I purchased Lenovo M92P SFF, I later came to know it can only fit one harddrive.
Has anyone tried installing two drives? Your help is much appreciated.
Thanks
These two threads may be of help:
Thinkcenter-m83-SFF-Adding-a-2.5-hard-drive
M92p-SFF-Power-for-a-second-drive
and while I couldn't find a M92p thread with the 4XF0F33440 bracket used, the cases used for M83 and M93p are very similar if not the same as yours.
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Your feedback helps us improve!These two threads may be of help:
Thinkcenter-m83-SFF-Adding-a-2.5-hard-drive
M92p-SFF-Power-for-a-second-drive
and while I couldn't find a M92p thread with the 4XF0F33440 bracket used, the cases used for M83 and M93p are very similar if not the same as yours.
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Your feedback helps us improve!Hi BiggAl,
I will go through the therads you have listed below.
I cannot even find a spare power cable for the additional hard drive. Do we need to buy additinal accessories to fit in mSata SSD's?
I will check if bracket is compatible.
Thanks for your reply.
Just in passing have you considered simply using an external USB 3.0 drive? They're SATA3 drives inside of a USB 3.0 enclosure and perform very well. Of course they make wonderful backup devices, but I see no reason you couldn't just use one as if it were an internal drive.
They're also priced very reasonably in 2TB sizes. And doesn't need a PSU cable, since it plugs into the wall and thus supplies its own power.
Just a thought, if you can't resolve trying to add a second internal drive.
I have upgraded my M92p SFF adding a 250GB Samsung 860 EVO, the difference in boot speeds / restarts is absolutely incredible, with quite some optimizing / tweaking I got my PC performing a full restart in slightly less than 18 seconds (timed with my smartphone just for curiosity reasons).
I used a SATA Y-splitter cable, in case anyone is wondering - I didn't want to "sacrifice" the DVD. I connected the SSD and the HDD with the Y-splitter cable, because they are the two lowest power-consuming devices.
-> I needed to ask a question, is there a limit in HDD size, just in case -for whatever reason- one wants to boot from HDD? I mean, if one installs a 3TB or 4TB or 10TB drive, will they have issues booting up or is it absolutely fine?
I am using the computer's "original" 500GB WD Blue HDD as my secondary drive now, storing videos, music, backups etc, and I may have to install a larger size within a few months - inevitably I am using the SATA II port but the HDD is still quite fast, no complaints at all.
P.S. It's a shame Lenovo didn't offer 2 SATA III motherboard ports, but alright, no big harm.
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P.S. It's a shame Lenovo didn't offer 2 SATA III motherboard ports, but alright, no big harm.
It's a shame Intel's Q77 'Business class' Chipset provides only 2x SATA III, but 4x SATA II ports.
My M92p SFF (3218) has 1X SATA III, 1x SATA II, 1xSATA I & 1x eSata (what speeds does the latter provide, plus, what can one connect there?). The particular chipset I have is recognised simply as "Intel Q77" by Speccy, no specific model (Express or anything), just "Q77". Whereas CNET states for my very own model "Intel Q77 Express". Kind of odd.
In addition to the above, is it possible to have a valid answer to my other question please ->
-> I needed to ask a question, is there a limit in HDD size, just in case -for whatever reason- one wants to boot from HDD? I mean, if one installs a 3TB or 4TB or 10TB (always 3.5") drive, will they have issues booting up or is it absolutely fine?
Many thanks in advance! :)
I stand corrected, I didn't know the SFF only has 1x SATA III port while the Tower has 2x. To my mind, it doesn't make economic sense to have two Motherboards with the same components and only a slight difference in port type. On the tower, the eSATA port is SATA II speed. I believe the max HDD size is mostly a function of the OS.
Update: I've had the optical drive connected to the eSATA port, and works for normal operation, however I could not boot a CD/DVD with it connected there. To update the BIOS using the CD ISO method, I had to move it to a regular SATA port, no big deal, I only do that ~2x a year.
I also thought the same when you mentioned the M92p Tower has 2x SATA III & more SATA II ports. It's kind of odd, they should give the SFF version at least another SATA III port - but my HDD in the SATA II port works just fine, the difference in speed reduction is actually very minimal - barely noticable.
As for the HDD size, it stands to reason then one could fit at least a 2TB unit and still be fine - I saw yesterday refurbished M92p SFF computers being sold with 2TB HDD drives. This is actually where my question originated, from these ads.
So the eSata port should be SATA II speed in my PC as well, it's the only port left unused, the SATA III, II & I are being used by the SSD, HDD and DVD respectively at the moment.
If anyone needs help on how I mounted the SSD, I could always provide information - it is easy enough, and there is even room for a second SSD as a matter of fact without removing the HDD.
The wiring is the biggest problem, as soon as the Y-splitter cable is used, one has to re-organize where the wires go, they do obstruct the airflow from the intake fan quite a bit. If needing a second SSD, meaning getting another SATA Y-splitter, then things would become even trickier in this respect.
Unless, of course, the PSU is replaced with a unit offering 4 SATA connections; then things become fairly easier in terms of re-organizing the wires in the case. Either solution works just fine.
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If anyone needs help on how I mounted the SSD, I could always provide information - it is easy enough, and there is even room for a second SSD as a matter of fact without removing the HDD.
Please, detailed SSD mounting information could help all owners of this generation of SFF case, and perhaps others. Smaller photos can be easily uploaded using the 'Photos' button above, and can help more than just words.
