| Installing the hard drives on this computer is very simple compared to some cases. For this computer, we have a removable rack that will hold up to 5 hard drives. It has shock absorbing rubber rings that the screws which hold the drives in place pass through, helping to stablize the drives. The hard drive screws themselves are thumb screws making removing and replacing the drives very easy. The hard drives we chose are two 250GB, 7200RPM Hitachi Deskstar drives. In our opinion, no one makes a better hard drive than Hitachi. The picture at right shows you the label for the drives that we use. We will be installing these drives as a Master and a Slave. We could install them in a RAID 0 or RAID 1 configuration, however it is best use at least 3 drives for that and we need the full 500GB capacity of the drives. |
 |
 |
Before you install the hard drive, consider how you will connect it. On our system, we are using SATA for our hard drives. SATA uses much smaller data and power cables and offers faster transfer rates than IDE. The best part about SATA is that it now costs about the same for SATA vs. IDE. The picture at left shows a warning on the back of the hard drive, warning you not to connect both the SATA power connector and standard 4-pin connector. It is very important you pay attention to warnings such as this or you can damage your new computer the second you power it on. If you look at the picture, you can see the SATA connectors on the far left of the drive, followed by the SATA power connector, and lastly the standard 4-pin power connector. Once you have established how you will be connecting your hard drive, we will be using the SATA plug for both power and data, it is time to install the drive. |
| The first step is to remove the removable hard drive rack from the case. On this case, this is accomplished by removing the one thumb screw, opening the release handle, and sliding the rack out. Then, on each hard drive, set the appropriate jumper settings. As stated before, we will be using a Master/Slave setup, so the first drive we will install in the top bay of the hard drive rack and this will be the Master hard drive. Once the jumper is set, slide the drive in to the rack. It should have a snug fit. Once in, hold the drive in place with one hand while, screwing in the thumb screws with the other. The rubber rings that are meant to help absorb shock makes it a bit more cumbersome to install the thumb screws, but eventually they go in. Once all four screws are in, we can then move on to the next hard drive. |
 |
 |
The photo at left shows you the rack by iteself as we start to slide in the second (Slave) drive underneath the first one. Again, ease the drive in to place and then insert all four thumb screws to secure the drive in place. We eventually moved the second hard drive down 2 spaces, since we had extra room and this will keep the hard drives cooler and allow more air to pass over them, thus enhancing their performance and keeping the drives more stable. This is not necessary, however we feel that the cooler we can keep our drives, the better. Once both hard drives are in place and secured, we now want to install the hard drive rack back in to the computer. Be careful when handling the hard drive rack, so you do not jolt it too hard. A hard jolt can damage or destroy both hard drives. |
| Mounting the hard drive rack is as easy as it was to remove it. The rack slides on rails. Simply slide the rack back in to place and then close the release handle and then screw the thumb screw back in to place. This will secure the rack back in place. The image to the right shows the rack locked in place. You can see all of the cables connected to the front header block and the IDE ribbons connected to the DVD and CD burners. As it is becoming apparent, the cabling in this case will be tight and we will need to manage these cables once the whole case is put together and tested. For now, this setup will do us just fine. Now that the hard drives are installed and locked in place, we must now connect their data cables. Please note that we have not connceted power to anything yet since we have not yet installed the power supply. There is a reason for this, when working on computers, power is the first thing to be removed and last thing to be installed. We would not want any accidental shocks destroying our new computer. |
 |
 |
Having said that, it is finally now time to conenct the power to this computer and finish it up. The first power that we connect is the 4-pin connectors for any of the cooling fans. We chain each of these together as well as the power for anything else that is loose in the case. As you can see is the photo at left, these power cables are short cables with a male plug on one side and a female cable on the other side. This allows us to very easily power all of these devices in a small area. We will eventually hide these cables, since we have a clear side on the case and they are unsightly. Make sure that ALL of your fans are now connected. If you miss one, your case may not cool effectively, making your new computer unstable. Remember, the cooler a system runs, the faster and more stable it is. |
| Now that the 4-pin power connectors are all connected, we will connect the SATA power connectors. We have three choices with this. We can either use the 4-pin to SATA adapters that came with the motherboard, or we can use the built-in SATA power connectors on our power supply, or we can just use the 4-pin power on the hard drives. We are choosing not to use adapters, so we will be using the SATA power connectors on the power supply. Again, this comes down to purchasing. When we were looking for a power supply, we knew we were going to use SATA, so we specifically looked for a power supply that had built in SATA power conenctors. As we mentioned before, the SATA power connectors are much smaller and much less bulky. However, before connecting the power connectors, make sure you have connected the SATA data cables. In the picture at right, those are the blue-silvery cables. These came with the motherboard. Once the data cables are connected to the motherbaord's SATA connectors, (the Master drive goes to SATA1 and the Slave driver goes to SATA2), we are ready to install the power supply and give the entire computer power. |
 |
|
|
|
|
