I got an unassembled PC for Christmas. Assembly is almost done, but I have a 2.5" SSD and several 3.5" bays (no 2.5" bays). I have rails to slide the drive in place, but since it's smaller than the bay, I need hardware to make it fit. Everyplace I've gone says that what I need (mounting brackets or I guess "Mounting Bracket Adapter Dock/Trays") are specialty items and are specific to my case brand. Is this really true? I thought HDD mounting brackets were fairly common and interchangeable.

I have a NZXT Guardian 921 case; it's a mid-tower case.

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3 Answers

I don't know where you are from or whether you can shop online, but in 5 min. of search…:

So, I guess they are not that much of a specialty item… (or maybe they aren't, if you go to the more geeky/specialized stores).

There are two types of adapters for this situation. If you are installing the drive into a drive bay with a built-in connector such as in a server or a removable drive bay that accepts bare drives (rare in desktops), you would need a special adapter that is the size of a 3.5 inch drive and has connectors in the same location as a 3.5 inch drive, but has a spot inside to mount the 2.5 inch drive with separate connectors for that drive. Such adapters are about $15-25 each. Western Digital Velociraptor drives are 2.5 inch drives that come in such an adapter.

The other type (likely the kind that you need) are about $5-10. They just have screw holes that fit the 3.5 inch mounting with structural metal or plastic allowing mounting a 2.5 inch drive inside, but have no connectors, so you have to attach your connecting cables directly to the 2.5 inch drive. This type of adapter often comes with SSDs so that they can be mounted in standard cases, which often have 3.5 inch drive bays but not 2.5 inch bays.

UPDATE: Some servers such as SuperMicro also have specially-made inserts for their 3.5" drive trays that allow you to mount 2.5" drives in those trays in a way that places the 2.5 inch drive connector exactly where the 3.5" connectors would be. This isn't normally possible due to differences in the locations and sizes of the mounting points, but these trays have extra holes to accommodate both drive types.

You need a standard 3.5 to 2.5 inch adapter plate - hard drive form factors haven't changed since the 1980s. Readily available at any decent computer parts store for a few dollars, Intel includes one in their retail-box SSDs (but not the brown-box products) along with a couple of cables. You will need one extra set of screws but the plate will probably include them.

I have several gathering dust if you want to pick them up.

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