Modding Ideas

I want to clear out these reinforcement ribs:



Anyone have any good ideas on the best way to do this?

I'm not sure if the material is metal or plastic? I have a m17x R4. I'm thinking about putting two HDD's in the ODD bay, but these ribs are in the way.

 

Looking at it, Dremel seems the way to go. Make sure you use reinforced cutting wheels as they tend not to break while cutting. You can use normal wheels to cut but they break easily and can't give a clean cut.

 

Go slow with them too or you will get a hack job out of it (like me)....

 

Also make sure base is completely stripped otherwise metal shavings/dust can go in parts and cause issue later on.

 

Its plastic, use a Dremel and tape off the area which you plan to cut with masking tape so you do not chip the plastic and it will also help you keep a guideline. View the second link in my sig it shows how I tapped off the areas I modded, GL.

 

I was thinking Dremel too. But wondering if anyone else could come up with a better way.

Good to know! I'll be patient and let the speed of the blade do the cutting.

Good idea, I'll use tape and paper to shield the rest of the base from flying debris.

Plastic? Nice, thanks! Would be a real PITA if it was metal. Saw your post, daym, that's a nice grill opening!

Thanks for all the tips and ideas guys!

I Think my strategy will be to make vertical cuts into each rib about 1/2 - 1" apart (yellow cuts). Then, if there is room, try to do some horizontal scoring (green cuts) so I can use pliers to bend the vertical ribs till they break off.



Hmmm, but if this piece is plastic, I might consider cutting it with the heated blade of an exacto knife?

 

The cutting blade on the dremel, it goes through like butter, I also used it to smoothen the edges or pit the casing, just tape down that piece to a cardboard box, tape it down tight so it does not move at all. Honestly the pliers would also work good to.

 

Just a thought here before you go cutting away the case an voiding warranty, how do you plan on connecting two drives to the one Sata connection that was used by the ODD? - how are you gonna secure the drives once installed?

I'm guessing your plan is to use another dual drive caddy, right? - I'm not sure on how that would pan out, but good luck with it!

 

Stevie he will be using a mpcie to dual sata card if I am correct. Probably dual 1tb in raid 0, that's what I would do

Also not sure if it will fit but dual caddy from m1730 might be worth a shot.

 

Good advice, thanks!

My warranty ended in Dec 2012 I'm planning to secure the drives together with rubber bands. Sounds crazy but I think it will work. Will post pics.

Yep, I bought this: Amazon.com: StarTech.com 2 Port Mini PCI Express Internal SATA II Controller Card MPEXSATA22I: Electronics

Installing it in the DMC slot of the M17x. Another member said he has already done this. But he seems to have gone MIA after his first and only thread post here. And he left out some details on how he did it. Like, on the M17x R4, there is no screw stud holes to secure the PCI-e SATA controller card onto. So, I will have to figure out how to keep it in place. Thinking about just using a piece of foam since it rests right underneath the keyboard.



Is this the caddy you're referring to? Dell XPS M1730- Hard Drive Caddy- NX196- Caddy- Carrier- Sleds- Dell Laptop- Notebook Parts- Splus Direct

 

Yea that's the caddy I was referring to. Not sure if it will fit though, but if it does, it's will be quite easy to add 4 mounting screws to the base and it will hold the hdd's quite securely.

For the mpcie card, why not just add a tiny bit of plastic to the base to keep it held with pressure?