To get around this, I just loosened the screws securing the SSDs and the cable connector to get a couple of extra millimeters of clearance for the connector.
They were a perfect fit for the drive caddies I bought off of ebay, but they interfered with the Dell SATA brakout cable connector. To get the two 2.5″ SATA drives installed, I used a couple of Kingston brand 2.5″ to 3.5″ adapters. Unfortunately, I didn’t need to buy the two SATA breakout cables that I discussed in part 1 of the series, but at least I’ve got extras if I ever want to add more drives to the system.
This Dell breakout cable is very flexible and because of the built-in power connector, makes for a very clean and secure wiring job. Because of this, there is often too much pressure on the connectors and I’ve even had issues with them coming loose. In all of the custom builds I’ve done, it’s really tough to get clean SATA-power wiring because of the close proximity of the drives. It’s totally meant for this machine and keeps the wiring organized. I had a few challenges here, but I was very thankful that I kept the Dell branded SATA cable that came with the PERC H200 card. To begin, I installed my drives into the server’s normal 3.5″ mounting locations. Today, I’ll be installing the drives and completing the build. In part 4 of this series, I took a look at my new used Dell PowerEdge T110 and talked about the pros and cons about using this type of machine.