XPS 8950, add a 2nd SATA HDD

Forgive me as I'm not as technically inclined as all of you.  But I've been looking at buying an 8950 while they are on sale for Black Friday, in fact I have one custom built in my cart.  I just need to press the buy button.

Anyway on with my question, I do not want to order HDDs with my PC and would like to eventually over time add SSDs to the hard drive cages (especially as capacity increases and price comes down).  Am I right to understand that with the right conversion kit, each HDD cage which would ordinarily hold one 3.5 HDD could 2 - 2.5 SSDs?

Are these the items I would need to buy for the conversion?  I read through the post (I understand they are old or older) stating Dell doesn't sell what is needed for the conversion but I found these on the site.

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-2x-25in-hdd-caddy-for-xps-8950/apd/575-bcme/storage-drives-media

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-35in-hdd-caddy-for-xps-8950/apd/575-bcmc/storage-drives-media

Both of these would be needed correct?

If I choose not to get a HDD with my PC, Dell will still provide the blue cage and connectors to hook up a HDD (or SDD with separate adapter) in one of the HDD slots, correct?

Sorry for asking such newbie questions but like I said in the beginning I'm not that technically incline and just want to make sure I understand everything accurately.

Awesome discussion! Hope it's still active and I can chime in with my question here.

I had XPS8700 for ages and had added 3*3.5in SATA HDDs to it over time. The original 256GB SSD is the only thing I didn't change and it finally died.

I pulled the trigger on an XPS8950 and the only config that would ship somewhat soon had 1TB SSD and 1TB HDD inside. I knew I was going to toss the HDD out and put one of the 3 HDDs from my old 8700 - done, took 2 minutes.

Now, I'm struggling to see how to move the other 2 HDDs over. One, it looks like, I can do by following the link to the blue plastic 3.5" caddy, and get a new SATA cable (or if long enough, reuse the one from the 8700).

How about the 3rd HDD? It looks like Dell has been cost saving on everything with the newer models and I can live with $15 plastic caddy, but is there a metal cage (+another caddy) that can be purchased and installed bettwen the 2 HDDs? There's clearly SATA 0/1/2, so it looks doable from electronics point of view (PSU big enough?) but the mechanics of the 8950 chassis bother me.

Thanks!

Even though DVDs and HDDs have clearly became a bit outdated technology (just like Floppy drives) - this things are rather up to your mechanical skill and finding right fixture, e.g. front panel has plenty of holes for screws.

HDD isn't something people move around (in/out) too often therefore having something much simpler than sliding caddy will work too if you don't have one, the rest (how to attach it inside the case) is up to your mechanical skill, just make sure it doesn't block too much of an airflow, doesn't touch any electronic components and doesn't move around on vibration (firmly affix to chassis).

Haven't seen upper caddy (marked as green, mounting 3.5'' hard drive there might require more effort) but there's plenty of space for two 3.5'' drives at the bottom marked as red and yellow (just don't put those too close to power supply or too high to block front inflow fan).

First SSD they normally include into assembly is most likely installed directly into motherboard via M.2 slot standard.
XPS 8950 has 4 SATA connectors, two M.2 slots for storage (m-key) and one shorter for WiFi (e-key).
So you can use 4 SATA drives (two at top, two mounted at the bottom assuming you disconnect DVD device)
All M.2 slots can be extended into SATA ( x 6 SATA-III for M-key and x 2 SATA-III for E-key)
Plus PCIe SATA adapter options ( extra 6 SATA ports per x4 PCIe slot ).
There are options for SATA power cable splitters and extenders available on e-bay/amaz0n.
Just make sure you meet power supply requirements/limitations (not to put too many Amps via various devices).

Is there any cage, even if it's not easy? I know at that point I might as well go build my PC my way and return the 8950 while I still can but if you found the SKU for that metal cage I'd give it a try.

I was in the same situation as you.  I could not figure out an easy way to add another hard drive cage between the two existing ones.  It's a shame there are not more options.  Eventually I went with external USB hard drives and added additional USB 3.0 ports via a PCIe card.

