2.5" HDD with PCI card in M300 case

**Stealth915** · 05-23-2008, 07:39 PM

I bought a M300 mini-ITX case from Mini-Box, and I'm trying to fit a PCI sound card (SB X-Fi), a M2-ATX, and a hard drive in there along with the Intel D201GLY2.

The PCI card will be on the right portion of the case in that picture, and M2-ATX will take up the top portion - so the only place a hard drive will (maybe) fit is on the left portion. However, that's where the D210GLY's heatsink/fan is. I measured that there's about 2cm between the top of the case and the fan. According to the specs, the Seagate 5400.4 2.5" hard drive is 0.95cm tall, leaving 1cm of space between heatsink/fan and hard drive.

Has anyone else tried this setup? I'm worried about heat issues that might happen, but I can't think of any other way to get all my components in there. My PC is going to be trunk-mounted, so that should keep it cooler than if I were to put it under the seat or in the dash.

Camera angle is weird, but it's 2cm between fan and top of case.

**v8 scimitar** · 05-24-2008, 06:01 AM

Above the cpu fan is not a good place in my opinion. That's where the fan gets its air from and it cant with something that close to it. I dont know the case and cant tell the dimensions from the pics but how about the drive in the middle either on its side or flat screwed to the lid. Another option I can maybe see is put the M2 in the middle attatched to the lid and the drive up front. The sound card is really very thick so there should be quite a bit of room to the side of it.

Edit that should read isn't really very thick if you hadn't worked that out.

**Stealth915** · 05-25-2008, 05:22 AM

I definitely agree that it's not the most ideal place to mount a hard drive. I'll have to put everything into the case to see just exactly how much space there is. I'm hoping to use the pre-drilled holes in the mounting plate for the top of the case, but I can drill new ones to make everything fit if necessary.

I was hoping there'd be someone here on these forums that's tried to do something similar to this in a M300 case. I'm thinking it should be possible... with a little creative hacking of the case, haha.