Obsidian 500D RGB SE and 3.5" HDDs

Not sure if it's me being stupid here but looks like I have to mount my 3.5" HDDs showing the backside of the HDDs rather than the front which doesn't look very pretty.

 

If I mount them with the front of the disk facing outwards, I'm not able to close the door on that side of the case.

 

Am I missing something obvious or is it supposed to be like this?

 

Here's a picture showing what I'm talking about where the topmost HDD is mounted so the door can be closed while the HDD below is mounted with its front outwards but stopping the door from being closed.

 

I have the same case and the 3.5" HDD cages are meant to have the drive installed like your top drive. Looks like crap but that is how Corsair designed the cages :(

 

To be honest, you are not going to be starring at the back side of the case anyway and with the dark smoked TG door, you are not really going to be able to see the drives with the door shut.

I have the 500D, non SE, and was able to mount the HDDs either way but if you want the top facing out you need to use the shiny screws with wide heads and posts and associated rubber grommets that should have come with the case to attach the HDD bottom to the bottom of the cradle. Be aware that the door may close but barely touch one or both HDDs as even bottom mounting them raises maybe 1mm further out of the cradle then side mounting them without tools. I prefer seeing the drive circuit board over seeing the label, but the fact that hardware was provided to bottom mount and the glass door still touches the drive(s) is quite poor design. Also, depending on your motherboard, right angle SATA cables may be impossible to use for any drives mounted in the factory locations of that case. The right angle SATA connector won't connect to any SSD or HDD (label out or in) and allow the door to close but may connect to vertical motherboard connections.

Thanks for your input guys and good to hear I'm not the only one experiencing this.

 

Will play around a bit and see what I end up with.

 

Also nice to hear about the shiny screws because I was wondering what those were meant for and with no explanation in the very sparse documentation that comes with the case, it's not easy to tell.