7050sff motherboard m.2 supports both nvme and sata 2280 ssd.  these are some of the Dell validated ssd for 7050

the hdd cage of 7050 sff can be fit with two types of Dell blue caddy, one for single 3.5”, the other type for up to two 2.5”.  If your 7050 originally came with 3.5”, you do not have the other type of blue caddy for 2.5”.  You can buy it online.  DP/N 9M3YR

@redxps630 , Thanks so much for the very helpful information and the super fast reply. This really helps me out. I appreciate the extra detail that you went into as well.

You are awesome!!!

Thanks so much.

my pleasure.  it came to my notice today that it is possible to install a thin 20 mm 3.5 hdd and a 7 mm 2.5 ssd in the 7050 SFF hard drive cage.  the two drives stacked (20mm+7mm) appear to be comparable to the height of a single standard 26 mm 3.5 hdd installed in blue caddy.  You may or may not need to remove the 3.5 blue caddy.  this piggybank installation may need double sticky tape.

I've a question, as I'm not sure where else to ask.  Can this system have three (3) physical SATA drives operational at the same time?

Are there three SATA power cables to power up three (3) physical drives?

Or, with an M.2 installed, say to host the OS, are only two (2) SATA drives?

I've reviewed this manual:  https://dl.dell.com/content/manual42076770-optiplex-7050-small-form-factor-owner-s-manual.pdf?language=en-us

But it is not clear as to the interoperability of the M.2 -and- three (3) SATA drives.

Interestingly, this same manual, on page 51 indicates there could be five (5) SATA drives?

Is that really possible?

Are there sufficient SATA power cables out of the powersupply to support five (5) SATA drives?

How about SATA data ports... the motherboard only seems to have three (3)---what then?

I've not been able to find sufficient specs on the powersupply to figure that out for myself.

Additionally, can the M.2 support a 512GB add-on, or even up to 1TB?

Thank you in advance for whatever help you can give me.

Thank you.

R,

-Joe Wulf

Workaround for the limitation of SATA ports on the motherboard is a SATA port PCIe card.  Likely not worth it though if the PC can only fit an m.2 drive, 2 SATA drives, and a DVD drive.  Or 3rd SATA drive would go where the slim DVD drive is with an adapter as redxps indicated.

If two 2.5" SATA drives are installed where one 3.5" drive would normally fit, you'd likely need a SATA power splitter cable.

In the case of SATA drive installed where DVD normally goes, just reuse the same DATA cable.  Use it for storage though so it can be plugged into the white SATA port.

Each item does need it's own DATA cable with the exception of m.2 drive.

There's also adapters to fit more m.2 drives, but I'm not familiar enough with those to know how well one would fit in an SFF or if it would work.

Much easier to fit more drives into a tower.  There's also the option of external SSD/HDD enclosures and docks.

What you said is in the owner's manual can definitely be confusing, that it looks like the 7050 SFF can hold 5 SATA drives, that there's 5 SATA ports.  I think in an unspecified way, they're referring to BIOS, that ports can be turned on and off there.  The 7050 SFF can't hold 5 drives due to it's physical limitations.

@redxps630​ Is it possible for you to provide a link to the 3.5in adapter from Dell? I am struggling to find it. I currently have the 2.5 in bay and want to move to a bigger more reliable drive that I have sitting around.

Thank you

this one may look like what you are looking for in 7050 SFF.  strange that Dell SFF manual does not mention it at all.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/255092609451

https://www.ebay.com/itm/285235426714?