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.

Link

  • Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafeEnglish
    1·
    2 days ago

    I use a similar Dell Optiplex 7000 series.

    It boots from the NVME, with an 8TB 3.5 disc for data, and a 500GB SD for my VMs. (Since spinning disks can idle much lower than SSD, getting my always-on VMs off the big drive lets it idle, with the SSD peak power being lower than the peak of spinning disk Adding the SSD increased net power slightly).

    I use a splitter on the 12v power line for both of the drives. It’s fine.

    This box only has an 80w power supply, and with both those drives hooked up it draws 20w at idle, and peaks at 70w when converting multiple videos simultaneously.

    The manuall tells you what you can do without voiding the warranty.

    Edit: Given it’s age, I’d pull the CPU cooler and replace the paste. It’s likely hardened by now. Mine was randomly rebooting because the cpu would overheat. Replaced the thermal paste and its been rock solid since.