Patent Publication Number: US-2010118440-A1

Title: Cage

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
     This application claims the priority benefit of P.R.C. patent application serial no. 200810174896.X, filed on Nov. 11, 2008. The entirety of the above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of specification. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention generally relates to a cage and a computer host using the cage, in particular, to a cage that can hold a plurality of disc drives simultaneously and a computer host using the cage. 
     2. Description of Related Art 
     Nowadays, as computer peripherals become increasingly prevailing, a computer host with a sufficient large expansion space or a thin computer fitting has become inevitable trends. A computer host is generally reserved with a plurality of accommodation spaces therein for carrying disc drives, so as to be embedded with hard disc drives, optical disc drives, recorders, and other disc drives respectively. However, the volume of the computer host trends to be reduced. Specifically, besides the cases with an ATX specification available in the market, other cages for Barebones or Micro-ATX cases with a smaller size have gradually appeared in the market. However, an inner space of such computer hosts with a smaller size is more limited, and thus, how to make full use of the inner space of the computer host for achieving a maximum performance becomes an important issue. 
       FIG. 1  is a schematic view of a conventional computer host combined with disc drives, and  FIG. 2  is a schematic view of the combination shown in  FIG. 1  as seen from another viewing angle. Referring to  FIGS. 1 and 2 , a computer host  100  has a case  101 , an expansion shelf  102  for accommodating an optical disc drive  110 , a hard disk shelf  103  for accommodating a hard disc drive  120 , and a mother board  104 . The expansion shelf  102  is disposed close to a front surface of the case  101 , and the hard disk shelf  103  is disposed adjacent to a bottom of the expansion shelf  102 . 
     In the prior art, the expansion shelf  102  and the hard disk shelf  103  are stacked together and disposed within the computer host  100 . Thus, if an overall height of the computer host  100  is reduced or restricted, a distance between the hard disk shelf  103  and the mother board  104  disposed on the bottom of the case  101  is reduced or restricted, and as a result, a height of a heat sink (not shown) disposed on the mother board  104  is also restricted. In this way, the heat dissipation efficiency of the heat sink may be definitely influenced. 
       FIG. 3  is a schematic view of another conventional computer host combined with disc drives. Referring to  FIG. 3 , a computer host  200  has a case  201 , two boxes  202  and  203 , a fixing shelf  204 , and a mother board  205  disposed on a bottom of the case  201 . Disc drives  210  and  220  are respectively accommodated within the boxes  202  and  203 , and fixed at the top of the case  20  by the fixing shelf  204  for carrying the boxes  202  and  203 . Therefore, in the prior art, the number of the boxes  202  and  203  should correspond to that of the disc drives  210  and  220 . In other words, if a plurality of disc drives needs to be accommodated therein, an equivalent number of boxes should be configured within the fixing shelf  204 . As a result, there are still some inconveniences in usage. 
     Besides, in the prior art, the fixing shelf  204  and the boxes  202  and  203  can only be used to accommodate storage devices without operation panels such as hard disc drives. Therefore, storage devices with operation panels, such as optical disc drives, must be disposed beneath the fixing shelf  204 . In this manner, if the overall height of the computer host  200  is reduced, a height of a heat sink (not shown) disposed on the mother board  205  is restricted, thereby influencing the heat dissipation efficiency of the heat sink. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a cage adapted to hang a plurality of disc drives within a case in a horizontal spreading manner. 
     The present invention is further directed to a computer host, in which a plurality of disc drives is hung within a case a horizontal spreading manner by using a cage, so that an inner space of the computer host is utilized efficiently. 
     As embodied and broadly described herein, the present invention provides a cage, adapted to carry a plurality of disc drives and fix the disc drives within a case of a computer host. The computer host has a mother board, and the disc drives are spread horizontally within the cage, so that the disc drives are hung above the mother board. 
     In an embodiment of the present invention, the cage includes a frame and pairs of plate parts. The plate parts are connected to the frame and extend towards one side of the frame, so as to define a plurality of disc drive assembly slots at one side of the frame. In addition, each of the disc drives is fixed in one disc drive assembly slot defined by one pair of plate parts, so that the disc drives are spread horizontally on the frame. 
     In an embodiment of the present invention, the frame has at least one protruding structure protruding towards the other side of the frame. 
     In an embodiment of the present invention, the protruding structure includes a circular protruding structure or a strip-shaped protruding structure. 
     In an embodiment of the present invention, the frame has at least one assembly hole. 
     In an embodiment of the present invention, a part of the plate parts is integrated with the frame, and the remaining plate parts are assembled on the frame. 
     In an embodiment of the present invention, a size of a part of the plate parts corresponds to a thickness of a hard disc drive, and a size of another part of the plate parts corresponds to a thickness of an optical disc drive. 
     In an embodiment of the present invention, the cage further includes a plurality of stand-offs for assembly disposed on a part of the plate parts and the stand-offs extend outwards. 
