XPS 8950, adding 2TB SSD, 4TB SATA

Read this new thread...!

You may not be able to boot from your "existing" 2T SSD without reinstalling Windows and software on it after installing it in the XPS 8950. So be sure personal files are backed up elsewhere.

The XPS 8950 has two M.2 NVME slots on the motherboard so you could add a 2nd (non-boot) SSD there too.

You will have to buy your own SATA data cables for any HDD you install.  Check out some of the threads about installing HDDs in the 8950 because you likely will want to get a SATA data cable with a left or right-angled connector so it fits into the drive.

A new drive will have to initialized using Windows Disk Management tool to be seen and used by Windows.

You can add extra drive(-s) without a problems,
If I'm not mistaken then 8950 has out of two - one M.2 NVMe storage slot bound to CPU and another goes via chipset (thus formally might me minimally slower because of extra element in a chain CPU-DMI-PCH-NVMe vs CPU-NVMe, but this difference shouldn't be noticeable in practice since x8 DMI v4 channels with a total bandwidth close to 16GB/s are normally hardly saturated and there's no much of latency added).
As for slots @RoHe  already mentioned availability and the picture below shows those (M.2 NVMe slots in red and standard SATA in blue), I'm not sure if secondary M.2. slot accepts SATA (specification doesn't mention it, I think it talks about M.2 NVMe only).

On XPS 8950 - both (CPU bound and via PCH) M.2 slots do support Gen4 NVMe drives (7GB/s speed) since Z690 chipset does work on PCIe 4.0 standard.

As for your "...Obviously 1TB isn't enough..." - I wouldn't be so sure about it, 90% of home users hardly even need 1TB, for instance (on previous generation PC) I've 9TB of total SSD (disposed HDDs a while ago) storage space on my PC (and was considering getting another 8TB SATA SSD before realizing what in order to fill that capacity or copy it - it will take at least 6 hours or even more for lots of smaller-size files) - but in reality I'm hardly using 300GB (0.3TB) of that space (and even there - half of it is actually junk and I'm too lazy to clean it and remove duplicates) which is only 3% (and includes all archives from previous computers) of 9TB.

Therefore it's rather an exception if anyone needs more than 1TB of storage space (unless it's something professional live video editing, etc.).
In my case multiple fast drives only needed to distribute simultaneous access (and available bandwidth) for database and virtualization applications to get a better speeds (+backups) and not as much as for getting more storage space.

As for cable lengths and depending where you attach SATA drive (there are two bays) - you can probably go with these rough estimates below (obviously cable doesn't follow exact path and can be shorter):

@RoHe @sam55todd 

Thank you both for all the info, just to clarify I think I would maybe keep the 1T ssd as on checking my existing boot drive is 500Gb and about 80% full so perhaps 1tb will be sufficient for the boot drive.

So could I just add my 2t ssd and maybe another SATA drive in the two empty drive bays, would they be empty as I assume the 1t ssd M2 boot drive is on the motherboard?

Would I still need to initialized using Windows Disk Management tool or is that only if I change the boot drive, I don't remember having to do that when I added the 2t ssd to my Aurora R5?

I did buy the a pack of 3 18" SATA cables to connect the crucial 2t ssd so maybe could use same leads.

Thanks.

I have just read on the Dell website a comment by a customer that the drive bays can only take a maximum thickness of a SATA drive of 20mm when most common drives are 25mm (1")

Is this true, seems hard to believe?

Very unlikely it's for some slim-drives only, on a picture from previous post you can clearly see 9.5mm (thickness as per XPS specification sheet) DVD-drive slot and based on picture measurements almost 3x of such sizes can fit into HDD slot right above it (9.5mm x 3 = close to 28mm leaving enough mm for plastic caddy and 25mm drive {25.4mm as per 3.5'' standard}).

Maybe you have to consider moving Windows default folders off the boot SSD and onto either an SSD in the second M.2 slot or onto a big SATA HDD.

XPS 8950 has two M.2 slots on the motherboard for NVME SSDs. One slot is used for the boot SSD, in your case, 1 TB SSD, and the other M.2 slot is empty where a second NVME SSD can be installed and used for storage.

You can save things wherever you want, but all versions of Windows create their own default folders for docs, music, pics etc on the boot drive. So moving those folders off the boot drive can some space. You did say your 500 GB SSD is 80% full. So unless you have lots of apps installed in Windows on that SSD, something is taking up all that space...

Thanks for reply, so the two SATA drive bays at the top are free to add further drives as well as the second M.2 slot?

On my existing PC I have moved all photos, music etc to my 2tb ssd, so yes I do appear to have a lot of apps etc on my boot drive, maybe I need to clean it up removing the unused applications etc.

I can see why you suggest moving windows default folders to another larger drive but I think I will see how it goes with the 1tb boot drive first and consider that option later.

The specs say the XPS 8950 supports:
Up to two 3.5-inch hard drives + up to two M.2 2230/2280 solid-state drives

So if the PC you want only comes with one M.2 SSD and no HDD, you have room for a second M.2 NVME SSD and at least two SATA HDDs or SATA SSDs. (NOTE: SATA SSDs are faster than SATA HDDs, but may be more expensive, and you'll need -inexpensive- adapters to install 2.5" SSDs in the 3.5" drive cages.)

This thread says a user installed three HDDs in an XPS 8950...

Thanks for confirming that, I have gone ahead and ordered the  XPS 8950 12th Gen i9-12900K, delivery on Monday, so the fun will begin switching stuff across to the new PC.

I have done this many times over the years but never a straight forward process, I did consider the Dell migrate software but read negative reviews about it.

Have fun with your new toy..!

@Richchad​ Hi, can you tell me if  you were able to get y our >2TB  drive (SATA mechanical installed in either of the two bays at the top of the chassis) to work with your XPS 8950?  I purchased my 8950 in November of 2022 and had the 1 TB SSD boot drive and a second 2TB hard drive (SATA mechanical).  However, I have found that the 2TB is not large enough and wanted to upgrade to install a 8TB drive.  I have tried an 8TB drive in place of my 2TB drive, while I am waiting on the caddy from Dell and the left angled SATA cable from a third party (Dell doesn't have them in stock).  I restarted my computer and the 8TB drive is spinning but is not recognized in windows explorer.  

I have spent almost 2 hours on the phone with Dell Support and Sales, and also via the chat.  What I am told is that it is not possible to have a single hard drive (SATA mechanical NOT SSD) with a capacity of over 12TB.  The sales/technical support personnel told me I can add another 2TB drive to the second open bay, but this is not what I want.  

Any advice or suggestions in terms of getting a SATA HDD 3.5" hard drive >2TB to work with my Dell XPS 8950 would be sincerely appreciated.  If in the end I can't I will look at other computer options that have this capacity.

@Kroc1​

I managed to stumble on this via the control panel and managed to get the 8TB drive working in the drive slot where the 2TB drive was located.  I didn't realize I had to initialize it and format it.  This was done via the Control Panel>System>Storage>Advanced Storage>Disks & Volumes>ST8000VN004 -XXXXXX.  Labelled it and  chose a drive letter, and now when I selected ST8000VN004 -XXXXXX the drive shows up with the label I gave it and the drive letter (also indicates NTFS, Healthy, Basic Data Partition.