Do Dell Optiplex series desktop and sff (or maybe usff) have enough room to hold an extra ssd?

Question

Does anyone have experience adding an SSD into a Dell Optiplex desktop (or sff, or usff)?
Is there enough room, assuming you already have a main HDD?

Answer 1

Small Form Factor cases (from any manufacturer) generally only have room for a single hard drive.



One of my SFF Dells (not an Optiplex) appears to use a normal-size DVD drive. I suppose it would be possible to remove that, and use the space for a SSD drive.



You're going to have to be creative.

Answer 2

Generally an sff only has enough room for the items that come with. A full size disk top will have room for additional drives. I have had more than one case that did not have room for a drive, but I got it in anyways (sideways, duct tape, setting on a foam block, etc.).



You also have the option of just going with an external USB ssd. They work just as well as internal ones. In fact, they ARE an internal drive just in a different box. I have one that I purchased for my laptop and then just some "sticky mounts" to attach it to the top of the laptop. Travels around with the laptop just fine and works as well as an internal drive. Plus if I ever change computers, I just unplug the drive and move it over....



But if you want to add more devices into a computer, go with a full size tower. It is designed for that. The others are not.

Answer 3

You don't have room for an ssd in a slim tower, that's one of the reasons you should get a real desktop. You could put it in an external usb 3.0 enclosure and use it like that, if you don't have usb 3.0, it'll be slower than your hard drive. You could, however, replace the hard drive with an ssd.

EDIT: Also, you could put the ssd outside the computer, if you have a long enough sata cable, but you probably don't have any extra slots on your motherboard.