I recently purchased the SFF (small form factor) HP EliteDesk. These are among the recommended business-class PCs on this site, so I’m providing a heads-up regarding some accessories you’ll need if you want to add extra internal hard drives.
Overall, I think the PC is AWESOME: very fast and very quiet, with the OS loaded on an internal SSD. I’m glad I went with SFF, because the machine is quite small, giving lots of options about where it will be located.
HOWEVER, adding 3.5” hard drives (for example, Western Digital Purple drives for video storage) to these SFF machines requires that you have two things on hand, neither of which are provided with the PC.
1) Anti-vibration mounting screws for the hard drives. These are NOT your typical mounting screws, but they are required to mount the drive properly. I don’t know why they are not included with the SFF PC. You can get a pack of 8 screws (enough to mount two hard drives) on Amazon for $11:
Amazon.com: 8X HP Hard Drive Mounting Screws 6000 6005 Pro 8000 8100 8200 Elite DC7800 7900: Computers & Accessories
The screws have a T15 Torx head on them, so you can’t use a regular screwdriver to screw them into the side of the hard drives. If you don’t have a T15 Torx driver, you can get them plenty tight with a good pair of pliers instead…just be careful not to damage the head.
2) You will also need, for each drive, a SATA3 cable with a right-angle connector on one (and only one) end of the cable (The side that plugs into the motherboard needs to be straight). There is not enough space within the PC to mount two 3.5” drives side-by-side unless the drive connections are made with right-angle connectors. (Note, if you are only adding 1 drive, you CAN use a cable with a straight connector on both ends.) Below are the straight to right-angle cables I purchased on Amazon for $6 (for a pack of 5):
Amazon.com: LINESO 9 Inch SATA III 6.0 Gbps Cable 9 Inch 5 PACK: Computers & Accessories
The 9-inch cable length was sufficient for the layout within the SFF PC. (By the way, I don’t think WD purple drives typically ship with SATA cables…mine didn’t, anyway.)
Also, note that extra power cable connectors ARE included inside the SFF PC.
I hope this post helps others avoid the implementation delays that I experienced by not having the correct mounting screws and correct SATA cables on hand when the PC arrived.
Overall, I think the PC is AWESOME: very fast and very quiet, with the OS loaded on an internal SSD. I’m glad I went with SFF, because the machine is quite small, giving lots of options about where it will be located.
HOWEVER, adding 3.5” hard drives (for example, Western Digital Purple drives for video storage) to these SFF machines requires that you have two things on hand, neither of which are provided with the PC.
1) Anti-vibration mounting screws for the hard drives. These are NOT your typical mounting screws, but they are required to mount the drive properly. I don’t know why they are not included with the SFF PC. You can get a pack of 8 screws (enough to mount two hard drives) on Amazon for $11:
Amazon.com: 8X HP Hard Drive Mounting Screws 6000 6005 Pro 8000 8100 8200 Elite DC7800 7900: Computers & Accessories
The screws have a T15 Torx head on them, so you can’t use a regular screwdriver to screw them into the side of the hard drives. If you don’t have a T15 Torx driver, you can get them plenty tight with a good pair of pliers instead…just be careful not to damage the head.
2) You will also need, for each drive, a SATA3 cable with a right-angle connector on one (and only one) end of the cable (The side that plugs into the motherboard needs to be straight). There is not enough space within the PC to mount two 3.5” drives side-by-side unless the drive connections are made with right-angle connectors. (Note, if you are only adding 1 drive, you CAN use a cable with a straight connector on both ends.) Below are the straight to right-angle cables I purchased on Amazon for $6 (for a pack of 5):
Amazon.com: LINESO 9 Inch SATA III 6.0 Gbps Cable 9 Inch 5 PACK: Computers & Accessories
The 9-inch cable length was sufficient for the layout within the SFF PC. (By the way, I don’t think WD purple drives typically ship with SATA cables…mine didn’t, anyway.)
Also, note that extra power cable connectors ARE included inside the SFF PC.
I hope this post helps others avoid the implementation delays that I experienced by not having the correct mounting screws and correct SATA cables on hand when the PC arrived.
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