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111749
XPS 8900 - number of HDDs
The specs say it can have 3 internal 3.5" Hard Disk Drives. I was wondering if there is room to put a 4th? (Power, Sata, Space, Mounts).
Thanks
This post is more than 5 years old
24 Posts
0
111749
The specs say it can have 3 internal 3.5" Hard Disk Drives. I was wondering if there is room to put a 4th? (Power, Sata, Space, Mounts).
Thanks
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jupitermoon
41 Posts
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January 4th, 2016 00:00
As you've noticed, Dell doesn't provide any information concerning the color of the connectors in the Service Manual.
Assuming the Service Manual is correct, all the SATA connectors on the XPS 8900 motherboard run at the same speed (6Gb/s), so, theoretically, you can plug drives into any of the ports. However, historically, the Dell BIOS looked for boot code on the hard drive connected to the blue SATA 0 port. If you moved the boot drive to a differently numbered SATA port, the computer may not boot. I don't know if this is still true for the XPS 8900. On my XPS 8500, the boot drive was plugged into the blue SATA 0 port when Dell shipped it.
Why do I say "Assuming the Service Manual is correct"? Because the owner's manual for the XPS 8500 and XPS 8700 contained errors re the speed of the SATA ports. The discrepancy you found in the Service Manual and the Specification Guide is another example of Dell's poor documentation skills.
In any case, most mechanical hard drives can't even saturate a SATA II channel, yet alone a SATA III one. Optical drives are generally slower, but you can still plug them into a SATA III connector.
jupitermoon
41 Posts
0
December 29th, 2015 23:00
There are three 3.5-inch internal hard drive bays and two 5.25-inch optical drive bays. The first 5.25-inch drive bay is normally occupied, but if the second one is empty, you can use it for an additional hard drive. There are 5 SATA III (6.0GB/s) connectors.
kgan
24 Posts
0
January 2nd, 2016 19:00
Thanks,
In reading the Service Manual on page 16-17, there are 5 SATA connectors on the motherboard:
10 SATA 6 Gbps drive connector (SATA 1) White
12 SATA 6 Gbps drive connector (SATA 2) Black
17 SATA 6 Gbps drive connector (SATA 0) Blue
18 SATA 6 Gbps drive connector (SATA 4) Black
19 SATA 6 Gbps drive connector (SATA 3) Black
The manuals don't give much more information. Do the different colours mean anything? Are there differences in speed between the different connectors? or it doesn't matter and you can connect any Drive to any connector.
The reason I ask is because the Service guide indicates that all connectors are 6 Gbps. However the Specification Guide indicates:
• SATA 3 Gbps for optical drive
• SATA 6 Gbps for hard drive
Thanks!
w7ox
91 Posts
0
January 3rd, 2016 18:00
You can download a service manual here http://downloads.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_desktop/esuprt_xps_desktop/xps-8900-desktop_Service%20Manual_en-us.pdf which may provide useful info.
Phil
p.s. -- I saw you have the manual already and tried twice to delete this post, but failed[:'(]
painhead69
8 Posts
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November 18th, 2017 20:00
I really like stacking two 2.5" drives on a Sabrent 2.5" to 3.5" adapter. The Sabrent mount has mounting holes everywhere. By using two of the bottom holes I've been able to mount a small fan for added airflow. In this way my XPS 8500 & 8900 have six hard drives and additional air flow to the HDDS.