Dell 7920 front HD bay

The options with dell part numbers are at

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-uk/000146243/upgrading-storage-in-the-dell-precision-5820-7820-7920-tower-workstations

If you're happy with internal bays, you might want to consider the internal Flex 3 & Flex 4 spaces

Bit confused I want all my bays to be internal for now just looking to populate top front bay where dvd use to be and Flex 3 & Flex 4 spaces that’s in the back right ? And on link I can’t find front bay hardware part or number 

thanks 

If you look in the document for Dell parts 400-AXBM and 400-AXBJ 

400-AXBM - Allows user to install one 3.5" hard drive into the 5.25" bay when using the embedded storage controller only. These drives would be internally accessible only.

400-AXBJ - Allows user to install two 2.5" HDD/SSDs into the 5.25" bay when using the embedded Intel Storage controller only. This module fits into the place where a standard Half Height optical drive (CD or DVD) would fit in the system. These drives would be internally accessible only.

That's the 'official' Dell way but, assuming you're already out of warranty, there's nothing stopping you using 3rd party 5.25" to 3.5" (or 2 x 2.5") adapters and DIYing it. Just make sure you're happy that the drives aren't going to overheat - a lot will depend on the type of drive and how heavily they're going to be used.

And, yes, the Flex 3 & 4 are at the rear, look in the document for 575-BBSI

575-BBSI - Allows user to install 4 additional 2.5" or 3.5" SATA hard drive/SSDs on the Rear of the chassis in FlexBay 3 and 4.

Again, it's quite possible to create your own DIY mounting solution for these bays

@PapaPee​ 

Thanks for all the info you diy route I any suggestion ? What cable would I need to connect few hard drives internally would you know ? 

For the 5.25" bay, I used https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CLGR8NJZ to mount a 3.5" HDD in a 5820, it wouldn't be difficult to use it to mount 2 x 2.5" SSD or similar (they're so light that double-sided tape keeps them in place). I didn't bother with a fan as I put in a 5400 rpm drive for bulk storage so it's not in constant use, I've kept an eye on temperatures and it only gets a few degrees above ambient.

You should find an additional SATA power cable and data cable in place and available for the bay and you could use a splitter to allow for two drives - a second data cable can be run from the motherboard SATA ports.

If trying to add lots of internal drives, you're likely to run out of SATA ports - it might be better to look at NVMe, the Dell Ultraspeed Quad PCIe card fits into a x16 slot (assuming you're not using twin video cards) , it's freely available on eBay and takes 4 NVMe drives. You can also add the dual version of the card (supports 2 x NVMe) in a x8 slot.

I've used both and they work very well - I've also added a single NVMe in a x4 slot using one of these https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CQZ6SYD1?th=1 and it works perfectly.

I forgot to add the link for a example SATA power splitter  https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08ZSN5CGF

This will allow you to mount 2 x 2.5" and 1 x 3.5" drives into the DVD bay

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N1P804G

And this will allow you to power 3 drives from one SATA power lead

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004HTHJWM

Just add some extra SATA data leads of the correct length

If you used a 5400rpm drive and 2 SSDs, power and heat shouldn't really be an issue but you should keep an eye on drive temperatures over the first few weeks to see if a fan is needed or not.

Hello,

if you want something that will keep the temperature down or  maximize the slot usage

ICY DOCK: Manufactures Removable SSD / HDD Data Storage Enclosures

@PapaPee​ 

Thanks for all the info super informative. I decided to run 2 ssd from the top 5.25 bay I will need power splitter but when it come to data cable  on the motherboard in the back not front it’s double plug at bottom believe cable for it is called  called HD Mini SAS to 4XSATA Cable my question is can I connect 2 ssd via this plug it’s basically one square plug then 3 normal flat esata cables going in to drives ?

@PapaPee​ 

I have 2 mvme 500 gb each that come with my Dell but would like to relocate the from front bays to internal card Inseem one you listed but it’s single I found this one on eBay Dell DPWC300 NVMe M.2 PCIe Solid State Storage Adapter Card any thought ? Thanks 

There's a few things to unpick there...

