Empty 3.5" Floppy Bay.. Ideas?

[Spartan Erik]

I've got an empty 3.5" floppy bay on my computer.. any ideas what to put other than liquid cooling reservoirs, card readers, or fan controllers?

I can't expand it to a 5.25" since I have a mini-I/O panel next to the bay

 

[sunils]

I have no idea. since the cabinet structure and technology used will be different from mine i dont know what to say. even i have 2 bay for CD/DVD drives and 2 bay for 3.5 inch floppy drive. and around 3 to four bay left out for hard disk.

 

[willythechilly5]

Aah... maybe you could somehow add an extra hard drive? I haven't looked inside a PC for a while.

Add another USB controller. Firewire. Sound card controller. The sky's the limit, you just gotta cast your net wider.

 

[TechAsh]

Well a hard-drive would fit. Also if there are any spare USB/Firewire headers on your motherboard you could fit front USBs ports etc.

Or you could just blank it off and forget about it, you don't have to have something in every slot.

 

[Jacob Kid Mania Creator]

I think a hard dirve would be good

 

[Russ]

Or you could just blank it off and forget about it, you don't have to have something in every slot.

Yes. I have a cdr drive in one, which isn't plugged in. I don't have anymore ide controler slots.. But, it's better than it being blank.

 

[sandogg]

How about a display of some sort (VFD, LCD etc)
I know most of them are only for temperatures and fans but my HTPC case has one for displaying media info etc and I think I saw an OEM one for 3.5" bay.
Or even something like this http://www.crystalfontz.com/products/631/
I did not look too much into it but it seems programmable...:drool:

 

[Stormscape]

Here's a crazy thought: Put in a floppy drive.

 

[Mightymatt54]

i still use my floppy drive occasionally... more hard drives are always good though

 

[diabolo]

a 4-in-1 memory card reader could work, I have one in mine

 

[HomerJ]

If I used every bay in my case I would have 6 HDDs, 5 CD/DVD or whatever else can fit in there, and a floppy or similar-sized device, and countless case fans.

Leave it blank if you have no use for it. It's not a big deal. I would recommend a floppy or hard drive though.

 

[Spartan Erik]

Good ideas, but seeing as how I never have to handle various media formats other than DVD/CD, a multicard reader would be a waste of money. I can't even find floppies in stores anymore so that's just out of the question. I've got a large external hard drive, so buying another internal would be rather pointless.

I'm considering a fan controller for extra fans, but I'm having trouble finding ones that will fit in 3.5" bays

 

[Stormscape]

Where do you live to not be able to find floppies? I can go into any computer store and get 50 for about $10.

 

[alexandgruntz]

Yes. I have a cdr drive in one, which isn't plugged in. I don't have anymore ide controler slots.. But, it's better than it being blank.

Take your CD drive out and put your home server in the space. :naughty:

Here's some ideas for the 3 1/2 space.