Excellent hack.

In case you're a masochist like me and want a lot more work on your hands, then you could remove the whole laptop mobo and make its own case and make it more compact in the process.

I've done this recently to make a standalone machine out of a busted laptop. This can give you a single, more compact unit with all the parts inside. You can improve the cooling and noise too (by using desktop fans). You'll maintain your laptop resale value too by not destroying the case and being able to put the mobo back in place in the future. Infact, with today's ram prices, the reason I went down this route is because you can get broken laptops with soldered in DDR5 ram.

This post is cursed.

Not because of the insane jank, of course. That's on brand for self host and I love it.

It is cursed because it has awakened something in me, and I can feel every old laptop in my vicinity trembling in fear.

The fact that there exists an m.2 x6 port SATA adapter is the wildest part to me.

This is the type of stuff I love to see the most when it comes to PCs. This to me is far more impressive then someone with a standard case, with standard RGB fans, standard AIO RGB cooler...

This reminds me of stuff I did in college.

I would love to watch a short documentary following you trying to take this on a plane

Next step is to free the acer from it's physical bonds and screw the motherboard to the 3D printed stand.

It’s beautiful.

That's janky as hell, I love it.

Maximum jank

so what kind of looks did you get when you booted that up in the public library? how long before either (a) the cool librarian asked you how you did it or (b) the jerk librarian asked you not to burn down the library

How are powering them up.. Do you have a PSU behind the HDDs ?

Edit: never mind just saw the whole post

That's scary looking but also really awesome.

Hows the hdd cooling situation?

i know a Bourgeois when i see one

Lol, cause who wants to use a single USB to interface with the laptop? That's crazy.

This is some proper cyberpunk. Great job.

Modern problems require modern solutions.

Part of me wonders what chipset is running that adapter, and if you'd get a better one if you went for a miniSAS adapter rather than individual sata ports (enterprise port generally implying a better controller chip)

Then realised there would probably be no use for such an adapter in enterprise so if you did get a different connector it would probably just be the same interface chip as whatever is in this.

Is the laptop cooling ok with the lid closed? Or do you crack it open when actually in use?

I like it. The OCD in me is screaming why you didn't use a dremel tool to cut the slot for the USB ports instead of using a rusty, dull, steak knife from the junk drawer, but that's just me. LOL

This is really neat and I love it, but I am a bit worried about the power supply. Are you drawing power directly from the laptop? I'd just assume that spinning all four drives at once might cause spikes that I'm unsure if the built-in PSU is equipped for?

Maximum respect!

Hot

Apropos! Has anyone extended their laptops memory by replacing its DVD drive?

My attempt failed when I bought a misgendered micro sata cable..

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:

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This is the kind of post I love

Nice work! I'm considering a similar project and this looks like a good way to do it.

😂

What

How does one even attach the sata ports to the computer?