ChristineBCW

We have a handful of these "SATA Combo Cables" that we use when encountering this. The "other side" usually keeps the connection solid enough to be functional for data-extracting.

Crossover is the correct way, as stated. Or if a cheap Hub with straight-thru cables. But for just two - go find a $2 crossover cable.

I was reading about post-WWII Americana history and people were building hi-fi sets because the radio and electronics industry's prices and product-offerings made it easy. So, it wasn't uncommon for someone to build a hi-fi. Expensive, but not uncommon. But by the '80s, most home stereos were off-the-shelf rigs, unboxed, connected up, ready to go. The quality was good enough, the price was so much cheaper. I look at today's Atom-Crackerjax PCs running THX, 1080p TV, etc - all the size of a textbook and reaching for that $200 price-point. "I can justify that - it's my DVR, it's my Stereo, it's my game box." There were a couple of decades where 'custom system builders' could reap an easy 25% profit margin over comparably equipped name-brands. Now I wonder if 5% isn't a prayer? Fortunately, the custom system builder still has great allegorical sales pitches - "You're buying a box with one name on the inside, but who knows what's on the inside!" and take those prospective customers 'for a ride' to the HP Driver Download Center. "See how many variations? And why? Because they farm out all of their parts to assemblers and only use their logo to distinguish theirs from Dells, Gateways, etc." And fortunately for custom system builders, Name Brands' insistence on loading up tons of subscription-based software is being understood by customers as more of a negative than a benefit. But at some point, I expect the $100 PC will outperform today's $2000 unit, and some USB stick will make it easy to plug-and-go with "good enough for Joe Consumer". The tablets and phones are courting this "Sit Back & Accomplish Nothing But Being Entertained" crowd, too. Gamers are at the forefront of this attack. XBox's are still being handed out like heroin samples in dark alley deals by Microsoft, anything to introduce (or extract?!!) the Lean-Forward Productive Computer User into the Lay-Back-And-Pay-Subscriber-Fees Customer. Death of the PC? Evolution of the species? It's still going to depend on what customers either choose to accomplish or NOT accomplish. There will probably be a continuing future for Programmers. They'll need productive computers. So will engineers and data-entry types. But when I see the holographic sci-fi portrayals of Computer Users, all I see are "readers" - not do'ers, unless they're "hacking". How cute. Hacking is now the cute "in phrase" for programming or writing a macro or saving keystrokes and playing them back.

Of course, I'd reverse the CPU fans, too, if I was going to reverse the traditional back-exhaust. The effect of blowing cold air on your face is much more profound than standing behind a fan and letting it 'suck' the hot air away from your face. Fortunately, you can try it all ways.

It's a shame we can't do searches based on "Removable Drive Trays" or Width-2-inches-greater-than-Height measurements! Stoner's comment about Long Video Cards will certainly impact (and considerably narrow) your possible candidates.

Clay, I look for cases that have a 2-inch deeper-than-higher ratio. These will provide separation from the motherboard tray and the drive-cages, but somewhere at a 21-inch 'depth', there's a thoughtful concern towards case-cable lengths - such as the front panel's audio-IO. Silverstone, LianLi have some with this ratio, and Bit Fenix, too. These may not match aesthetic desires, however, but there are models in there that are great to work with. The Antec Three Hundred Two has a lot of easy access as well but, alas, your fingers and a full SATA pedestal will be tested for adjustments! One case's 'looks' that are unpleasing to me is the old Antec Two Hundred. However, it's MB tray is recessed far back from the traditional drive cages and pulling or adding drives is easy, as is handling of jammed SATA pedestals. But one feature that I initially disliked has become a favorite. The Two Hundred doesn't have an external 3.5 - it's facia seems to have one, but that's actually covering-flap for a 2.5" drive's sled-tray. It's sturdy, it's well-constructed and I think it will last many change-out's and plug-in's. VERY nice. We use it to clone the Boot SSD every so often so that, if that SSD dies, we've got an easy clone of it. Such a very nice touch. The front plastic grill, though - what is that? A throwaway Chrysler logo? Some failed Spiderman web-splat? Ah well... tuck it on a shelf, under a desk, behind the monitor... (Of course, all the good talk about a built-in hot-swap drive 'sled' should always have this proviso: when it dies or breaks, that's it... ain't no replacin' that puppy!)

