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Question

Adding Hard Drives to my build

Aug 27, 2015 7:19AM PDT

I have a compatibility question regarding my computer build. I want to add two hard drives yet I am unsure if they will be compatible and also if I need to purchase any mounting cables/equipment. The specs of my computer are shown below:

http://s11.postimg.org/fyi7qxqab/Computer_Build.png

I am running Windows 10.

I would like to add the following hard drives:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Green-Deskto...ag=chrome03-21
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-2-5-...ag=chrome03-21

The samsung would take over the first slot and run my OS. Then the other three in any order on the ports.

Is there any issues with compatibility for this mod? Apologies I'm a bit of a hardware noob.

Cheers

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
It appears you need to look at your case & mobo specs.
Aug 27, 2015 7:34AM PDT

Just make sure your case has slots to put the drives in and your mobo has SATA ports for each drive. When you buy hard drives, the retail kits come with cables, when you buy OEM drives they don't. When I clicked on the links you provided, I got error messages, possibly because they're UK sites and I'm on the other side of the pond in the US.

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Answer
So far...
Aug 27, 2015 7:32AM PDT

All I've ever needed was a power connector per drive and for SATA drives, a free SATA port.

As to mechanical, I just look in my case for open mounting areas. You can do all this since you have your PC there.

What compatibility issue would there be?

Your links are dead here.

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Ahhh ok
Aug 27, 2015 11:09AM PDT

Apologies for the dead links!

Thanks so much for your advice, I'll crack it open and see if I can recognise the ports comparative to what's needed. I know that my box has four hard drive ports so hopefully I just need to check they are all SATA? If not I presume I can install another SATA cable? Or does that depends on what my motherboard can take?

Just FYI the hard drives are:

WD Green 4TB Desktop 3.5 inch Internal SATA Hard Drive
^^^^ just to be used for photos, videos, films, music etc so hopefully shouldn't require a WD Black?^^^^

Samsung SAM 850 Pro 256GB 2.5 inch SATA III Solid State Drive
^^^ This is to replace my current SSD which is almost out of space and run the OS off. Then I can sit some games on the original SSD^^^

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(NT) Remember that your CD/DVD drive takes a SATA port too.
Aug 27, 2015 11:13AM PDT
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That's a fine setup but
Aug 27, 2015 11:44AM PDT

I've run into folk that do that, have no backups and lose 4TB of content because... well, I'm sure you've read those stories.

And yes, so far it's been that simple for the sata cable.

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Thanks for the heads up but
Aug 27, 2015 4:27PM PDT

it shouldn't be an issue, most of the stuff on that drive will be for HD movies/tv shows as I'm struggling for space on them. All of my important documents are saved in about 3 places (external HDs too), along with my music and photos in at least 2. The movies and tv shows I'm not so worried about - thanks for the heads up though Grin

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Answer
The best I can determine
Aug 27, 2015 11:31AM PDT

Your case has 7 drive bays. This would mean 1 drive that's 5 1/4" such as DVD, Blue Ray, etc. and 6 drives of your choice. It does have 3 5 1/4" bays but adapters can be had to accommodate small drives. You MB appears to have 8 SATA ports so you've enough to fill the box. The only thing that would bother me is that the case is advertised as a "compact" gaming type. I would think that filling the case with mechanical hard drives might result in cooling problems. A mix of SSDs and mechanical drives might alleviate that some. Just a thought.

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Thanks!
Aug 27, 2015 4:24PM PDT

This helps me a lot - I though that buying two more HDs might be excessive but the SSD that runs the OS is almost full so I thought I'd get a larger one. Then the 4TB drive could accommodate all of the big stuff (movies etc).

I did actually consider the fact that it might need extra cooling if I had four HDs. I have a few fans but I'm sure there is mounting space for more, either I could hook up some more or I could try to implement a water cooled system... or would that be a bit excessive? I assumed I'd only need to go to water cooling if I installed a second graphics card... although once I start doing things like that I guessed I'd run into alternative problems such as excessive power drain and the motherboard unable to support so much hardware...

Cheers for all the help - sorry for so many questions! Definitely interested to learn!

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Green isn't always good?
Aug 27, 2015 5:31PM PDT
WD Green 4TB Desktop 3.5 inch Internal SATA Hard Drive
^^^^ just to be used for photos, videos, films, music etc so hopefully shouldn't require a WD Black?^^^^


At least get a Blue instead. The Greens have early failure problems due to quick shutdowns wearing them out too fast. Only a firmware upgrade corrects the problem. Check to see if yours is one of those with the flaw.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2089464/three-year-27-000-drive-study-reveals-the-most-reliable-hard-drive-makers.html

The worst of the bunch, meanwhile was the 1.5 TB Seagate Barracuda Green (ST1500DL003), with an average lifespan of 0.8 years. Ouch!....Backblaze said it will stop buying Seagate LP 2TB drives and Western Digital Green 3TB drives, because they just don’t work in the company’s environment. Part of the problem, Backblaze says, is these drives are designed to spin down when not in use to save power. That’s a great feature for a home PC user, but in an industrial environment Backblaze says the drive would spin down only to spin back up a few minutes later. The end result being more wear and tear on the drive than it was designed for.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/WD-Caviar-Green-HDDs-Suffer-From-a-Critical-Design-Flaw-196159.shtml

It has been recently discovered that Western Digital's line of Caviar Green hard disk drives, one of the company's most popular HDD ranges, is suffering from a critical design flaw which can cause the drives to behave abnormally, and could even lead to performance losses and a shorter HDD lifespan.

The design flaw seems to be caused by a power saving feature called Intellipark (aka Idle 3 mode), which has a much too aggressive setting....
(more at page)