900D Hot Swap bay installation problem.

Well, I bought a 900D, lovely case, but I also bought 2 hot swap panels to go on the back of the drive bays, so that I could mount all 3 bays in the bottom and reduce the cables needed.

 

I installed the hot swap panels, using the supplied screws, however, when I tried to install the bays in the bottom of the case, the dome headed screws pushed the bays apart at an angle, so that I cannot screw them into place, as the holes don't line up. Am I missing something or is this bad design? The easy solution would be to replace the screws with flat headed ones, but I don't have any in my screw box. Does anyone know what size they are?

I think you should check what you are doing, the case is a beast and well designed for the most part.

on the bottom front there is a set of screws that hold the brackets for the mounting of fans or a water cooler. I took out the drive cage mounts on my case so I can't look at mysetup to compare but the cage should slide in on the tracks and just be locked in after the tracks are holding it in place.

When the case arrived, the 2 bottom drive bays were screwed to the back rails. After I had fitted the hot swap panels to the drive bays, they wouldn't fit properly, if they had been fitted with flat headed screws, there wouldnt have been a problem.

I agree, that in general it is a beautiful, well designed case, however, the person who decided that the Pcie cards could only be screwed in from inside the case, obviously had no idea what it's like to have 62 year old hands.

The side panels are interchangeable, so, if like me you aren't a big fan of window cases, you can fit a solid right hand panel on the left.

When the case arrived, the 2 bottom drive bays were screwed to the back rails. After I had fitted the hot swap panels to the drive bays, they wouldn't fit properly, if they had been fitted with flat headed screws, there wouldnt have been a problem.

I agree, that in general it is a beautiful, well designed case, however, the person who decided that the Pcie cards could only be screwed in from inside the case, obviously had no idea what it's like to have 62 year old hands.

The side panels are interchangeable, so, if like me you aren't a big fan of window cases, you can fit a solid right hand panel on the left.

 

Good to know about the side panel, it doesn't bother me but the panel faces away from me so you can't see a lot anyway.

 

My 41 year old hands managed to get 3 bays with hot swap installed so maybe it's a tooling issue with your case?

Sorry, I meant that I had problems mounting the Pcie cards, particularly my GPU. Having to get at the thumb screws from inside the case where my hands hide the holes, was a real PITA. I much prefer the normal way of accessing the screws with a screwdriver. I managed to do it, eventually, but it took a while with several minutes of swearing. It was even worse when I realised that my GPU was covering 4 of the SATA sockets, so I had to remove it.

 

That said, it IS a beautiful case, I've got round the problem with the drive cages by mounting the third one inside the case, rather than in the bottom section. I've also bought an external DVD drive so that I don't spoil the lines of the front.

 

I'm going to try the winow panel on the left for a while, if I really don't like it, i'll swap the panels around and put the window side against the wall, it's too long to fit on my desk with the front towards me.

Not really a desk case is it :)

I had thought about modding two of the front covers so the drive and display sit flush as it does spoil it. Never got round to it as I don't look at the case much!

I've got a reasonable sized corner desk (made up of 3 units) so it will fit along the wall, but no, it isn't really a desk case, but I don't like putting cases on the floor, makes them awkward to work on and attracts too much dust. I always lay the case on it's side to fit the motherboard, it's the first time that I've ever had to rotate it to reach the top 3 motherboard screws. Oh well, I can always live in it.

Thanks for that. I fitted the hot swap panels to the cages before I started the build, but as you found, when fitting them it goes a bit pear shaped. I found a couple of flat headed screws, which enabled me to fit 2 of the cages in the bottom section, but I mounted the third one in the top of the case and, to be honest, it looks ok, so I might leave it there. I may even mount a 120 mm fan on the left side of it (if that's possible).