Installing 3 Hard Drives in a Dell XPS 8300 is possible

[Corey Dunnett]

I had asked to one of the person from Dell support about the number of SATA drives that can be connected to the Dell XPS 8300. The answer was 2 SATA hard disks can be connected to this but I was able to successfully install 3 hard drives on it. It also has 4 SATA ports on it which means you can install more than 2 SATA hard drives. If you don’t have CD/DVD ROMS then you can utilize all the 4 ports. Though port for 3rd SATA doesn’t look perfect but you can still slide your hard disk inside. What do you guys think about the 3rd slot for the hard disk?

[JErastus]

I had Dell XPS 420 before though its design was different than that of the Dell XPS 8300. It was bigger in size and you could easily fit more than 2 hard drives in it. It had 2 proper slots for SATA hard drives. As in Dell XPS 8300 it has 3rd slot but it doesn’t look so convenient to fit SATA in it. First 2 ports which are labeled as SATA 0 and SATA 1 are SATA 3.0 and you can connect drive of higher speed of 6 gbps. Other two ports are slow in comparison to first two ports. SATA 2 and SATA 3 are of SATA 2.0 speed and you can have drive connected of speed of 3gbps.

[fflygirl]

I have also just bought the Dell XPS 8300. Though the first two SATA ports are of faster speed that is SATA 3.0, the hard drive that I received with it supports only 3gbps speed that is SATA 2.0. so it doesn’t mean if you buy Dell XPS 8300 for faster speed than you will be able to actually use it unless your hard drive support it. If your drive doesn’t support the SATA 3.0 then you will probably have to replace your hard disk with new one. So It will be better to check the hard drive before buying the Dell XPS 8300.

[Al Kaholic]

It looks like the 3rd port is flex port and you can add SSD in it. As in above comment one user has said that he has installed SATA drive in it so if that is possible than I can also put SSD in it because it uses same drive bracket. I have bought new Dell XPS 8300 with 2 500 GB RAID and no hard disk. Now I am trying to buy 240gb Kingston HyperX ssd for my same machine. I will use it as a boot drive.

[Forrest Ranger]

I have just bought new pc and I have connected the flex bay to the USB 3.0 card. I was looking to buy 120 GB SSD drive for using it as boot drive. I am also going to set RAID for connecting two 500 GB drives on it. Can you give me any other option for it?

[Mayoor]

If you are using SSD than you can just keep your SSD lying into your cabinet. They will not have any problems like HDDs have if not screwed properly to the cabinet, so your SSD will not need any screwing. SSDs are also smaller in size about 2.5” so they can be fitted in any empty place in your cabinet.
The USB 3.0 interface card is on the back side of the system. The flex bay just has the cable from your interface card and USB 3.0 jack. If you are creative enough then you can move that USB 3.0 port to another empty location in your cabinet.

[Al Kaholic]

Well I have some question about how to install HyperX SSD because I have already install it.

• After installing the SSD I want to set it as Boot drive can make that through the BIOS settings?
• I have 2x 500gb HDDs with RAID 0 configuration. Will setting this SSD as boot drive will make any changes to my HDD configuration? i want to use them as storage only without any operating system in it.
• I have purchased windows 7 DVD from DELL can I use it to install system in my SSD?

[Lisa Boney]

Here are the answers for your questions:

1. You can never set any boot drive from BIOS setting , you are only allowed to select the boot device in BIOS.
2. Installing new system on your SSD will not harm RAID 0 configuration . For doing that you will have to select the SSD while installing Windows and not the option “DISK” as it is the RAID 0 drive that you have.
3. Yes the DVD that you have purchased is OEM DVD and can be used to install the system on your SSD.