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This is a question about my fanless pc, I hope someone can give me some advice on whether this motherboard can support 2 hard drives or not. I bought it from aliexpress a while ago and now I have filled up my disk. This is it except the processor is not an i5/i7 but a celeron 1.8Ghz.
I have opened the top and plugged the hard drive into the other SATA socket and it works fine . The original socket was nearest the board edge. The thing is, there is only one set of power pins so I would need to get a splitter and test it again.
The power supply to the motherboard is rated at 12 volts 3A so not sure if there is enough voltage/current to power 2 SATA hard drives OK using a splitter on the SATA power lead from the motherboard ? I suppose it might overheat with 2x disk drives attached to the lid too perhaps.
This is a question about my fanless PC, I hope someone can give me some advice on whether this motherboard can support 2 hard drives or not. I bought it from aliexpress a while ago and now I have filled up my disk. This is it except the processor is not an i5/i7 but a Celeron 1.8Ghz.
I have opened the top and plugged the hard drive into the other SATA socket and it works fine . The original socket was nearest the board edge. The thing is, there is only one set of power pins so I would need to get a splitter and test it again.
The power supply to the motherboard is rated at 12 volts 3A so not sure if there is enough voltage/current to power 2 SATA hard drives OK using a splitter on the SATA power lead from the motherboard ? I suppose it might overheat with 2x disk drives attached to the lid too perhaps.
It looks like there's only one unused SATA data socket. This means you can add only one additional drive.
SATA data cables can NOT be split. IE: One drive per socket.
Yes, the power cables can be split, (if the power supply has the extra amp capacity, and if the casing can shed the extra heat), but that's irrelevant if you don't have the extra data plug.
I suspect that the unit was designed to be expanded by only ONE additional internal drive.
If you want more data storage, go with an external USB 3 drive. They are super cheap nowadays. (Make sure it's not a much-slower USB 2).
You're other option is to get the one extra internal hard drive with larger capacity.
FYI: larger PCs with expansion slots (PCIa for example) can get expansion cards that connect to the motherboard via those slots to provide additional SATA sockets. But your pc doesn't seem to have that expand-ability.
Ok, thanks for the information. I took out the SATA data lead and left the power lead in because I thought the picture would show more easily what I was asking. I have another SATA data lead so what you seem to be saying is that IF I can find a power lead splitter I can run both drives.
The SATA disk is attached to the top of the metal case so I had to disconnect it to separate the lid from the base. I suspect I might have to use a heatsink compound to somehow attach the second disk drive to the metal for heatsink purposes, although not quite sure how to do that. May have to drill extra holes for screws in the lid to get the drive close enough to wick away some of the heat. Even then it may not be enough to keep the whole thing cool. Currently it runs very well, even if it is 40C degrees outside.
3 amps in the PS isn't much to play with. HDDs usually use around 1A during use and can spike to 1.5-2A during spinup. You probably wouldn't want to strap another drive to the case either as they can get "untouchable" hot in heavy use.
As mentioned above I'd go with an external drive with its own PS and heatsink.
I have had bad results with external disk drives - at least a USB Western Digital one dying after not too long. Maybe I did not treat it carefully enough, but at least an internal one cannot be treated badly and the risk of lost data (because it died) is going to be less. Hard disks themselves are pretty old and tested technology and is reliable, so maybe it was the way I treated the USB one.
I am trying to move towards fanless no whirring computers which presumably means a NAS storage unit is out of the question unless I make my own with some serious heatsinks on each drive.
Maybe I just get another drive and replace the one which is full. I can always open up the box and reconnect the old one if I need anything urgently.
Keep in mind that (from my experience, specifically with Western Digital, Seagate, and a few others), the USB drives are actually internal drives mounted in a casing along with a circuit board for the USB and external power supply. Open up the case and it's super easy to pull the drive if you need to.
Keep in mind that (from my experience, specifically with Western Digital, Seagate, and a few others), the USB drives are actually internal drives mounted in a casing along with a circuit board for the USB and external power supply. Open up the case and it's super easy to pull the drive if you need to.
A lot of times that's no longer the case. Many of them I've run across are doing the USB conversion directly on the drives circuit board, they no longer have a standard SATA connector.
yes, if this had been the case for this one I would have definitely seen the male/female sockets.
It is sad because it would mean their drives might be used somewhere else if it was only the USB part. I suspect that the USB part is fairly simple circutry and the damage is often done to the hadr disk.
2TB SATA SSDs have come way down in price (starting to see in the $250 range). If 2TB capacity is enough that will be fine for your PC’s power capacity. Quiet and cool too.
I don't have the answer about do you have enough power for an additional HDD, but considering it can power a i5/i7, but you have only a Celeron, I think it would have not a problem with an additional SSD. Have you though about upgrading what looks like the mSATA drive?
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