-swappable drives? Why is the underutilized CPU liquid cooled, when the over-stressed GPU is poorly air cooled?! Nothing about this makes sense, except it's conformance to modern fashion. Don't even get me started about the fan placement... Don't get me wrong though, I love the glass (or plastic).

willis936 5y ago
5.25" bays are also handy for general purpose I/O shenanigans. My eyes were opened when I realized you can fit 6x hot swap 2.5" drives into a single 5.25" bay.
podiki 5y ago
(Author here) Yeah, no more 5.25" drivers, but honestly I haven't used my DVD drive in the previous computer in a very long time. I'll probably get an enclosure or external one for the rare CD ripping I do. IO panel is in the back, I didn't include a picture but you can find it on the Asus page for the motherboard of course. Pretty much what you'd expect: lots of USB, ethernet, display out (if you have integrated graphics), etc. "Underutilized CPU"? It is not a server, but I do plenty of compiling and other CPU tasks. Water cooling is efficient and quiet too, so why not? (Perhaps you've assumed a fan setup here, but I think I've configured them sensibly.) "Over-stressed GPU...poorly air cooled"? I'd love a water block and custom loop, but that is outside of what I want to do/spend money on. The bottom fans are intake (as are the side radiator fans, the rear and top are exhaust). The GPU fans are off unless I'm playing games as it stays cool enough. And when I do play I don't notice any noise, no throttling, ... is well cooled I'd say.
- nixpulvis 5y ago
  I mean, I have an integrated water block on my CPU as well... it just makes sense these days. It's just hilarious to me that I have the good cooler on the part that's less in need. The external thing is a decent idea, but I just have way too many junk drawers full of random shit in my little apartment, so I'd rather put it where it belongs, and leave it connected. There's really no harm in that, plus it can even help with air flow if you do it right. On a tangential note: I once knew a professor with a completely passively liquid cooled rig. Just buy a big enough radiator (about the size of yours) and test things out for yourself. If you have a cool enough room, it should be fine. Meanwhile, now I'm trying to wire up an old mobo to a side table in the living room, so I guess I don't have a 5.25" bay (yet) either. Or any fans.
  - podiki 5y ago
    Some people have made builds with the whole thing immersed in some liquid no? Sounds...messy, but interesting.
    - artificialLimbs 5y ago
      Mineral oil. Food oils will degrade over time. https://grabcad.com/library/custom-micro-atx-mineral-oil-computer-case-1# https://grabcad.com/library/custom-micro-atx-mineral-oil-com...!
      - podiki 5y ago
        What, you don't want it to double as a deep fryer?
        nixpulvis 5y ago
        With GPUs these days running at ~100C we're getting closer and closer to this becoming a reality.
        scns 5y ago
        Sorry for being a pedant but deep frying happens around 300°C.
  - nixpulvis 5y ago
    > The external thing is a decent idea You know... I take this back. I just plugged in my external SATA to USB adapter and immediately re-mourned my last broken backup HDD, which I broke because I tripped on the fucking cable. Spinning disks should be properly mounted.
jcelerier 5y ago
> but I still need to burn media, backups and images! crazy, I haven't used any optical media directly since 2009
KingMachiavelli 5y ago
CPU water coolers are cheap because the mounting is pretty much standardized. A GPU requires a unique mounting bracket for each model although you can buy GPUs that come with a AIO water loop installed for premium. >90% of custom PC builds do not install a disk drive and there is a large preference for aesthetics over function plus 5.25" drive bays also block airflow anyway. It's also easier to work in a case that has fewer drive bays. It's a lot easier to just buy a external disk drive anyway. Using optical disks as a backup medium is pretty much dead. Optical disks are more expensive per GB than hard drives. (Bluray seems to be about ~$38/TB while HDDs are ~$25/TB). I would not be surprised if the main use of Bluray drives was ripping/saving the disk contents to a hard drive. Anything plugged into the front panel just looks bad so most cases just have a USB A and C + audio ports. TBH the front audio ports are often useless anyway because they pick up a lot of noise. Not sure what you mean about fan placement since most cases are designed to operate with positive pressure which reduces the amount of dust collected. Also the case in the OP article is not a big case, it is just shorter and wider than a normal mATX case so it looks big in pictures.
- nixpulvis 5y ago
  > CPU water coolers are cheap because the mounting is pretty much standardized. A GPU requires a unique mounting bracket for each model although you can buy GPUs that come with a AIO water loop installed for premium. True RE Optical vs Magnetic: Unless someone has some good hard data to show me (I'm honestly very interested in seeing more numbers on this subject), I'm going to continue to assume high quality optical media is going to last longer and require less special treatment than hard drives, tapes, etc. Flash media lasts even less time. Yes, information density is lower on optical, so it really depends what you are backing up. If your concern is rolling backups of an entire prod server worth of customer records perhaps don't choose optical, however that's so far from what we're talking about in this thread that I don't see why it would influence your decision making process. However, if the goal is to backup a save file, or some old family photos, optical is still my go-to. > Anything plugged into the front panel just looks bad LOL OK, so I need to dig around in back every time I need to plug in my headphones? Really?! Perhaps you just make the back the new front, I've done that on a few rigs in the past. > Not sure what you mean about fan placement since most cases are designed to operate with positive pressure which reduces the amount of dust collected. Interesting, I hadn't considered that before. I'll have to test that out on my next rebuild. That being said, I doubt the OP has positive interior pressure, since there are two "lower speed fans on the radiator" for intake, and three pushing out from the top.