There's not a lot of point in relocating NVMe from the front Flexbays to an internal PCIe card, the backplane for those Flexbays has the necessary PCIe lanes. Performance would be identical on the card or in the current Flexbays.

If you're thinking about using those Flexbays for SATA drives, it's not that easy. You can't just remove the NVMe caddys from the NVMe Flexbays and replace them with caddys holding SATA drives as the backplane is different for NVMe & SATA and each Flexbay backplane supports a pair of Flexbays. You would need to replace the backplane for that pair of Flexbays - a fairly expensive option, you're better off adding the 2 x SATA SSDs in the 5.25 bay.

If you want more NVMe storage, and assuming you're not using all your x16 PCIe slots, the most cost-effective way is to add the Ultraspeed Quad NVMe card as this will hold up to 4 NVMe drives (each drive needs 4 PCIe lanes).
e.g. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/157092030267 

The Ultraspeed Dual NVMe cards need a x8 PCIe slot but only take 2 NVMe and aren't much cheaper - but are an option if there are no free x16 slots.

The two mini SAS connectors that you refer to are really intended for taking PCIe lanes to NVMe U.2/U.3 flexbay backplanes, that's why they're labelled as PCIE0 & PCIE1 - I really don't know if they can be used with SATA breakout cables. I'd ignore them and use the SATA connectors on the edge of the motherboard.

You should have 8 SATA connectors, so you can connect up to 8 SATA drives. 2 are labelled as for OD (Optical Drive) but they can take any SATA drive - I believe that the only difference is that the two OD connectors can't be used for chipset RAID.

I'm not sure what you're trying to achieve as far as storage goes but from what I can gather, with your current configuration you should have space for
- 2 x NVMe in the NVMe Flexbays
- 2 x SATA drives in the SATA Flexbays

If you add the 5.25" adapter that I linked above, you could have another 2 x 2.5" SATA (SSD or laptop HDD) plus 1 x 3.5" SATA (HDD or another SSD in a 3.5" -> 2.5" adapter)

That's achievable with only a small outlay for the adapters/power splitters/SATA leads (plus the cost of the drives unless you're reusing some you already have)

If you need more storage than that, it's possible but the costs start to mount - it's likely to be more cost-effective to replace the NVMe drives in the Flexbays with larger drives, and use larger SATA drives etc.

e.g. for bulk storage in my home lab server I have 2 x 22TB Toshiba Enterprise SATA HDD in RAID 1 (mirroring) using chipset RAID, this gives me 20TB of usable space.

@PapaPee​ 

Thanks so for all the info I just spend 20 min looking at my main board and I was not able to locate any sata ports except in the back of the case there are 5 PCIE1_CPU1 sas connectors one at bottom 4 on top looking at google images of the main board I don’t see any sata connectors strange 

@sale001  please accept my apologies

When I checked the spec for the 7920, I saw that it supported 8xSATA drives and the BIOS allowed each to be enabled individually so I opened a saved diagram of the motherboard and check the location of the SATA ports - unfortunately, I opened an image of the 7820 motherboard not the 7920 motherboard.

I can't see the exact connectors on my image of a 7920 motherboard but I found this video which has some useful information & part numbers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMDH8ER8ffc

As it appears that Dell has moved to using mini SAS connectors to support both SAS & SATA you'll need to source some breakout cables - as it supports 8 x SATA / SAS drives, I'd assume that the group of 4 connectors are the drive support with each connector supporting 2 devices (which would make sense if they connect to a 2-FlexBay backplane)

I'm hesitant to suggest any particular mini-SAS to 2xSATA breakout cables as Dell often do things their own way and may have used non-standard wiring. You may be able to find Dell OEM cables second-hand on eBay.

I understand that that 5.25" bay should still have a SATA power & data connector available which would allow you to add a single drive.

My earlier reply isn't showing (again) perhaps the spam filters are catching them and they have to get released by a moderator

Anyway, at 3:50 on this video, it shows them connecting a SATA M.2 SSD to a motherboard SATA port
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-u0s-ynGaQ

@PapaPee​ 

Hi yes I did see only that one at bottom as shown in video but it’s only one and it’s populated thanks