Warning about eBay 2.5"-3.5" drive adapter bracket

[InvisiBill]

I bought and received one of these mounts for my new X-25M G2. By the time you figure in shipping, it was about the cheapest bracket I could find, other than the ones that just hook onto the sides (which I don't think would work as well with my side-mounted drive rails). Plus I really liked the simplicity of it. OCZ sells a similar bracket, but the drive is offset and it has a huge OCZ logo on it.

I really like this bracket. It's a simple, subtle piece. I was planning to paint it to match the inside of my case, so I didn't really care about the finish. As you can see in the pic, it actually has threaded inserts on the inside, rather than just tapping the holes in the bracket itself.

There's only one issue with the bracket. The rear holes don't match standard 3.5" drive spacing, as you can see in this pic with the bracket between my WD 100GB IDE drive and my Seagate 500GB SATA drive. My CM RC-690's drive mounting rails use the front and rear holes (as do a lot of Dells). This means I can't put the bracket in my case.

I've just sent the seller a message to see if I somehow got one with bad spacing, or if they're all this way. I assume they're made on a jig and all spaced this way, but I figured I'd check.

I just wanted to warn others who might be in this situation. If you use the front and middle mounting holes, you'll be fine. If you need to use the front and rear holes, be aware that there was a spacing issue at least on the part that I received.

 

[DamTheMan]

Just use 2 of the 3 holes on each side?

2.5" drives arn't that heavy and I'm sure it'd be fine?

Unless of course you only have mounting holes in your case for the first and third screwset.

 

[vectravl400]

Just use 2 of the 3 holes on each side?

2.5" drives arn't that heavy and I'm sure it'd be fine?

Unless of course you only have mounting holes in your case for the first and third screwset.

I think he's talking about the outside holes and getting them to fit the drive rails for mounting in a case. Most hd rails only use the first and third holes so the spacing on the third hole is critical to getting them to fit. In this case, the spacing is out enough that it looks like the holes would line up with floppy drive mounting rails.

 

[InvisiBill]

Unless of course you only have mounting holes in your case for the first and third screwset.

That's exactly the problem.

My CM RC-690's drive mounting rails use the front and rear holes (as do a lot of Dells).

This bracket won't bolt up to my 690's drive rails or the green rails used in a lot of SFF Dells. The SSD would mount securely to the bracket, which would then be flopping around due to being attached to the rail at only one point (the front) on each side.

In this case, the spacing is out enough that it looks like the holes would line up with floppy drive mounting rails.

This got me wondering if floppy drive spacing was different from hard drive spacing. On the one floppy drive I could find here, its rear hole was even further forward (meaning the bracket was even further off compared to a floppy than compared to a hard drive).

 

[cavediver]

You can always drill another set of holes where you need them.

 

[InvisiBill]

The seller responded and let me know that this is going to be fixed. He said to send it back and he'll send me a new one.

 

[InvisiBill]

I got the replacement today. I'm a little "meh" about it.

It looks like they just took an existing one and drilled extra holes in it, like cavediver suggested. They added the rear holes to match up with a standard 3.5" drive, as well as the four bottom-mount holes. However, it still has the non-standard holes just behind the new holes, and this one doesn't have the little threaded inserts, just tapped holes. The new holes don't seem to be finished off as smoothly either. One of the initial replies mentioned that these were used for some military application - it seems as if it's something other than a standard hard drive size being used.

Also, the bottom holes are spaced correctly relative to each other, but not relative to the side holes. If you had some sort of crazy mounting system where it used the side holes in the front and the bottom holes in the rear, this wouldn't work. Four side holes or four bottom holes is fine, but you won't be able to mix & match sides and bottom.

I guess I'm just too much of a perfectionist. =(