I had some MiniITX motherboard trays machined for a scratch build I was doing for myself. Unfortunately (or fortunately, who knows) I had to order a minimum of five to get the costs down. I know some people are/were in the same predicament I was in: you need to mount the motherboard, but figuring out where the IO window and PCI IO window goes is a bit of a pain in the ass. These trays solve that problem.

I'm selling these spares for $20 apiece, plus $5 for shipping. The tray will mount a single, MiniITX compliant motherboard and, optionally, a single 2.5" (laptop) hard drive and 60mm fan. The tray then mounts to whatever you're building via five, 10-32 screws. It also allows for a single, full-height PCI-compliant expansion card. Comes with four standoffs (with 6-32 threads) of the correct height. The outer dimensions are 7.750" across the back (in the hole C to hole F direction), by 6.950" (in the hole C to hole H direction), by 4.850" high. The folded-over lip that accommodates the PCI card is 0.490" wide.

Note that this tray will only fit MiniITX motherboards that are compliant with the MiniITX specification. Specifically, the IO window, the four motherboard mounting holes and the PCI expansion card IO window must be of the correct size and in the correct location for you to mount your motherboard and expansion cards to it. See these documents for the specification:

MiniITX Specification: http://www.formfactors.org/developer/specs/mini_itx_spec_V1_1.pdf
MicroATX Specification: http://www.formfactors.org/developer/specs/matxspe1.2.pdf The MiniITX specification refers to this document.

If in doubt, check the MiniITX and MicroATX specifications against the mechanical drawing for your motherboard. Sorry, I cannot accept returns if your non-compliant motherboard does not fit the tray.

Pictures:








NOTE: Some images show a motherboard mounted on the tray. This is for illustrative purposes only. THIS AUCTION IS FOR THE TRAY ONLY -- no motherboards or other electronic equipment are included.

Like I said, these are spares, but if someone is interested in wholesale sales I'd be willing to have more manufactured. Contact me to discuss pricing and lead times.


-joe

can you ship international?

Where would the 2.5" drive go?

Hi joemadeus, do you still have one of these you'd like to sell?

@AznJason: It appears you would screw the drive to the holes on the right side of the motherboard (3rd photo).

Only two screws?

Yes, I'm guessing that's correct as there is no place on the tray that would enclose both sides of a drive (based on the pictures). A 2.5" drive is not very heavy, and you're screwing directly into its metal casing - this should be plenty solid unless you're running the system in your car... And if you were, you would probably put it into a solid case which has drive bays.

I'm sorry -- I didn't realize that there were replies here until another user found my auction on eBay for these parts and alerted me. I thought this thread had died!

I still have two of these left. Depending on how quickly they sell, I may have another lot of them machined, but I still can't decide if there's interest enough to do that. I'd have to order a minimum of 40 to make it economical -- as it is, I'm taking a loss with the prices I'm asking.

@mushbert, you're correct, the drive sits on its side on the right hand side of the board (for reference, I'll always mention 'right' and 'left' to mean with the outside of the IO plate facing away from you.) It does take two screws and should be plenty solid on its own. The only down side to mounting the drive like that is getting the drive off the tray after it's in the case: since the heads are on the bottom, you have to remove the tray to get at them. For my application, I used thumbscrews (McMaster/Carr part #92552A411), since they have heads that extend a little past the edge of the tray. This allows me to turn them without taking the tray out (though the screws do take a little work to get done/undone.)

Incidentally, the third small hole, toward the middle of the tray, is there in case I design a carrier for a pair of hard drives (they would stand on end, component side in & connector side up, as I imagine it.) The carrier would mount to these three holes, then the drives to the carrier. None of this is designed yet -- any interest?

@iakovi, Sorry, no, I can't ship international (though I might make an exception for Canada.)

I'll watch this thread more closely. Thanks for your patience.


-j

Welcome back. Re: your last post, I am actually in Canada - but depending on how much it would cost to ship, I'm still interested in buying one. I tried to make a guess using the postal service' calculator, but the estimates it gave me seemed extremely high ($45-$60) when I've received much bigger packages sent via USPS airmail for under $10...

Could you find out a number and get back to me? Thanks!

If the drive mounts on the bottom of the tray, then I guess that means 90-degree SATA cables won't work, right?

I can probably pick one up just for the possibilities of doing something fun in the future.

I'm not able to picture what joemadeus was describing re: the possible drive cage, but I imagine one of the 90-degree varieties would work. With the drive label-side up, 90-deg "right angle" goes downwards, while 90-deg "left angle" routes the cable upwards.

Re: the drive cage, this is where a picture is worth a 1,000 words. Unfortunately, I have a clear image in my head, and no time to transcribe that to paper (or digital media)

mushbert is right, depending on the angle of the cable, you should be able to use one.


-j

Well, a 90-degree cable usually goes "down" (towards the circuit board of the laptop drive), so I can't envision it working with the screw mounts in the middle of the board since that means that the plugs wouldn't be close enough to the edge of the tray for a 90-degree cable. Either way, I'd still take one if you can PM me paypal info.

I'd like one of these, is one still available?

Nothing concrete, but when I last spoke to the OP he had just sold the final tray from this first batch.

You can buy similar Lian Li motherboard trays from Performance PCs.

Thank you.

Nobody seems to make Mini-ITX trays though...

OP, I'm interested in one if you ever get more in the future.

I have read the OP's posts several times and didn't notice this until now, so just in case anyone else missed it, he did state that it would take an order of ~40 trays for it to be worth his time/money. I would suggest this is unlikely to happen without a few dozen firm commitments to buy them - especially considering it took two months for the initial batch of 5 to sell, when he probably kept one or two of those for himself. Perhaps a better route would be to ask if he'd be willing to provide the CAD/model file so that others could have them fabricated if they desired.

I second this idea: If it can be uploaded to a 3D printer there will be no retooling fees, minimum order requirements, or shipping costs. Plus we get the option of editing the CAD file.

Anyone know the source that he got these from? I can contact the place to have them made for me, and sell off the extras I don't need. I sent him a PM, but not sure if he'll visit back here anytime soon.

I would be interested in one of these as well if anyone can get them made. I don't see any options out there besides chopping up an itx case

I would like one of those too - It's strange that you cannot get any commercial itx trays.

For 3d models look here: [link deleted]
or search for atx at that site.

To whom it may concern, I have messaged the OP twice over the last 4-6 months on eBay with no response, so my guess is he is longer interested. For those of you who expressed an interest in designing or fabricating some trays: I just wanted to point out that the first post contains several measurements and a link to the mITX specs - hopefully that should be enough to get started.

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Some links care of bpositive (see his post above):

http://grabcad.com/home
http://grabcad.com/library/atx-motherboard-tray