willis936 5y ago

5.25" bays are also handy for general purpose I/O shenanigans. My eyes were opened when I realized you can fit 6x hot swap 2.5" drives into a single 5.25" bay.

podiki 5y ago

(Author here) Yeah, no more 5.25" drivers, but honestly I haven't used my DVD drive in the previous computer in a very long time. I'll probably get an enclosure or external one for the rare CD ripping I do. IO panel is in the back, I didn't include a picture but you can find it on the Asus page for the motherboard of course. Pretty much what you'd expect: lots of USB, ethernet, display out (if you have integrated graphics), etc. "Underutilized CPU"? It is not a server, but I do plenty of compiling and other CPU tasks. Water cooling is efficient and quiet too, so why not? (Perhaps you've assumed a fan setup here, but I think I've configured them sensibly.) "Over-stressed GPU...poorly air cooled"? I'd love a water block and custom loop, but that is outside of what I want to do/spend money on. The bottom fans are intake (as are the side radiator fans, the rear and top are exhaust). The GPU fans are off unless I'm playing games as it stays cool enough. And when I do play I don't notice any noise, no throttling, ... is well cooled I'd say.

nixpulvis 5y ago
I mean, I have an integrated water block on my CPU as well... it just makes sense these days. It's just hilarious to me that I have the good cooler on the part that's less in need. The external thing is a decent idea, but I just have way too many junk drawers full of random shit in my little apartment, so I'd rather put it where it belongs, and leave it connected. There's really no harm in that, plus it can even help with air flow if you do it right. On a tangential note: I once knew a professor with a completely passively liquid cooled rig. Just buy a big enough radiator (about the size of yours) and test things out for yourself. If you have a cool enough room, it should be fine. Meanwhile, now I'm trying to wire up an old mobo to a side table in the living room, so I guess I don't have a 5.25" bay (yet) either. Or any fans.
- podiki 5y ago
  Some people have made builds with the whole thing immersed in some liquid no? Sounds...messy, but interesting.
  - artificialLimbs 5y ago
    Mineral oil. Food oils will degrade over time. https://grabcad.com/library/custom-micro-atx-mineral-oil-computer-case-1# https://grabcad.com/library/custom-micro-atx-mineral-oil-com...!
    - podiki 5y ago
      What, you don't want it to double as a deep fryer?
      - nixpulvis 5y ago
        With GPUs these days running at ~100C we're getting closer and closer to this becoming a reality.
        scns 5y ago
        Sorry for being a pedant but deep frying happens around 300°C.
- nixpulvis 5y ago
  > The external thing is a decent idea You know... I take this back. I just plugged in my external SATA to USB adapter and immediately re-mourned my last broken backup HDD, which I broke because I tripped on the fucking cable. Spinning disks should be properly mounted.

jcelerier 5y ago

> but I still need to burn media, backups and images! crazy, I haven't used any optical media directly since 2009

KingMachiavelli 5y ago

CPU water coolers are cheap because the mounting is pretty much standardized. A GPU requires a unique mounting bracket for each model although you can buy GPUs that come with a AIO water loop installed for premium. >90% of custom PC builds do not install a disk drive and there is a large preference for aesthetics over function plus 5.25" drive bays also block airflow anyway. It's also easier to work in a case that has fewer drive bays. It's a lot easier to just buy a external disk drive anyway. Using optical disks as a backup medium is pretty much dead. Optical disks are more expensive per GB than hard drives. (Bluray seems to be about ~$38/TB while HDDs are ~$25/TB). I would not be surprised if the main use of Bluray drives was ripping/saving the disk contents to a hard drive. Anything plugged into the front panel just looks bad so most cases just have a USB A and C + audio ports. TBH the front audio ports are often useless anyway because they pick up a lot of noise. Not sure what you mean about fan placement since most cases are designed to operate with positive pressure which reduces the amount of dust collected. Also the case in the OP article is not a big case, it is just shorter and wider than a normal mATX case so it looks big in pictures.

nixpulvis 5y ago
> CPU water coolers are cheap because the mounting is pretty much standardized. A GPU requires a unique mounting bracket for each model although you can buy GPUs that come with a AIO water loop installed for premium. True RE Optical vs Magnetic: Unless someone has some good hard data to show me (I'm honestly very interested in seeing more numbers on this subject), I'm going to continue to assume high quality optical media is going to last longer and require less special treatment than hard drives, tapes, etc. Flash media lasts even less time. Yes, information density is lower on optical, so it really depends what you are backing up. If your concern is rolling backups of an entire prod server worth of customer records perhaps don't choose optical, however that's so far from what we're talking about in this thread that I don't see why it would influence your decision making process. However, if the goal is to backup a save file, or some old family photos, optical is still my go-to. > Anything plugged into the front panel just looks bad LOL OK, so I need to dig around in back every time I need to plug in my headphones? Really?! Perhaps you just make the back the new front, I've done that on a few rigs in the past. > Not sure what you mean about fan placement since most cases are designed to operate with positive pressure which reduces the amount of dust collected. Interesting, I hadn't considered that before. I'll have to test that out on my next rebuild. That being said, I doubt the OP has positive interior pressure, since there are two "lower speed fans on the radiator" for intake, and three pushing out from the top.