Reddit mentions of StarTech.com 3.5" to 5.25" Front Bay Adapter - Mount 3.5" HDD in 5.25" Bay - Hard Drive Mounting Bracket w/ Mounting Screws (BRACKETFDBK)

Yap. You need a 3.5" to 5.25" adapter.

As an apple hater, are there any non-apple computers with usb-c yet?

Apparently the dell XPS. I should look into front panel bay adapters for type c for my desktop

https://www.amazon.com/E-SDS-2-Ports-Front-Connector-Adapter/dp/B01A5DGIAM/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HLZXH2

For cameras this is a waste of time because you only buy yourself an extra meter at most. Better of getting a cable extension for the cameras.

However 1 metre more HMD cable available given the cable is only 4m to begin with is much more valuable and usable. So front panel connectors are a worthwhile buy....but not this USB only front panel adapter as inter4ever says.

You want HDMI as well as USB3. I was never able to find any of the GPU company's Front Bay VR port adapters but I did find and purchase the items linked below which have worked a treat, as well as given me front card readers, 2 USB charging ports and 2 USB2 ports for my Wheel and HOTAS as well as the HDMI and USB3 for the Rift, freeing up a lot of ports on the back of my case. ie. All my rear USB3 are now freed up for my 3 Constellation cameras.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/InLine-33394-Front-floppy-Reader/dp/B00BU977Y2

https://www.amazon.co.uk/StarTech-Drive-Front-Bracket-Adapter/dp/B000HLZXH2/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1480140863&sr=1-1&keywords=startech+3.5%22+to+5.25%22+bay

I also have a Define R4, and having a card reader was a must for me (I needed both SD and CF though). I know Newegg isn't very popular here nowadays, but my solution was to get a 3.5 inch Rosewill card reader and a 3.5 inch to 5.25 inch adapter. The adapter is plastic but is pretty sturdy, and I'm happy with the way it blends with the rest of the case (I'm not at home right now so I can't take a pic but I could tomorrow night). This card reader uses a 19-pin USB 3.0 connector, which you motherboard (the Asus H97-Plus) can accommodate.

The issue with this setup is that your motherboard (like mine) has only one USB 3.0 header, so you have the card reader (which also has a single USB 3.0 port itself) and front USB 3.0 ports of the R4 case competing for the header. My solution was to demote the front USB 3.0 ports of the case to USB 2.0 ports by using a Silverstone USB 3.0 to USB 2.0 Adapter and plugging that into a free USB 2.0 header (hopefully you have a free one of those)

I've had the TS140 for a year now and am happy with it. Up until a couple days ago it was running WHS2011 with Plex + uTorrent but I got sick of Windows so I switched to Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS with Plex + Deluge.


I tested hosting a Minecraft server on it a few months ago and didn't notice any problems with just a couple people but I'd imagine some problems could arise if Plex was transcoding multiple streams while multiple new blocks were being generated.


I've never hosted a CS:GO server before but back in the day I ran a CS:S server and never ran into a problem with not enough processing power. Ping + upload speed are much bigger factors.


Both the i3 and xeon models come with and support unbuffered ECC memory and I'd suggest only using ECC memory unless all the data on the server is worthless. ECC memory detects and corrects the most common kinds of internal data corruption. If you want to add more memory this is the stick I bought to expand to 8 GB.


There are 5 sata ports on the motherboard when you unplug the optical drive. The TS140 comes with three 3.5" bays so I have a 120GB Samsung SSD laying on the bottom for the OS and purchased a 5.25 -> 3.5 bracket to fit 4 Western Digital Red HDD's. WD Red's are designed to run 24/7 and are more friendly for RAID's. Remember to pick up a couple "straight to Right Angle" Sata cables because space is very limited between the drives and the case.


When I purchased my server the i3 model was $250 and the xeon model was around $500 so the choice was very easy. If the price difference was $110 (on amazon) a year ago I would have gone with the TS440. According to cpuboss.com the Xeon's passmark score is about 2000 more than the TS140 which according to Plex means that it'll be able to handle one more 1080p transcode than the i3.


TL;DR Get the Xeon + ECC memory + SSD

I've just realised that card reader is 3.5 inch which probably means you'll need an adapter for the front 5.25 bays. Damn these card readers; there just isn't a good one that's 5.25.