Clay, I'll dive right in. Since you have multiple drives and might add or change drives in the future, then I'd recommend "find a case with a big wide area from the front-edge of the motherboard tray to the drive cages." Not puny little cut-outs that make fingers go thru origami exercises! The CM HAF 932 has the nice drink-holder on top, perfectly placed to spill down into the dual-sinks - er, exhaust fans. Users do this once and eventually decide those cute li'l drink holders should be left for their cars and naugahydes. This case offers an abundance of IO ports - this is one case that actually joins this recent decade by having two USB 3's. So many wonderful dangling-cord locations - this case begs for optical drives and cables to snag into each other. And so many to choose from! The spacing on the upper 4 USB2's is wide enough for a user to withdraw one USB Flash Drive without accidentally withdrawing it's 'neighbor'. If they'd only stacked them vertically, across the face of the case with that spacing, a user could have distinguished all four. Oh well, you only need to see the top two, eh? They give you four, but only make it easy to use two. Great, huh? What a thoughtful design! Grrr When the SATA pedestals are loaded on up the motherboard, suddenly this big huge case has very teeny access points. What a shame - they could drop an inch from height, add it to depth and made additions to the motherboards, drive cages and cabling so much easier. * * * * The Rosewill Thor also gets good points for using two USB 3 ports. With the dials, you should be able to get most of the UHF channels, too! AM, FM, everything! Set a drink can on this case, and there's a better chance this case will dump it on the deck instead of down into it's maw. But seriously, it does offer an interesting guide-rail mentality for a radiator system. You'll have to be the judge for the 3.5" drive bays and their air-cooling clearance-btw-drives - it looks Antec-esque, but even if you could only use 3 of those 5, at least you've got 5.25 drive bays to accommodate one of those 3.5" cluster-add-in's. * * * * The Antec 1200. One USB 3, but it will consume all of your MB's 20-pin USB connector. How wonderful! The case maker is deciding you're unworthy to have both USB 3 capabilities! Nice, huh?!! I give this an "F" so quick. I'm never a fan of lighted cases or fans - when I want to see spectacular effects, "PC Cases" is soooo far down my list - near the black-light Elvis Velvet paintings. This Antec also makes the motherboard's full SATA pedestals a pain to add or remove. * * * * Take a look at a CoolerMaster 430. This is a cheapo case but something the pictures don't do justice to - the motherboard tray is cut to the edge of the motherboard. From there to the drive cages, you've got 2-3 inches of wide open space for easy SATA pedestal access. Such a SIMPLE design, so incredibly easy to work with, and work with OFTEN. That motherboard tray has a nice rolled edge - it's incredibly strong as well. For such a cheap case, such a GREAT motherboard tray and spacing-to-drive-cages. I would not recommend this case, necessarily - it has other issues, but the MB tray is well thought-out. * * * * I won't even go into 1977 Star Wars cases. * * * * If you're going to get stuck with SATA pedestals all loaded up with cables, see if you can find UNlatched SATA cables. Silverstone has SATA-3 cables without latches, but they're pricey beyond reason. The unlatched cable-connectors are flatter and fit into stacked pedestals without being jammed against one another. With latched cables, you always end up removing the top one to access the bottom one. What a pain. I'm not sold on the need for latches. Has there been an infection of wild, loose cables wiggling themselves free and flying around willy-nilly in computer cases? I haven't heard about it. And if I was going to grab my computer by its innards and sling it around the yard, I really would NOT first grab for latched-onto SATA cables! That big ol' 40-pin power connector... yeah... give it a BIG twirl and let 'er fly. But really - latched SATA Cables? I'll wait for the Harvard study showing all those wild cables wiggling free. * * * * I also wonder "Why height instead of depth?" These cases are TALL. But really shallow - not deep. Every motherboard is jammed close to the drive-bay cages. Working with drives and adding in cards, or making any change to motherboards becomes a trial that will make me ponder tearing everything out, each and every time.

I would also recommend considering a 5th identical drive, laying cold and unused, in case one of your RAID5's goes dead. Some RAID cards will read "error" and then lock out that Drive's ID from being reconsidered. So installing the exact same model will almost kick-start the RAID5's "allowance" table so that once-bad drive might be resurrected (one of those wipe-out 1's and 0's utilities to check for HDD surface defects).

Good drawings. I've thought of the same issues with cases with 4 or more HDDs in the 'chin' area. I've considered reversing the traditional back-of-case exhaust fan and having that blow directly into the CPU and RAM area - that would be the coolest air coming from the closest, most direct route. Then, removing the back-most top "exhaust" fan and having that open - no fan. But that inner 'exhaust' fan would be exhaust. But would a lower-speed 'exhaust' in that location be better, or a higher-speed? The creation of turbulance is pretty useful - air-flow is going to occur anyway, and it will establish a pattern - including unmoving 'eddys' at times. Having some conflicts in air-flow might create enough changing turbulances so those dead-zone 'eddys' can't last too long. Still, cases aren't airtight. I think the hottest elements - CPU, RAM, GPU and HDDs - should be getting the most direct and coolest air possible.

I've been a long-time reader, but finally decided to join because Case and Cooler reviews tend to frustrate me. I can't understand why a cooler is given a passing grade when it dictates to users how many RAM slots can be used. C'mon - a COOLER doing that?!! But yes, reviewers ooh and ahh over coolers that do exactly that. To me, when coolers dictate numbre of RAM slots to be used, I'd give that cooler a Big Fail. Cases - why are Cases being pushed out doors with only one USB 3.0 front IO panel, especially with the 20-pin MB connector! That's another "F" to me. I doubt if this is a 10-cent part-cost differential to a USB 2 connector. Probably less than a nickle - an HK nickle, at that. Why are drive-cages that have more metal interrupting air-flow between drives being given passing grades either? I am also chasing after the motherboard designers who came up with the cute SATA pedestals that are crammed so close that the latching mechanisms create a tension-force on the pedestal-plastic. I'm not sold on SATA latches in the first place. Has the 30-years in the computer industry shown a huge infection of cables wiggling themselves free and flapping in the breeze?

What's the reason for these cases? Do you use that many drives? I like the Antec's because their spacing between drives is good for air-flow. Some Rosewill's have credit-card-width separations which means I will only use half the drive bays, and consume 5.25s for HDDs. But I'm not certain why this size of sample cases is being proffered - "use of that many drives"?