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Hey, quick question that I'm too dumb to know the answer to and can't seem to find any info about anywhere.
I just got a 2.5" HDD and put it in the dedicated place in my Fractal Meshify C case. It's on the side, and there really isn't enough space for it - the drive is too thick for the panel to come back on normally. When I put the panel back on the case it pushes right up against the drive and the panel clearly isn't flush with the case.
Is this an issue? Or will the drive be fine?
I have the same case. Use the drive cage.
EDIT It's at the bottom left.
It's full. I think I'll just go with this setup until I eventually replace it with an ssd. Was cheap and I needed a bunch of capacity for and easy access to audio and video files that I'll keep backed up elsewhere anyway. Might put in a pad like another commenter suggested, or just keep the top screw of the panel undone. Was mainly worried I was being a huge dumbass but seems like things will work out well enough
Okay. Get an SSD and move the data to it has soon you can. You're damaging the case and the HDD.
Get an external HDD shroud. Might be a little slower but no damage.
Are those drives thinner perhaps?
That space is designed for a SSD, which is half the thickness of that thing, typically.
I'm not sure why you'd go with a 2.5" piece of spinning rust in 2023 (the performance of those small spindles at 5400 or 7200 rpm isn't great), but if it's preventing you from closing the case I'd leave the panel off or relocate the drive.
If you insist on running it as-is I wouldn't worry about the case panel putting pressure on the device, it's not likely to damage the disk and the case panel is cosmetic.
Storage space I guess. Looking at it closely, this is a 5TB HDD.
The two big physical spinning hard disk threats are vibration and heat.
If it's jammed into the case, I would be worried about vibration in the frame causing vibration on the hard disk. There are some hard disk mounts where you put basically rubber grommets between the disc and the frame to absorb some of the vibration. You could put a heat pad between the hard drive and the case to both act as vibration dampener and a thermal transfer.
HDDs are great for storing stuff. All my jellyfin movies are on HDDs. No reason to go SSD for those - the HDDs give the performance I need at less cost
Okay thanks, I'll keep that in mind
Is the panel under tension when it's on? It's hard to tell from this angle.
The drive will be fine, it's sturdy as heck in this regard. I'm more worried you might bend the panel.
The slightest bit of tension, but not enough to permanently bend it. It bulges out maybe a couple of millimeters when closed and screwed on. Just didn't know if the drive would suffer because I have no idea how well they tolerate pressure. But good to hear, thanks, that puts my mind at ease!
I think that slot is probably designed for SSDs instead of HDDs. SSDs are significantly slimmer and would fit there without fouling the side panel. From the promotional material I can see of your case, it looks like it comes with a cage designed to hold 3.5" HDDs - to fit this drive properly you'll need a caddy to adapt it to fit that, and install it into there instead.