This adapter looks good but some people have reported problems with toolless 5.25 bays, does your R4 have those? http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-3-5-Inch-5-25-Inch-Mounting-Bracket/dp/B000HLZXH2/

The only cons I see are the relatively meager amount of drives it could hold for being a mid-tower. It can only hold two 3.5" drives and three 2.5" drives. But if you really need more space, a 3.5" to 5.25" bay mounting adapter isn't too expensive.

Your original post, and this one, are really difficult to understand.

From what I can tell, you're attempting to move the contents of an Acer GX-795-EB11 into an HEC Blitz case. Which doesn't make any sense, since the HEC Blitz is a piece of junk. That aside, I'll try to work through your post :

>first the gtx-785 do you want sata it boots from ssd? I think its 120 I plan to put my 512 ssd 2.5" in it to boot from (standard sata 3 connector) and I need a pci to sata 3 (x 4 ports) card looking on ebay. Since I won't be booting from this card any do's or don'ts? Any size limits to start I plan on hanging off it 2 x 8tb and 1 x 4tb and maybe a 2tb as well.

The GX-785 should be booting from the 128GB SSD. Acer doesn't specify what type of SSD it is, but since this is a lower-end consumer system, I'm going to assume it's a standard 2.5" SATA SSD. You can replace it with a 512GB 2.5" SATA SSD with no problems.

Make sure you get a PCIe SATA controller, not a PCI one. Nothing uses PCI any more, and most systems lack PCI slots. No proper SATA 6.0Gbps controller should have size limits (okay, technically they do, but it'll be a long time before we run up against that, I believe it's measured in ZB), so you should have no concerns putting 8TB drives or even 10TB or 12TB drives on any.

>second planning 4 x 120mm silent fans on the hec case (its supports them and much better than passive cooling.

The HEC Blitz only has space for 3x 120mm fans from what I can see. Not that this setup will need anywhere near that much cooling. One intake at the front and exhaust at the back should be more than adequate.

>third does the gtx-785 just use a usb motherboard connector for its front all in one card reader etc.. I need to get a new one since the gtx-785 has a custom curved case and my hec case will need one.

It's almost certainly connected to the IDC USB 3.0 motherboard header, which supports up to 2x USB 3.0 ports, which is why there's only one USB 3.0 port on the front of the case (the other port is assigned to the card reader). You should be able to find an 3.5" bay USB 3.0 card reader easy enough, like this Vantec one. You will need to use the 5.25" to 3.5" adapter that is supposed to be included with the case, if you've lost it, you can get this one. Personally, I'd get an external USB one instead, so you can put it somewhere that's easier to access, plus most new cases don't have any visible bays these days, so you likely won't be able to transfer an internal card reader to a new system in the future.

Hope this helps!

It's SATA so it should be plenty, but it's a 3.5 inch expansion, so it won't fit in the 5.25 inch front bays. You would have to get a 3.5 to 5.25 adapter. Like just the faceplate and then use the SATA power from the usb c front panel.

So maybe something like this? I'm not entirely sure. I feel like this would work though.

https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-3-5-Inch-5-25-Inch-Mounting-Bracket/dp/B000HLZXH2/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_147_bs_lp_tr_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=SYK71VBC7N00DCVR7WR4

https://www.amazon.de/StarTech-com-Speichereinschubadapter-8-9cm-13-3cm-Schacht/dp/B000HLZXH2/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1495385331&sr=8-1-fkmr1&keywords=StarTech+3.5-Inch+to+5.25-Inch+Floppy+Mounting+Kit+Bracket Best I could find with my non-existent german skills.

I have bought a Lenovo M92P SFF 3227. It had a single 3.5" HDD, and a DVD drive. I want to buy a bracket to replace the DVD drive with two 2.5 inch drives, one for an SSD, then another for a 2tb drive in the future possibly. Or maybe I'll just put a 2.5" SSD. Not sure yet.


So my question is.... Lenovo uses a quick removing bracket for their DVD drive, and I've taken it out before, but I'm not sure if this star tech bracket will work for the drive bay. this is it here. Also will the SATA connector and SATA power that goes to the DVD drive be compatible with a HDD. I'm assuming yes, but wanted to ask regardless.

Any help or advice would be appreciated. Thanks!