Studio XPS 435MT, 3rd 3.5' drive bay?

Question

3rd 3.5' drive bay? Or caddy for a 3.5' drive in the 5.25 bay? According to the manual, this computer has 'two 3.5 inch bays for a Flexdock and aBluetooth module' (page 56) and 'three 3.5-inch drive bays for SATA hard drives' (page 57). http://downloads.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_desktop/esuprt_studio_xps_desktop/studio-xps-435_setup%20guide_en-us.pdf Here is a poor photo of the case: https://marcerickson.blogspot.com/2019/11/dell-studio-xps-435mt-computer.html I can only see one 3.5 inch bay (currently holds a card reader) and two 3.5-inch drive bays for SATA hard drives (those bays are clearly marked).  Where are the others?   I'm guessing that the setup guide was for a different case.  So is there a caddy to fit the spare 5.25 inch drive bay that allows putting a 3.5 inch drive into that bay?  The 5.25 inch bay is a 'slide in until it locks' type bay similar to other Dell systems.  There's a couple of photos at the second link.

Techgee · Accepted Answer

Dell has over time has gotten two Studio XPS models confused - the Studio XPS 435MT (Mini Tower - exterior black with gray/metallic sides) and Studio XPS 435T/9000 (Tower - exterior white/black with red trim). I have both of these machines in the house. I've actually posted images of both in some of my posts to alleviate confusion - for example here on Xeon processors and why 435T/9000 can run a 6 core processor and 435MT only a 4 core.

The Studio XPS 435MT Service Manual appears to be mostly correct with the exception of "Badge Back Light" on first few pages (which 435MT doesn't have, but 435T/9000 does). Note it seems the FlexDock should be able to physically handle a hard drive if it's empty (which it is on my machine) - it looks like there's one or two holes for screws to secure the drive on the cover side.

Electrically, the 435MT has 4 SATA connectors on the motherboard and 1 eSATA connector on the back. I'm not sure about the speeds, but likely the idea was 2 of the connectors are for hard drives attached vertically to side panel (locations embossed with HDD0 and HDD1) just inside the cover, and 2 connectors for the 2 optical bays.

If you have an empty optical bay, you could get a 5.25" to 3.5" drive bay adapter to add a third or fourth drive.

A 2.5" SSD as Windows boot drive in these machines is great - waited way too long to add one to mine. Details on my experience with the SSD upgrade (as well as clean Windows 10 install and mouse/audio stutter issue workaround) here. Greatly reduces wait time on boot, application startup and especially Windows 10 Updates. It's light and small enough that I just strapped it to the inside of the case.

JOcean · Answer

The 3rd drive goes in the FlexBay. https://www.dell.com/community/Desktops-General-Read-Only/How-many-hard-driver-slots-does-Studio-XPS-435MT-have/td-p/3222461

marcerickson · Answer

Thank you very much.

speedstep · Answer

https://www.amazon.com/ICY-DOCK-Converter-Mounting-Adapter/dp/B00SNCLGL4/

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Studio XPS 435MT, 3rd 3.5" drive bay?

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