The Precision 5820 does not have any internal HDD cages. All storage drives are externally accessible by the flexbay. The 5.25 optical drive bay can be converted to use for HDD with proper converter kit.
Dell has 2 oem kits , one for a 3.5" to install in the ODD bay , and one to install 2 x 2.5" .
If you use IcyDock products, you can convert the ODD bay to have 4 x 2.5" + 1 x slim odd (this is just an example ). One power cable and sata cable are preinstalled to use the 5.25" bay, and the motherboard has sata ports to add cables for the extra units you want.
Splitting the power cable with 3rd party adapters or not , depends on the kit used to convert the 5.25" bay.
Bottom line, you can equip the workstation to be able to install various extra 2.5" drives OR a single extra 3.5" drive. The cost of the adapters are varied, there's not just one brand. Some are ventilated, some are not. Some are plastic, some are metal. Anything without proper heath dissipation will impact the life of the HDDs you plan to add, just keep this in mind. ( so steer away from plastic kits )
Chino de Oro
9 Legend
•
8.3K Posts
0
October 17th, 2023 19:17
The Precision 5820 does not have any internal HDD cages. All storage drives are externally accessible by the flexbay. The 5.25 optical drive bay can be converted to use for HDD with proper converter kit.
mazzinia_
6 Professor
•
1.5K Posts
0
October 18th, 2023 14:19
To add to this,
Dell has 2 oem kits , one for a 3.5" to install in the ODD bay , and one to install 2 x 2.5" .
If you use IcyDock products, you can convert the ODD bay to have 4 x 2.5" + 1 x slim odd (this is just an example ).
One power cable and sata cable are preinstalled to use the 5.25" bay, and the motherboard has sata ports to add cables for the extra units you want.
Splitting the power cable with 3rd party adapters or not , depends on the kit used to convert the 5.25" bay.
Bottom line, you can equip the workstation to be able to install various extra 2.5" drives OR a single extra 3.5" drive.
The cost of the adapters are varied, there's not just one brand. Some are ventilated, some are not. Some are plastic, some are metal.
Anything without proper heath dissipation will impact the life of the HDDs you plan to add, just keep this in mind. ( so steer away from plastic kits )