Hello! I excitedly bought myself a new Graphics card for my setup. Now, this was the first time I’d ever built a computer, and the case I used was an old hand-me-down mid-tower. While purchasing the card I considered power draw and airflow, however I did not account for size. The drive bay can’t be removed if not by forceful means. I assume the best course of action is to just purchase or find a bigger case, but I wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing any option so that’s why I’m asking here. What do I do? Do I try to hardmod my case into having enough space for the card?

  • TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    14·
    1 day ago

    This is one of those problems you run into and then learn to check for moving forward. I did. I ended up buying a new case and then checking the dimensions of any new hardware I bought.

    My buddy took a dremel to his HDD cage.

    Both are valid.

  • runner_g@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    7·
    1 day ago

    I made the same mistake with my first build. I grabbed the metal shears from the garage and snipped the metal of the drive bay to make room.

  • frongt@lemmy.zip
    8·
    1 day ago

    If you aren’t using the drive bays, a hacksaw is cheaper than a new case or GPU.

    Mine just barely fits, I have to take out the gpu at a weird angle if I need to access the drives.

      • frongt@lemmy.zip
        3·
        1 day ago

        As long as you have enough screw holes to hold the drives, sure. You just don’t want them to fall out while they’re spinning.

        Also take a file and smooth out the edges. Else the next time you’re fumbling around in the case you’ll slice your hand to hell on the sharp edges.

        • leds@feddit.dk
          3·
          7 hours ago

          And just to be clear , don’t do any of this with anything in the case. You really do not want metal bits in your electronics

  • defunct_punk@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    1 day ago

    Pics of your setup? If it were me, I’d be saving my money for games and try to take out that drive bay, as long as you’re confident that doing that would give you enough space. Old cases depreciate quickly, there’s really no reason to try to preserve it. Just my opinion though

    • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      1 day ago

      By “depreciate quickly” we in fact mean “become worthless instantly.” I have various cases from the era where the power supply still went in the top rear corner rather than the bottom, and at this point they’re only of any interest as the foundation of a truly retro PC build for ironic purposes, or as a butt-to-ground adapter. You can’t even give the fuckers away because any computer nerds who would theoretically be interested in them already have a basement full of the damn things themselves.

      So I would not lose too much sleep over hacking out a drive cage if it’s never going to be used. OP may even find that it’s riveted into place, in which case a few strategic drillings is all it’ll take to entice it to fall off.