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June 7th, 2020 16:00
XPS 8930 SE, which HDD?
I've got a new XPS desktop arriving in the next couple of days and it's my first computer with 2 different type hard drives installed. The one described by Dell as the boot drive is a 2TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD and the one described as the storage drive is a 2TB 7200rpm 3.5" SATA HDD. I've never had a SSD drive and what I'm wondering is since Dell calls it a boot drive can it also be used for installing other programs on it? I'm seeing that SSD's have faster response times than the HDD's and would like to put my Adobe Photoshop suite and a demanding graphics game on the SSD to take advantage of the speed. Is this do-able or do the programs have to be on the HDD?
Also wondering about installing virus protection on the system. I get the Norton program free from my Xfinity account but the PC comes with McAfee already installed. The person I ordered the PC from on the phone told me I would have to uninstall McAfee before I try to install the Norton program. I'm a little worried about downloading software over the internet without virus protection running. Ant thoughts on how to handle that?
Thanks for any help.
MojomanXPS
6 Posts
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June 7th, 2020 17:00
@Anonymous Thanks for the reply. I was hoping the same thing as far as the Norton download went. Yes it is an XPS 8930SE PC. I've been reading about the overheat issues and hadn't even considered the HDD adding to the problem!
@Vic384 Thanks for the explanation regarding the SSD. Is there a slot for the 2.5" SSD you mentioned? Any SSD manufacturer or model number you could recommend?
MojomanXPS
6 Posts
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June 7th, 2020 17:00
@RoHe Thanks for the great info.
Vic384
6 Operator
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3.2K Posts
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June 7th, 2020 17:00
@MojomanXPS I think I should expand on what @Anonymous is saying about adding another M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD. I think he means to say that if you wish to do that you need to purchase a PCI M.2 adapter card so that you can add a second M.2 SSD since the XPS 8930 only has one M.2 NVMe SSD slot which is being used for your current SSD. You could instead add a 2.5" SSD.
RoHe
12 Elder
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45.2K Posts
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172.6K Points
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June 7th, 2020 17:00
Windows 10 and apps should be installed on the SSD.
Unless you want to use the HDD only for backup storage, set Windows 10 to move and save its default folders, eg documents, photos, vids etc onto the HDD (DATA drive). And when you install your own apps on the SSD, set each app to save its data files on the HDD too, again, unless that HDD is only being used for backup.
Vic384
6 Operator
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3.2K Posts
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June 7th, 2020 18:00
@MojomanXPS I like Samsung SSDs like the Samsung 860 EVO series. The XPS 8930 has two hard drive cages at the bottom of the case for mounting drives. According to someone on this forum, if you mount a 2.5" SSD to the inside/top of the cage you do not need a 2.5" to 3.5" mounting adapter because there are mounting holes in the top of the cage. You will need a SATA cable; depending on how close the drive is to the edge of the cage a SATA cable with a right-angle connector may be better. Extra SATA power connectors are already available.
speedstep
11 Legend
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47K Posts
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June 7th, 2020 19:00
SATA SSD's are not compatible with an adapter that uses PCI-E for booting.
SFF-8482 SAS is not compatible with SATA Drives.
The Kyro M2 adapter shown only works with PCI-E M key only M2 drives.
https://shop.aquacomputer.de/product_info.php?products_id=3400
This adapter
https://www.amazon.com/Micro-Connectors-NVMe-SATA-Adapter/dp/B07FKW3Y73/
Supports both sata and PCI-E but requires sata data cable back to the motherboard to work.
GKDesigns
258 Posts
1
June 7th, 2020 19:00
@MojomanXPS
Your new system has two storage drives. The system disk (boot drive) happens to be a nice fat, fast SSD. The second drive is a nice fat, not as fast HDD.
I would install everything... OS, programs, data... on the system disk SSD. And use the HDD for backup.
If you want to install Norton, uninstall McAfee first. I uninstalled McAfee and just use the built-in Windows Defender... good enough for my needs. I stopped buying anti-malware when Windows Security Essentials (now Windows Defender) was released for Windows 7.
GK
speedstep
11 Legend
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47K Posts
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June 7th, 2020 20:00
To remove pre installed MCAFEE.
Click Yes, Continue,or Run (depending on your version of Windows)
This ensures that you have the latest version, and that newer McAfee products can be successfully recognized.