     The present invention further provides a computer host using such a cage, which includes a case, a mother board, a plurality of disc drives, and a cage for carrying the disc drives. The mother board, the disc drives, and the cage are all disposed within the case. The cage carries the disc drives, and the disc drives are spread horizontally within the cage, so that the disc drives are hung above the mother board. 
     In an embodiment of the present invention, the cage includes a frame and pairs of plate parts. The plate parts are connected to the frame and extend towards one side of the frame, so as to define a plurality of disc drive assembly slots at one side of the frame. Furthermore, each of the disc drives is fixed in one disc drive assembly slot defined by one pair of plate parts, so that the disc drives are spread horizontally on the frame. 
     In an embodiment of the present invention, the case includes a Micro-ATX case. 
     In an embodiment of the present invention, the frame is substantially in parallel with the mother board. 
     In an embodiment of the present invention, the case has a plurality of openings, so that the disc drives carried by the cage are exposed out of the case. 
     In an embodiment of the present invention, the frame has at least one protruding structure that protrudes towards the other side of the frame. 
     In an embodiment of the present invention, the protruding structure includes a circular protruding structure or a strip-shaped protruding structure. 
     In an embodiment of the present invention, the frame has at least one assembly hole. 
     In an embodiment of the present invention, a part of the plate parts is integrated with the frame, and the remaining plate parts are assembled on the frame. 
     In an embodiment of the present invention, a size of a part of the plate parts corresponds to a thickness of a hard disc drive, and a size of another part of the plate parts corresponds to a thickness of an optical disc drive. 
     In an embodiment of the present invention, the computer host further includes a plurality of stand-offs for assembly disposed on the cage and a plurality of assembly holes located on the case, and through the stand-offs for assembly and the assembly holes, the cage is hung within the case. 
     In the present invention, through using the cage, a plurality of disc drives is hung at one side of the case in a horizontal spreading manner, so as to make full use of the inner space of the computer host. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a portion of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic view of a conventional computer host combined with disc drives. 
         FIG. 2  is a schematic view of the combination shown in  FIG. 1  as seen from another viewing angle. 
         FIG. 3  is a schematic view of another conventional computer host combined with disc drives. 
         FIG. 4  is a schematic perspective view of a computer host according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 5  is an exploded perspective view of the computer host in  FIG. 4 . 
         FIG. 6  is a perspective view of disc drives assembled to a cage in  FIG. 5 . 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS 
     Reference will now be made in detail to the present embodiment of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the description to refer to the same or like parts. 
     In order to avoid a poor heat dissipation problem of the conventional computer host due to an excessively small distance between disc drives and the mother board caused by staking the disc drives within the case, the present invention adopts a horizontal spreading design of a cage for fixing disc drives within the case. The carried disc drives are hung at one side of the case to make full use of the inner space of the computer host, so that a heat sink on the mother board maintains an original heat dissipation performance, and thus the computer host achieves a desirable heat dissipation performance. The disc drives spreading horizontally may be optical disc drives or hard disc drives. 
       FIG. 4  is a schematic perspective view of a computer host according to an embodiment of the present invention.  FIG. 5  is an exploded perspective view of the computer host in  FIG. 4 . Referring to  FIGS. 4 and 5 , a computer host  300  includes a case  310 , a mother board  320 , a casing cover  340 , a plurality of disc drives  330   a,    330   b,  and  330   c,  and a cage  400  for carrying the disc drives  330   a,    330   b,  and  330   c.  The mother board  320 , the disc drives  330   a,    330   b,  and  330   c,  and the cages  400  are all disposed within the case  310  and the casing cover  340  covers the case  310 . In this embodiment, the case  310  may be a Micro-ATX case. 
       FIG. 6  is a perspective view of disc drives assembled to a cage in  FIG. 5 . Referring to  FIGS. 5 and 6 , the cage  400  includes a frame  410  and pairs of plate parts  420   a  and  420   b.  A top plate  412  of the frame  410  is substantially in parallel with the mother board  320 , and a plurality of protruding structures  414  of the frame  410  protrudes towards an upper side of the top plate  412 , thereby enhancing a structural strength of the top plate  412 . In this embodiment, the protruding structures  414  are, for example, circular protruding structures, strip-shaped protruding structures, or protruding structures with another configuration. 
     The plate parts  420   a  and  420   b  are connected to the frame  410  and extend towards to one side (e.g., a lower side) of the frame  410 , so as to define a plurality of disc drive assembly slots  402   a  and  402   b  at the lower side of the frame  410 . The disc drive  330   a  is fixed within the disc drive assembly slot  402   a,  the disc drive  330   b  is fixed within the disc drive assembly slot  402   b,  and the disc drive  330   c  is fixed in the disc drive assembly slot (not shown). In other words, the disc drives  330   a,    330   b,  and  330   c  are disposed in a horizontal spreading manner at the lower side of the frame  410 . 
