How hard is it to modify your R7 to accommate 3 3.5" HD?
Mine (Aurora r2) supports 6x3.5" HD, which makes sense as the MB has 6 SATA headers. The R9 has only 3 HD bays in spite of the fact that MB still has 6 SATA headers. While I kinda understand the need to limit HD bays to three for aesthetic reasons, but to arbitarily set a 1x3.5"+2x2.5" restriction is quite dumb IMHO because by using adjustable caddies one can place any combination of 3.5 and 2.5 HDs in those 3 bays. Let's face it, 2.5" HD just lack the storage capacity with the biggest ones being 4TB, while 3.5" offers upto 14TB.
The R9 only has 4 SATA headers on the mobo. The two larger headers are actually for USB. The 4th SATA header is a carryover from the R7/8, which had the option for a DVD drive, because the R9 still uses that z370 mobo but no longer options an internal DVD drive. I think the limiting factor is space. The R2 is like twice as long as the R9. There's only so much you could do with so little room to work with. I think you'd have to lose the GPU to fit 3x of 3.5" spinners in there. If you really need so much space, have you considered cloud storage options?
The lack of storage space in the new R9 is really a bummer for me, possibly a deal breaker even though I do like the design. Right now, my rig is outfitted with 1x2TB, 2x10TB, 3x12TB 3.5" HD. I've held off upgrading to a newer Aurora mainly because of the lack of 3.5" HD support which I had hoped would improve but didn't. May have to get a NAS eventually.
amstel78
2 Intern
•
402 Posts
0
December 16th, 2019 06:00
My Aurora R7 only supports a single 3.5" HDD and two 2.5" drives.
necm-500
6 Posts
0
December 16th, 2019 13:00
How hard is it to modify your R7 to accommate 3 3.5" HD?
Mine (Aurora r2) supports 6x3.5" HD, which makes sense as the MB has 6 SATA headers. The R9 has only 3 HD bays in spite of the fact that MB still has 6 SATA headers. While I kinda understand the need to limit HD bays to three for aesthetic reasons, but to arbitarily set a 1x3.5"+2x2.5" restriction is quite dumb IMHO because by using adjustable caddies one can place any combination of 3.5 and 2.5 HDs in those 3 bays. Let's face it, 2.5" HD just lack the storage capacity with the biggest ones being 4TB, while 3.5" offers upto 14TB.
r72019
6 Professor
•
5.3K Posts
0
December 16th, 2019 16:00
The R9 only has 4 SATA headers on the mobo. The two larger headers are actually for USB. The 4th SATA header is a carryover from the R7/8, which had the option for a DVD drive, because the R9 still uses that z370 mobo but no longer options an internal DVD drive. I think the limiting factor is space. The R2 is like twice as long as the R9. There's only so much you could do with so little room to work with. I think you'd have to lose the GPU to fit 3x of 3.5" spinners in there. If you really need so much space, have you considered cloud storage options?
necm-500
6 Posts
0
December 17th, 2019 10:00
The lack of storage space in the new R9 is really a bummer for me, possibly a deal breaker even though I do like the design. Right now, my rig is outfitted with 1x2TB, 2x10TB, 3x12TB 3.5" HD. I've held off upgrading to a newer Aurora mainly because of the lack of 3.5" HD support which I had hoped would improve but didn't. May have to get a NAS eventually.
Thanks for your help.
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
•
17.4K Posts
1
December 18th, 2019 10:00
2.5inch SATA-3/600 SSDs are:
- 5 times faster than any spinner
- More reliable and run cooler than spinning HDD
- Dirt cheap now-days
SSDs are what you mainly put INSIDE computers now-days.
Those large spinners go inside a Synology NAS (or just an external USB-3/UASP enclosure for now)