Adding a SATA HDD with no SATA ports nor PCIe slot?

[King Mustard]

I have a Dell Precision T1600 (2012 model).

It contains:

• Intel Xeon E3-1270 v1 (80 W) (2011)
• Dell 06NWYK (UEFI vA20, dated 2018)
• 8 GB DDR3L-1333
• Intel 82579LM gigabit network adapter (2011)
• ATI Radeon HD 5450 (2010)
• Dynamode USB 3.0 4-Port PCI Express Adapter
• Cooler Master MWE 400 White 230V V2

I am using all four of the motherboard's SATA ports (1x SSD, 3x 3.5" HDDs).

The system has the following slots:

• PCIe x16 (presumably) (blue) (ATI Radeon HD 5450 inserted)
• PCIe x1 (presumably) (black) (Dynamode USB 3.0 4-Port PCI Express Adapter inserted)
• PCI (presumably) (white)
• PCI x4 (presumably) (black)

If that's correct, I presume I can't connect most SATA III controller cards into either of the standard PCI slots?

[stevie lee]

how many of the USB 3.0 ports are you using on the dynamode card?
because there are cards that do USB 3 ports and have internal sata on them, could swap it out.

EXAMPLE https://www.amazon.co.uk/Syba-SD-PEX.../dp/B00CHYOQIE

but that seems to need a x2 or even a x4 slot to go into, depending on how many ports. and you've also got the 'problem' if you can call it that. of , have you got any spare sata power connectors from your PSU?

another option. but its expensive (due to chia mining) get bigger hard drives and condense a bit.
or just get an external USB 3 drive like the WD P10 or D10 if you need the speed, or just a normal Elements to free up some internal space.


I need to condense and merge a few of my drives, a 4tb, 2tb and 1tb but the 8tb WD i had my eye on at currys went out of stock in the last few days.

[DDY]

...
The system has the following slots:

• PCIe x16 (presumably) (blue) (ATI Radeon HD 5450 inserted)
• PCIe x1 (presumably) (black) (Dynamode USB 3.0 4-Port PCI Express Adapter inserted)
• PCI (presumably) (white)
• PCI x4 (presumably) (black)

If that's correct, I presume I can't connect most SATA III controller cards into either of the standard PCI slots?

Slots: One PCIe x16 Gen 2; one PCIe x16 Gen 2 (wired x4); one PCIe x1; one PCI. All full-length and full-height per PCIe specification

Looks to me like you've got a vacant PCIe slot which should take a PCIe SATA interface card just fine. This is the bottom-most (left-most in the photo below) black slot.

[King Mustard]

Ah, the long, black one (lol) is PCIe and not PCI x4?

Fantastic - thank you!

I'll grab a PCIe-based SATA controller card.

[DanceswithUnix]

The other alternative is a "SATA Port multiplier". Takes one SATA in, splits it into maybe 5 sata ports. I imagine Chia farmers will be buying them atm though.