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Putting two hard drives in an IBM 5150

Retrom

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Hi all. I have two Seagate ST225 MFM drives, one of which is currently in my IBM 5150, the other is not in use at the moment. I've been thinking of installing both of them in the IBM PC, just for shits and giggles. But my concern is, will two of these drives stacked on top of each other generate too much heat? And would the PSU be beefy enough to handle the extra load (It's not the original PSU, it's a 180W Seasonic). I'm also not sure how I could mount the second drive securely, because the drive bay only has screw holes on the bottom of the rail, as it obviously wasn't designed to hold two half-height drives in it. So what do you guys think? Good idea or not?
 
Hi all. I have two Seagate ST225 MFM drives, one of which is currently in my IBM 5150, the other is not in use at the moment. I've been thinking of installing both of them in the IBM PC, just for shits and giggles. But my concern is, will two of these drives stacked on top of each other generate too much heat? And would the PSU be beefy enough to handle the extra load (It's not the original PSU, it's a 180W Seasonic). I'm also not sure how I could mount the second drive securely, because the drive bay only has screw holes on the bottom of the rail, as it obviously wasn't designed to hold two half-height drives in it. So what do you guys think? Good idea or not?

There are (or were) brackets sold to accomplish mounting two half height drives in a full height bay. But it's also vary easy to make an equivalent that works.

Put your two half height drives into the bay. Now take a piece of stiff paper, about 3" by 5.5" will do, and slide it in between the drives and the 5150 or 5160's existing bracket and mark where the mounting holes should be with a sharp object like a scribe or pencil point to make a template. Take the paper out and transfer the hole locations to a sheet of aluminum about 1/16" inch thick and the same dimensions as the paper template you just made. This thickness sheet is readily available in most big box home stores. Thicker stock will not readily slide into the place it needs to go. Now it's just a matter of drilling the holes, making them into horizontal slots if you wish, and cleaning up any burrs. Now slide your new bracket into place and place screws through the existing bracket, your new bracket, and the two half height drives.

I just did another set yesterday for my 5160. It took me about 30 minutes.

Piece o' cake! ;-)
 
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There are (or were) brackets sold to accomplish mounting two half height drives in a full height bay. But it's also vary easy to make an equivalent that works.

Put your two half height drives into the bay. Now take a piece of stiff paper, about 3.5" by 5" will do, and slide it in between the drives and the 5150 or 5160's existing bracket and mark where the mounting holes should be with a sharp object like a scribe or pencil point to make a template. Take the paper out and transfer the hole locations to a sheet of aluminum about 1/16" inch thick and the same dimensions as the paper template you just made. This thickness sheet is readily available in most big box home stores. Thicker stock will not readily slide into the place it needs to go. Now it's just a matter of drilling the holes, making them into horizontal slots if you wish, and cleaning up any burrs. Now slide your new bracket into place and place screws through the existing bracket, your new bracket, and the two half height drives.

I just did another set yesterday for my 5160. It took me about 30 minutes.

Piece o' cake! ;-)

Excellent idea! I'll have to give that a try. :)
 
You would definitely need a bigger PSU. But you said you had a 180w in there that should be more than enough to handle the load.

That's good. And would the heat be a problem? The logic boards on these drives get fairly warm on their own, I imagine two together would get quite toasty.
 
:p I finished making the brackets to fit the second drive in, it works fine and they don't get too hot at all. Although that may be due to the really cold weather at the moment, lol.
 
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