How Many Hard drives in your PC

[Grotesque Subhuman]

2 1TB M.2
12TB HDD
10TB HDD
6TB HDD

 

[Wirko]

PATA cables were always elegant to manage. The way they flowed in systematic and predictable manner, like waterfalls of silver!

Except when they didn't, and you had to twist them in unsightly ways. Using cable ties was impossible if you wanted to make a good impression. Specialised ties or clips for flat cables were probably available but I never had them.

 

[lexluthermiester]

When building my new PC last week I stuck in 2 x SSD m."s and 3 x SSD's
My question is how many you guys put in. Only reason I'm asking is when building PC's sometimes I struggle with the cables and when you watch these guys for example on YouTube there cases look so neat but when looking closer most of the time they only install one Hard Drive so its easy to look good

Currently have 3 SSDs and 3 HDDs in my main daily driver. Not typical but they serve they're purpose.

 

[Aken Bosch]

4 x NVME's, 3 SATA SSD's and one SATA HDD which keeps working even if I'm not using it anymore.

 

[Shihab]

Except when they didn't, and you had to twist them in unsightly ways. Using cable ties was impossible if you wanted to make a good impression. Specialised ties or clips for flat cables were probably available but I never had them.

That was a joke, btw...

Having more than 2 ide devices in a single case was a nighmare. The death of those pins and ribbons is one thing I'll rever SATA for forever!

 

[Princess Garnet]

Currently, I have four storage drives, two of which are hard drives.

(M2) 2x 2 TB NVMe SSDs - OS, applications, games, data, and scratch
(SATA) 1x 5 TB HDD - games
(SATA) 1x 8 TB HDD - files (storage)

There's also another 8 TB drive (same model) in an external enclosure for backup.

I ultimately want to consolidate down to three drives, or at least replace the 5 TB hard drive with an SSD in the interim, but neither is happening until price/capacity is much higher than it is now. I'm reasonably happy with it though. It was three or four hard drives and a single SSD (first got in late 2012) for the longest time so it's better than it used to be.

I do also have other SSDs and HDDs (some of which are light on use as they were quickly outgrown) but those are all completely out of use. I really should do something with them, like sell them, as some of them (1 TB SSD, a pair of 4 TB HDDs) still feel large enough to be relevant these days and are being wasted sitting around.

 

[igormp]

On my main desktop:
1x 1TB NVMe as my root disk.
1x 4TB NVMe for my home storage.
1x 4TB + 1x 1TB HDDs for random crap.
1x 128GB 2.5" SSD with a really old Windows install that I spin up as a VM every year or so.

Also have an Orange Pi as a "NAS" with a 256GB 2.5" SSD on a USB enclosure + an ASM1166 with 5x 2TB 2.5" SSDs for 8TB of usable storage.

I don't think my laptops/2nd desktop and other SBCs are relevant to mention since they only have 1 or 2 storage peripherals attached to them.

 

[SirKeldon]

• Work laptop: 1 x 1TB - NVMe, 1 x 2TB - SATA SSD via USB-c case
• Gaming rig: 2 x 1TB - NVMe, 1 x 2TB - SATA SSD
• NAS system: 2 x 2.5" 2TB HDD in RAID1
  

 

[Wirko]

That was a joke, btw...

Having more than 2 ide devices in a single case was a nighmare. The death of those pins and ribbons is one thing I'll rever SATA for forever!

How do you bend a SATA data cable the way you want it? No way! They all have that sort of annoying spring-like flexibility and elasticity that keeps you from shaping them. Perhaps a heat gun would be helpful here (or a hair dryer).

 

[Shihab]

How do you bend a SATA data cable the way you want it? No way! They all have that sort of annoying spring-like flexibility and elasticity that keeps you from shaping them. Perhaps a heat gun would be helpful here (or a hair dryer).

Mobius strips. Without the silly dots.

 

[DirtyDingusMcgee]

5.......2 nvme ssd, 2 sata ssd, 1 large sata hdd

This is the least amount of drives I've had in one in a while, but don't really have any need for raid in this one.

 

[steamrick]

I have 3 going on 4 NVMe SSDs in my PC - I prefer to go for capacity over quantity.

- 1x Optane P4800X 1.5TB
- 1x KIOXIA CD6-R 7.68TB
- 1x Micron 9200 Eco 11TB
- 1x Micron 7400 Pro 3.84TB (the previous boot drive before optane - I'm not yet sure if it'll go in here or elsewhere)

With 3x u.2 and 1x m.2 22110 come some compatibility challenges...

There are no more SATA drives in my desktop rig - I had 2x Crucial MX500 2TB in my rig, but the Kioxia replaced them early 2023 and now they're in my home server instead. The home server has these in total:
- my second Micron 7400 Pro 3.84TB for boot storage and VMs
- 2x Micron 5210 ION 7.68TB SATA SSDs that are the only QLC NAND storage I (currently) own for my file server
- 2x Crucial MX500 2TB as mentioned to backup the C drive of my desktop and laptop without needing to have spinning rust online

The only HDDs I still have in use are for backup purposes. This is a 4x 14TB NAS, a 1x 18TB NAS at my parents place that I access through VPN and 3x 8TB drives for offline backups.

