XPS 8930, how many total drives?

I see that this exact question was asked before. https://www.dell.com/community/XPS-Desktops/XPS-8930-how-many-total-drives/m-p/7725102#M54951

@bieber_B @Vic384 @JaimeCraig 

>Dell XPS 8930 with i7-8700 computer processor. The z370 motherboard for the situation has a M.2 PCIe and four SATA6 hard drive ports. Would I be able to utilize every one of the five simultaneously or is one impaired when you utilize the M.2 on the motherboard?

>M.2 Drive for windows + one DVD drive + three hard drives for capacity

What I can share is... I also have an XPS 8930 and am using all 5 drives without problems. When I bought my system, it came with a 128GB Toshiba M.2 NVMe SSD drive so the first thing I did was install all my programs and immediately updated them to the latest versions. After that, I cloned that drive to a 1TB M.2 Samsung 860 EVO SATA SSD and kept the original Toshiba as a restore drive in case of a Windows failure. It ended being a very good idea because after one Windows cumulative upgrade, my system started acting weird so I just reinstalled the original Toshiba then re-cloned it to the Samsung and everything was fine again. Having the Toshiba around is like an insurance policy - if I ever encounter any problems that I can't solve, I can always restart from where the Toshiba leaves me.

I'm big into movies and have built up a 2000+ movie Plex library so one of the first things I did after I got my system was to purchase three 4TB Seagate 2.5" Barracuda hard drives and installed them into the three internal drive bays of the XPS - HD01 is movies, HD02 is Tv Shows, and HD03 is being used for overflow such as movies, old time radio stories such as the CBS Radio Mystery Theater & Twilight Zone Radio Mysteries, Audiobooks, and personal videos. HD01 is already filled, HD02 is half filled, and HD03 is 3/4 filled. I'm getting very close to the point where I'm going to have to replace those 4TB hard drives with larger drives.

According to the Dell Setup & Specifications sheet, the XPS 8930 is limited to a 1TB M.2 SSD BUT... I called and spoke to Dell Sales and was told I can use a 2TB M.2 SSD. I also came across the same information a couple other places so now I'm thinking about upgrading my 860 EVO SATA SSD to a 2TB M.2 Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe SSD which will increase the speed to 7x what I'm getting now. When I originally purchased my 860 EVO SATA SSD, NVMe drives were WAY out of my price range so I knew I was giving up speed for size but I also knew that in a couple years the prices would fall to where I could have both size and speed and that's where they are today. A 1TB M.2 Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe SSD is the same price as what I originally paid for my M.2 1TB Samsung 860 EVO SATA SSD and a 2TB is within my price range.

Also according to the Dell Setup & Specifications sheet, the XPS is limited to a 4TB hard drive BUT... I read in another post here on the Dell forums that the XPS can actually use larger hard drives than that and with my hard drives already almost maxed out I'm thinking of getting a 12TB hard drive and installing it and seeing what happens. If the system recognizes it I'll probably upgrade all three internal drives to 12TBs each which will provide me plenty of storage for now and many many years into the future.

So, getting back to your original question... YES, all five drives can be used simultaneously as maxed out according to Dell's Setup & Specifications sheet. That said, I'm very nearing the point where I'll be pushing those specifications by doubling the M.2 SSD size and tripling the hard drive sizes if all goes well.