Dell Precision 3440 Small Form Factor storage configurations

Question

Hi, I just bought today a new Dell Precision 3440 SFF Desktop Core i7-10700 16GB RAM 512GB SSD. Since I will be storing lots of personal pictures and videos, 512GB will not be enough and I'm planning on buying additional storage, most likely internal. So I browsed the 'Setup and specifications guide' and the Storage chapter contains a list of the supported configurations and apparently I cannot freely add storage according to my needs! For example, according to a table on the referred chapter, the maximum storage capacity is 4 TB (3.5' HDD drive with 5400 rpm). Does this mean I cannot buy an HDD with a capacity of 5 or 6 TB? Also, one of the supported configurations described in the chapter is: 'One M.2 2230 or 2280 solid-state drive (class 40)'. Can't I have both a 2230 and a 2280 M.2 SSD? There are 2 slots available and one is free. Are these combinations really mandatory? Or am I getting this all wrong and these are the different storage configurations available for purchase in stores for the Dell Precision 3440 SFF model? Below is the excerpt from the manual. Thanks for any help! Regards, Nuno Guerreiro   ----- excerpt from the manual, page 15 ----------------------------- Storage Your computer supports one of the following configurations • One 2.5-inch hard-disk drive• Two 2.5-inch hard-disk drives• One 3.5-inch hard-disk drive• One 2.5-inch hard-disk drive and one 3.5-inch hard-disk drive• One M.2 2230 or 2280 solid-state drive (class 40)• One M.2 2230 or 2280 solid-state drive (class 40) and one 3.5-inch hard-disk drive• One M.2 2230 or 2280 solid-state drive (class 40) and one 2.5-inch hard-disk drive• One M.2 2230 or 2280 solid-state drive (class 40) and two 2.5-inch hard-disk drives Table 6. Storage specifications Storage type Interface type Capacity 2.5 in. hard-disk drive, 5400 RPM SATA Up to 2 TB 2.5 in. hard-disk drive, 7200 RPM SATA Up to 1 TB 2.5 in. hard-disk drive, 7200 RPM, FIPS Self EncryptingOpal 2.0 SATA Up to 500 GB 3.5 in, hard-disk drive, 5400 RPM SATA Up to 4 TB 3.5 in, hard-disk drive, 7200 RPM SATA Up to 2 TB M.2 2280 solid-state drive Gen 3 PCIe x4 NVMe, Class 40 Up to 2 TB M.2 2280 Opal Self-Encrypting solid-state drive Gen 3 PCIe x4 NVMe, Class 40 Up to 1 TB

Chino de Oro · Accepted Answer

@nvInterstellar , The supported configurations meant they were tested with optimal performance for your system.  Scalable storage up to 8TB seems plenty enough.  You can add higher capacity drives, not supported doesn't mean that it won't work.

nvInterstellar · Answer

Thanks for your reply!

I'm assuming these different combinations outlined in the manual refer to internal storage only.

If that is the case, I can always add more external storage in the future, in case I need it. The files that will surely take up most of the space are 4K videos that I need to store.

Chino de Oro · Answer

@nvInterstellar , you are correct. The storage configurations are for internal setup. Depending on your purposes and usages, external storages could be added to your needs.

You didn't mention about which graphics you are using. So if you are not using dedicated graphics, you should have free PCIe slots, which can be used to add more storage. With proper adapter, you can advantage of the high performance lanes to add more NVME drives.

The external storages can be added with USB drives, NAS drives. It's a good option because the external storages will be accessible for multi machines, users.

nvInterstellar · Answer

@Chino de Oro , I'm using the Intel dedicated graphics that is shipped.

But if I add more NVMe drives and exceed the maximum storage, won't this represent a "violation" of the supported configurations?

Chino de Oro · Answer

@nvInterstellar , it should not be a problem if you are taking advantage of unused lanes to expand your storage.  Also it is not economical to add several TB of SSD for media storage, just increase the hard drive capacity.  Although it is a budget model, you got an enterprise class workstation which is capable of running business applications, graphics rendering, intensive video editing, and it will outperform those regular home PC.  If you are going to upgrade to higher capacity hard drive, be careful and try to avoid SMR drives.  I hope you will enjoy your new machine.

nvInterstellar · Answer

Thanks for the detailed advices, @Chino de Oro!

hammarlund · Answer

Just put in a thunderbolt card and use external drives, as many as you want. There's no limitation on external storage.

Precision Fixed Workstations

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