     In this embodiment, the plate parts  420   a  located at the outermost may be integrated with the frame  410 , and the plate parts  420   b  located between the plate parts  420   a  are assembled on the frame  410 . Furthermore, the disc drives  330   a  and  330   c  are, for example, optical disc drives, and accordingly, a size of the plate parts  420   a  and  420   b  corresponding to the disc drives  330   a  and  330   c  is substantially equal to a thickness of one optical disc drive. Moreover, the disc drive  330   b  is, for example, a hard disc drive, and accordingly, a size of the plate parts  420   a  and  420   b  corresponding to the disc drive  330   b  is substantially equal to a thickness of one hard disc drive. 
     As shown in  FIG. 6 , a user may push the disc drives  330   a,    330   b,  and  330   c  along assembly directions  500   a,    500   b,  and  500   c  respectively, so as to assemble the disc drives  330   a,    330   b,  and  330   c  in the corresponding disc drive assembly slots  402   a  and  402   b.  Then, as shown in  FIG. 5 , the user pushes the cage  400  for carrying the disc drives  330   a,    330   b,  and  330   c  along an assembly direction  600 , so as to assembly the cage  400  in the case  310 . In this way, the disc drives  330   a,    330   b,  and  330   c  are hung in a horizontal spreading manner within the case  310 . 
     Then, referring to  FIGS. 4 and 6 , after the disc drives  330   a,    330   b,  and  330   c  are hung in a horizontal spreading manner within the case  310 , the case  310  is covered by the casing cover  340 . In this manner, through configuring the casing cover  340 , the cage  400  is confined between the casing cover  340  and the case  310 , so that the cage  400  is restricted in terms of the freedom of the mounting direction thereof, thus cannot make any displacement at all. 
     It should be noted that, in the prior art, a plurality of disc drives is stacked together, whereas the disc drives  330   a,    330   b,  and  330   c  are hung within the cage  400  in a horizontal spreading manner in this embodiment. Therefore, an overall thickness of the cage  400  for carrying the disc drives  330   a,    330   b,  and  330   c  is generally a thickness of the frame  410  plus a thickness of the thickest disc drive  330   b.  Thus, compared with the prior art, the overall thickness of the cage  400  in this embodiment is much smaller. 
     In other words, through the horizontal spreading design of the cage  400  in this embodiment, the overall thickness of the cage  400  for carrying the disc drives  330   a,    330   b,  and  330   c  is reduced. Thus, even if the cage  400  is assembled within the case  310  with a smaller size, a proper gap can still be maintained between the cage  400  and the mother board  320 . In this way, a heat sink (not shown) disposed on the mother board  320  can maintain the original heat dissipation performance, so that the computer host  300  achieves a desirable heat dissipation performance. 
     Besides, as shown in  FIG. 5 , the frame  410  of this embodiment further includes a plurality of assembly holes  416  formed in the top plate  412 . Furthermore, the cage  400  further includes a plurality of stand-offs for assembly  430  disposed on the outermost plate parts  420   a  and the stand-offs for assembly  430  extend outwards. During an assembling process, an operator may hold the cage  400  by fingers or a hand tool through the assembly holes  416 , and push the cage  400  into the case  310  along the assembly direction  600 . Then, through the stand-offs for assembly  430  and a plurality of assembly holes  312  of the case  310 , the cage  400  is assembled in the case  310 . In view of the above, the assembly holes  416  may also be designed into a mechanical arm, or other forms or sizes that can be held by fingers or tools. 
     Particularly, the cage  400  is hung at the top of an inner space of the case  310  through the stand-offs for assembly  430  and the plurality of assembly holes  312  of the case  310 . Alternatively, the cage  400  may also be hung within the case  310  through the stand-offs for assembly  430  and the assembly holes  312 . Therefore, a proper gap can be maintained between the cage  400  and the mother board  320 , so as to achieve a desirable heat dissipation effect. 
     In this embodiment, the case  310  further has a plurality of openings  314 . A position and a size of each opening  314  correspond to that of the disc drives  330   a,    330   b,  and  330   c,  so that the operation panels of the disc drives  330   a,    330   b,  and  330   c  can be exposed out of the case  310 . 
     To sum up, in the present invention, a plurality of disc drives is hung in a horizontal spreading manner within the case. Thus, the inner space of the computer host is utilized efficiently, so that a proper distance is maintained between the disc drives and the mother board and the heat sink disposed on the mother board further maintains a proper height, and thus the computer host achieves desirable heat dissipation efficiency. 
     Furthermore, when the disc drive is an optical disc drive, the operation panel of the optical disc drive is exposed out of the case through the openings of the case, so that the user can directly operate the operation panel of the optical disc drive via the opening, so that the computer host of the present invention is more convenient in use. Furthermore, through configuring the assembly holes, it further facilitates the operator to assemble the cage into the case. 
     It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present invention cover modifications and variations of this invention provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.