I have 2 major systems which I use for my home Virtual lab.  1 system is a 4GB dual core 64-bit small form factor PC which hosts my DC, SQL 2008 server, and VMM 2008 R2.  The other is my quad core 16GB system which hosts most of my VMs on Hyper-V R2.

I recently ran into an issue where I need to grow my system partition on my DC so I went out and purchased some much needed storage to replace an existing 500GB SATA drive which my 4GB system will inherit.

Well, I ran into a couple of issues…  First, the small form factor bit me in the behind.  See below:

There is no room for a second hard disk, unless I pull the DVDRW drive which I don’t want to do, any additional storage must either be stuffed in the case, connected via external USB, or eSATA.  Since this system is essentially a server, eSATA is both performing enough, and budget savvy :).

OK, not so bad…  I purchased an external hard disk enclosure some time ago which until now has been being used for external USB storage but it came with an eSATA header to connect to a system internally, great!

Next issue, the bracket may be ok for a standard desktop PC, but it is just a little too high to fit in my small form factor system.  See below:

Hmm, ok so I tried to remove the header port from its’ bracket and fit it to the existing cover plates which came with the case.  See below:

As seen, the cover plate has slots in it which are just a little too big to secure the port…  Last week, when hanging some wall mounted DVD racks, I had a similar issue with the mounting screws so I purchased some washers to seal the deal and happened to have some left.

Perfect!  A perfectly stable and aesthetically pleasing solution.

The price was right too!

Read the complete post at http://owsug.ca/blogs/brad/archive/2010/03/07/Latest-tinkering-and-Virtual-Lab-craziness-_1320_-Make-it-work-on-a-budget_2620_.aspx