this post was submitted on 07 Jan 2026
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Options to Expand Sata HDD Drives on a Lenovo Computer (lemmy.ca)
submitted 2 days ago by qwestjest78@lemmy.ca to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
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I bought a refurbished Lenovo M720s computer last summer to use as a homelab at my house. I loaded True Nas onto the internal SSD and swapped out the HDD drive that came with it for a 10tb drive. I also threw a 500gb drive in the M.2 slot to use for applications with True Nas.

All has been fine up to now. Recently though I aquired a 8tb HDD for cheap and figured I would throw it into the homelab for some extra storage. There was a extra Sata connector free on the motherboard anyway. I put in the drive and connect it, but then I realize that there is not another Sata power connector I can use for this drive. This computer makes you connect power to the drives from the motherboard and not the power supply.

So I am at a bit of a roadblock. I know I am pushing the capabilities of this little machine, but it seems silly that they give you 3 Sata ports but only 2 power ports for Sata drives. I guess they were probably intending for one of those ports to just be used for a DVD drive.

I went to a local computer store and they were not very helpful. I asked if I could use a splitter for the power port and they said I would fry my board.

Anyone know any solutions to this? I just need a way to power one more HDD. I will link the manual to the computer so it is easier to see what I am looking at.

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[–] lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yes, exactly. The shop was probably thinking of the cheap Molex ones.

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

There's also the possibility they're referring to the current draw through the mobo connector itself frying things. A couple of HDDs at 12V, 10W will be pulling almost 2A which can be a lot for some circuit board traces, but there's no great way know what the board can handle without documentation from the manufacturer or someone with relevantt engineering experience well above what a typical computer repair shop would have.

If I were OP I would just roll the dice and try it out. Its not as if old Dell office PCs are high dollar items.

[–] lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Also a good point. Speaking of, that generation Optiplex SFF had a 300W PSU as an option in the XE3 variant (basically a 7050 meant for point-of-sale use) vs the stock 180W PSU. It's plug-and-play, too. One of my Proxmox nodes runs a 7050 SFF with that PSU. It's rock solid.