Dell Optiplex 9020 SFF: number of drive bays & size of drives

Sybertiger

Known around here
Joined
Jun 30, 2018
Messages
4,539
Reaction score
13,069
Location
Orlando
  1. Not an exhaustive search but at first glance the specs for the 9020 SFF it appears to support one 3.5" or two 2.5" drives. Is that correct?
  2. Are all or most WD purple drives 3.5"?
  3. Is mounting a SSD plus a WD purple drive overkill when using the computer as a dedicated Blue Iris server?...because BI loads into 4GB RAM and really doesn't need to access the HD once application is loaded?
The reason I'm asking is because I have a 256GB SSD drive lying around and I like when the computer needs to reboot that it does so quickly. Maybe an HP EliteDesk 800 is a better pick?
 

SouthernYankee

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Feb 15, 2018
Messages
5,170
Reaction score
5,320
Location
Houston Tx
An SSD and a WD purple drive is not over kill. it is what is recommend for Blue Iris setup. A 120 GB SSD is more than enough. The SSD is for the windows os and the BI program and database. The WD purple if for the BI video. The size of the WD drive is dependent of the number of cameras, bit rate, frame rate, and number of days recording, continous, or event recording. Bigger is always better.

I use a 4 TB drive for 9 cameras for a month. But I have a very low frame rate
 

Sybertiger

Known around here
Joined
Jun 30, 2018
Messages
4,539
Reaction score
13,069
Location
Orlando
For question #1, there is no doubt that the cabinet only supports one 3.5" HDD plus the DVD. However, a couple of YouTube videos show two methods of adding a 2.5" SSD in addition to a WD purple 3.5" drive.

1. Replace the DVD with the SSD using an aftermarker carrier as shown HERE. There's a third SATA port on the MB so you really don't have to give up your DVD.
2. Mount the SSD on top of the 3.5" HDD as shown HERE.
 

Sybertiger

Known around here
Joined
Jun 30, 2018
Messages
4,539
Reaction score
13,069
Location
Orlando
An SSD and a WD purple drive is not over kill. it is what is recommend for Blue Iris setup. A 120 GB SSD is more than enough. The SSD is for the windows os and the BI program and database. The WD purple if for the BI video. The size of the WD drive is dependent of the number of cameras, bit rate, frame rate, and number of days recording, continous, or event recording. Bigger is always better.

I use a 4 TB drive for 9 cameras for a month. But I have a very low frame rate
Thanks...it would appear that others are also using a SSD plus the purple HDD so that answers question #3.
 
Top