Including my laptop and some odds and ends, that puts me at 52.5 TB of SSD and 98TB of HDD in total.
At this point, I might need to consider it an addiction. Though if I buy another drive this year I'll have absolutely no way of justifying it because I have plenty of free storage capacity to go around ATM. These enterprise drives don't really slow down even when they're nearly full.

 

[Zach_01]

When building my new PC last week I stuck in 2 x SSD m."s and 3 x SSD's
My question is how many you guys put in. Only reason I'm asking is when building PC's sometimes I struggle with the cables and when you watch these guys for example on YouTube there cases look so neat but when looking closer most of the time they only install one Hard Drive so its easy to look good

3xNVMe (2TB + 1TB + 512GB)
2xSATA SSD (2x1TB)

4.5TB of available space

You know, a lot of cases today have hidden places and compartments for drives. Even if its the rusty 3.5" ones.
...and cable management options so the visible side is as clean as possible.

For example my case offers places at the back for 6x2.5" or 3x3.5" drives.

 

[theFOoL]

5! 3 3.5 and 2 2.5

​

 

[DaemonForce]

Zero. The day there's finally a case for adding one of these to my workstation or server, you bet I'm grabbing two.

For now, 240GB M.2 + 120GB sata on the workstation

16GB chipdisk + 4TB Whitelabel HDD + 16TB Toshiba HDD in the eMachines SFF

Rack is a circus this month getting ready for another migration and finally retiring a bunch of HDDs
This topic just reminded me I have an idea for reflashing a WarpDrive and need to get that done soon™

If nothing else I can at least keep the disks in the systems where they properly belong...

 

[AusWolf]

One in my PC, and I don't know how many in enclosures outside the PC. At least 4 or 5 I'd say.

 

[neatfeatguy]

When building my new PC last week I stuck in 2 x SSD m."s and 3 x SSD's
My question is how many you guys put in. Only reason I'm asking is when building PC's sometimes I struggle with the cables and when you watch these guys for example on YouTube there cases look so neat but when looking closer most of the time they only install one Hard Drive so its easy to look good

It also depends on the case.

My HAF XB EVO cases, two front hotswap gives you easy access and a spot for 2 more HDDs/SSDs under the MB - 90% of the cabling was hidden under the board so things always look pretty clean and tidy in it.

The Titan Silent 2 that I just got and setup, that's a different story. I currently have 4 spin drives, 1 2.5" SSD and a NVMe installed. Lots more cabling, a lot harder to keep it neat. Let's also not forget that I have 2 ODDs installed as well. Lots of cables. I'm looking to add a fifth spin drive sometime down the road for a complete backup of everything. Right now I've got backups scattered across 4 hard drives in different computers and one that's not even installed in any computer (sits quietly, alone in a safe spot).

 

[Wirko]

The day there's finally a case for adding one of these to my workstation or server, you bet I'm grabbing two.

??? It almost looks like a NAS that fits in a 5.25 drive bay, is that what it is? What data connection does it have?

 

[DaemonForce]

??? It almost looks like a NAS that fits in a 5.25 drive bay, is that what it is? What data connection does it have?

The 5.25" device is the BP-M28NVME525. It features a SlimSAS 4i x4 interface.

It may be best paired with any SlimSAS SFF-8654 or similar 8i adapter.

 

[paulwarden]

in my present system i have 1 2tb nvme and 1 1tb nvme and a 500gb nvme in my old system there is 2 TB NVME 2 1 TB SSD and a 2 tb hdd

 

[Dirt Chip]

I have 5 hdd\ssd and 2 nvme.
You sure to have a mess, it depends on the case how well you can tide it.
As my case is all noise dampening with no windows, I don't care how it looks as long as it doesn't interrupt the airflow.

 

[PierreJG]

My current pc is an I5 3340 which is mainly used for work. She has 1 ssd + x 5 hdd's. Ranging from 2tb-4tb in size. My ssd is 256gb. I actually sourced a very old case for this build. Most of the time people don't need that much hdd space (not ssd) for a build but I am a web developer and have to do daily/weekly backups and that would just be a waste of an ssd if all I do is download backup files from my server.

 

[Caring1]

Only one "Hard drive" being an NVMe, and no cable to make it look messy.

 

[R00kie]

2 in my case (1TB and 4TB NVMe)
1 4TB HDD in an enclosure as cold storage (technically a backup for the 4TB drive, had a Toshiba 4TB drive die on me suddenly, so don't want a repeat of that)
and a 4TB Sata SSD attached to my router as network storage for movies, TV shows for my plex server
the day when I pulled all the SATA drives out of my case was the happiest day of my life, no more trailing data or power cables.

 

[Kovoet]

I wish I could get single short cables for my Corsair 850X shift with the micro fitting. I think it's time I started doing my own cables. Guy's thanks so much for the replies. Funny when I build or repair electric bikes I find it so easy to do the cables.