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mcll

3 Posts

32121

August 12th, 2015 05:00

DELL Optiplex 780 MT question

Hi all,


I just bought a Dell Optiplex 780 MT (Mini Tower) desktop computer, and i'm thinking about to make from it a home Linux server (i have now two server based on Atom processors, and want to migrate them to one). As i see this 780 has 4 sata ports. Can it be used all for SATA Harddisks? I want to attach the following disk sizes (none of them will be configured as RAID):

Disk 1: 1TB (this will be the Linux system disk)
Disk 2: 2TB
Disk 3: 2TB
Disk 4: 3TB

I don't want to use any optical device.

The question is, that this computer will be able to handle 4 disks and the given sizes?

Thanks in advance

Best regards,
Laszlo

speedstep

9 Legend

 • 

47K Posts

August 13th, 2015 10:00

You cant make drives or partitons or Raid over 2 TB total.

This is not supported with NON UEFI / GPT bios.

mcll

3 Posts

August 13th, 2015 11:00

Thanks for reply. Under Linux you can use larger disks or partitions as 2TB, just you have to use parted software instead of fdisk.

How to use? Here:

1. parted /dev/sdb
2. mklabel gpt
3. mkpart pri 1 -1
4. mkfs --type ext4 /dev/sdb1
5. than you can mount and use the large partition. :) so easy.

I'm using 3TB disk on an Intel D525MW mainboard, which also does not have UEFI or GPT bios. I know under Windows you cannot use the large disk. But i don't want to boot from the 3TB drive, the OS will be on the 1TB drive.

But my question was, can i use four separate Disks on all of the SATA ports which are on the mainboard of the 780MT? I don't want to use RAID, and also don't want to use the DVD drive. As i said this computer will be a Linux 64bit server in the future.

Regards, Laszlo

mcll

3 Posts

August 13th, 2015 11:00

Thanks. So technically it can be used four separate Hard Drives in the Optiplex 780MT, right? Space for drives is not a problem, because the mainboard (and all others, like RAM, CPU, etc) will be mounted in a special Rack housing. I know the slot ports are on the other side, but it would ot be a problem for me. The Rack house is really large, have a lot of space for drives (12 drives can be mount).

As i said, bootable drive will be 1TB, than for data 2pcs 2TB and 1pcs 3TB (with GPT).

Regards, Laszlo

speedstep

9 Legend

 • 

47K Posts

August 13th, 2015 11:00

The INTEL chipset Raid and many older Raid cards do not support making (BOOTABLE) containers larger than 2TB.  As non raided drives with GPT partitions you can use them.  I also don't know which chipsets do or don't support Port Multiplier. Orico and others support mounting drives onto the PCI slot brackets.  If you use an R494D you can mount 2X laptop Drives into a standard Dell 3.5 bay.



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