Yes, what you've marked in green looks exactly like a "missing HDD cage in between the two installed ones" to make them 3 on that side of the chassis.

I contacted Dell thinking there is an APOS SKU they sell for that metal cage, and it'd be somewhat easy to slide in, or maybe take out one of the side ones and install the middle one then put the side one back. Then purchase another SATA data cable to connect to the last SATA2 slot and I'll have almost everything I had in the old XPS8700 (no room for Bluray RW but who needs that nowadays).

Good old Dell is a whole different discussion. I contacted Dell support to see what I need to add to the 2nd and hopefully 3rd HDD, and they told me this is a Sales question.

While support is available over Chat, I had to dial Dell's general number, press buttons, and more buttons, and then wait for almost an hour to speak to a sales rep. That sales rep suggested that I need N00X2 for the 2nd HDD. I asked what's the Dell SKU for this manufacturer part number and she said that this is the only way she could locate the data cable for the 2nd HDD, so I gave up asking her for a 123-ABCD SKU. I might be googling it all wrong but this points me to the power cable, not the data blue (or red) ones, so I gave up on Dell Sales and came here to see if someone smart in this forum has figured it out.

Thanks!

Unfortunately their phone support is pretty useless in my experience.
As for cage - I'm not sure if this thing even exists in Dell list,
I was rather thinking in a DIY way, there are two holes in a metal on left (back) HDD holder, one on a back panel and nothing on a right (front) HDD holder, both holders are designed to be removable - therefore I don't think Dell has made any mounting fixtures between those.
There's probably another option - right under DVD drive, because it has plenty of holes underneath, but getting there with screwdriver might be tricky and screw heads may prevent DVD from sliding back.
That's why for me it's almost always easier just getting pieces of metal with holes and shaping it into right angle with Lineman's pliers.

OK.  I've had an 8700 since 2014 and it's fully loaded with HDDs.  Don't want to move them to the new 8950 but do want to add HDDs.  Still not sure on the power issue.  How 'exactly' would I supply power to additional HDDs other than the one in upper left on image which already has factory power?  I understand the SATA cable issues.

What are the 'SATA cable issues' that you mentioned??

There are plenty of adapter / extension & splitter options available on a market as mentioned by others,
e.g. if for some reasons you don't like factory-fitted cable then for internal mounting something like these SATA cable alternatives can help you:

If you want to keep your drives externally (e.g. running on it's own external power) then there are NAS devices, multi-bay SATA enclosures either on USB standard (incl. fast ones on USB 3.1) or via direct SATA data cable as below (picked first image from e-bay, although this one doesn't have it's own power supply as generally most direct SATA racks/bays unless you're going eSATA way).

Left-handed v. right-handed!  (Something I NEVER heard of until now!!)

I daisy-chained the power supply cable to get power to the other HD.

Thanks, that's what I was looking for.  I have a Synology NAS (2 actually) for external HDD capacity but like to have some internal drives for other uses.  Only problem now is 'mechanical' mounting issues (argggh!) -- DIY drive bays up next.

A small note regarding using an adapter to convert a straight connector into a "left angle" connector:

Presumably what would be most useful would be an adapter for only the data connection, rather than one for all 22 pins. I noted today that there are a number of listings for just such adapters on Amazon. Some use a different terminology, in which what's called "left angle" in this thread is "up angle" (and the more common "right angle" orientation is, not surprisingly, called "down angle").

Listings generally have photos that make it reasonably easy to tell which variety angling is going on. If you look at the connector as if it were the head of reptile that has reared up to face you (with the cable being its body, going downward), you want a connector with seven copper teeth in the reptile upper jaw and little smile to your left (as you face him). In the other (non XPS 8950) orientation the teeth are in the reptile lower jaw, and he's got a frown to your right.

 I ordered one of the red cables as in willzUK's post above. The caddy I bought was on Ebay, seller biz360UK. 

Everything fitted perfectly. The caddy fitting was exact in that top left bay and the cable is the correct way round and just nicely reaches the next available sata port.

I have never fitted a hard drive before. It took about 5 minutes to take the drive from my old PC and get it into the new XPS. Delighted.