Get a load of this. I bought an m.2 SATA SSD (it was a good price...) and since my only SATA m.2 slot is shared with the PCIe 4 slot (wtf) I got an adapter card so I could connect it to a normal SATA port.
And since I like being efficient, I got a two slot adapter. m.2 drives are smaller than regular SATA! Why waste that space, I could put two drives in a spot that'd fit one. Unfortunately these kinds of adapters aren't common, and well...
And... this is the fabled 3.5" mounting plate. A fucking piece of plastic with some holes in it.
And before my computer dies, here's how they expect you to affix the adapter to their plastic piece of shit. DO YOU SEE THE PROBLEM?
caps
Yeah, it's WIDER THAN A 3.5" HARD DRIVE, MAKING IT IMPOSSIBLE TO INSTALL IN THAT ORIENTATION.
And don't try to be clever and turn it the other way... the holes don't line up. Not only that, they *just barely* do not.
Don't worry, it gets worse. You remember hard drives are mounted? With screw holes on the side that you affix to the drive cage? THAT THIS PLASTIC SHIT LACKS?
Sure, there's also holes on the bottom of a 3.5" drive you can use to affix them. Never mind that I've only ever seen external enclosures use them.
So it DOES NOT FIT in a 3.5" drive cage like advertised, and even if you could there's be nowhere to attach it. But hey, you can still use it for "custom mounting" as the manual states, right?
No.
Compare the diagram with the actual plate more closely. Notice how they're nicely spaced out in the diagram... notice how they AREN'T space out in the real one.
Yeah, if you do actually put the board on the fucking plate, it blocks the other screw holes, making it impossible to attach to anything.
So I am instead trying to shove it in an expansion slot... and it's having trouble fitting.
I don't think this one's actually the adapter's fault. It looks to be the same size as my other expansion cards. So I guess this is NZXT being idiots again and sizing their slots wrong. We'll see if I get it to fit...
Got it installed. Seems NZXT has the expansion slots, like, spring-loaded or something. For maximum discomfort I guess. And to help sure there's a little gap to help the case's terrible airflow and to ensure you can still have a bit of dust in your case.
One other thing I observed after installing the board... it actually has the drives on the UNDERSIDE of the board... Or maybe I just reattached it to the plate upside-down... oh well, it's kind of better this way.
You see this adapter has two BLINDING BLUE LEDs on it. They're on when it has power and I think blink when their respective drive is accessed. (Why was this necessary?)
So pointing downwards they'll be less noticeable.
My conclusion as always is that computers are dumb and suck, and I hate that I'm like this.
Oh, one other thing. My case is one where the 2.5" drives are mounted on the underside of the motherboard. Don't know if I'll be able to reach from there to where the expansion cards are with one cable.
My PSU does provide two SATA cables, but aside from the waste of using two cables just for that... the plug for it on my PSU is on the far side of it... and NZXT, being the incredibly helpful bunch they are, blocked access to that site of the PSU shroud. Thanks guys.
Incidentally, I only got this case because every other full size ATX case was out of stock... don't buy NZXT if you can help it. Especially not after their cases have been catching fire... thankfully, I don't have the model that does that.
@onfy I know, I saw the Gamersnexus videos, my point being that I'm still fine with buying non-electrical components from them
@noiob I mean like, I'm fine with this case I guess. But they don't seem very competent and their marketing dept sucks. And this case still has enough weird issues to be frustrating for me.
@noiob Oh and yeah, the H510 is actually the case I have. It's an ok case, very ok. But there's so many little issues that make doing anything fancy with it extremely frustrating.
@onfy well, I just put a computer in it, that went pretty well. To be fair, my previous case was a Bitfenix Prodigy M that can go straight to hell
@noiob My old PC is on some crappy Cooler Master case, and I have even worse generic cases. So yeah, this case was still a step up for me.
@noiob It's not the steel or even the case itself, it's a riser used to mount the GPU vertically. They somehow had 12V from the PCIe slot go into the screw, shorting to ground.