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Solved 2 SSD's in one SFF disk bay

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sjpaq

PCHF Member
Jan 6, 2024
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#1
I just bought a refurbished Dell (optiplex I think) small form factor pc. It came with 1 256GB solid state drive. The drive is much smaller than the bay and has a rubber wrapper around it and looks like holes that line up with pins on the side of the disk bay to keep it from moving around (I don't the pins line up though).
I would like to add another 1TB disk drive in the same physical bay. It looks like it should work, however I thought I'd ask a few questions:
1. is there a wrapper for 2 SSD's that I should purchase? Presumable this would be to secure the 2 drives within the bay.
2. I see a second free SATA cable, but no other power cable for the second SSD. Can I buy a splitter for the cable that is powering the main SSD and plug the 2 drives?

Thanks in advance
 
#2
Not a fan of short cuts or daisy chaining and especially not power leads, Dell and the likes use el cheapo power supplies so your PSU will be just about enough to support what is in there already

What about using an external USB SSD and dedicated power supply, some examples can be found here
 
#3
Thanks phillpower2 for the reply, I'm not a power management expert, but wouldn't a single regular old disk drive (with spinning components) use more power than 2 SSD's?

Any thoughts on putting 2 SSD's in the same bay?

Thanks again.
 
#4
We have to offer advice that is safe and as explained Dell use the bare minimum of PSU to keep costs down, if the PSU has a spare four pin molex connector fine but don't go overloading a single power feed by adding a second drive to it, depending on which version Optiplex you have the power output could be as low as 192W.

We really need the exact model name or number of the Dell so that we can check the specs, it is unusual for there to be no spare molex connector on the PSU.

Insulation tape to bind two drives together would be fine, a piece of decent thickness cardboard between the two drives would reduce heat transfer and vibration.
 
#5
Again, thank you.

Just researching this a little more. I found a SSD that fits into a slot on the motherboard (which I happen to have a spare one. 1 TB for under $100. Here is the pic of the drive.
WD card disk.jpg


I assume the slot provides the needed power and connectivity for the os. Any experience with these?

Thanks
 
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