Precision 3520 Storage

Hello all,

Ive tried looking using Bing to find out some info on this, but I am still not sure.

Im wondering if its possible to have both a NVMe SSD and a 2.5" HDD or SSD in this machine. Everything Ive seen, including the owners manual seems to suggest that it can only be one or the other. However, going by the placement of a HDD when its on its own seems to suggest that it may be possible as it will be at least partially under the battery, which makes me think the HDD would be either situated under where the SSD is, or beside it.

Does anyone here know about this for sure?

I have to say though, I am loving this new machine. Its fast, faster than my M4800, and is just about as easy to work on.

 

In this case, more than likely the HDD and SDD attach to the same slot/connector on the motherboard so you would have to pick one or the other. Dell supports both SATA and NVMe connections through the M.2 connectors on systems of this era, so a SATA HDD would be attached to the M.2 connector with an adapter or interposer.

So I'd say, check the motherboard and see if it even has multiple drive connectors. There is no way that you will be attaching two drives to one connector.

[Edit]
From a cursory glance at a motherboard photo on eBay, it looks like this system does indeed just have a single M.2 connector for storage.

 

I have the latitude 5580 which is uses the same chassis and parts as the precision 3520.
If you are not afraid of modding you can physically fit a sata drive and nvme at the same time, it is possible because there is no sata connector on the motherboard but it uses an optional sata adaptor that plugs in just around the cmos battery.

P/N: 6NVFT
https://www.parts-people.com/index.php?action=item&id=27165

You can not by size fit them both nvme and 2.5 ssd beside each other because then you will not be able to close the bottom panel.
But there's a catch, 2.5 ssd's are mostly empty room inside, like at most the size of the board inside is 1/3'rd the size of the housing.
If you open up the 2.5 ssd and strip the housing and attach the board naked with some double sided tape in the battery bay it can be done.

This will work even if you have the bigger battery that covers up the 2.5 bay because the ssd motherboard is so small it will fit in that area.
I have seen some people do this, I just cant find the link atm.
The difficult bit is to select an ssd with a small board and do you have the large or small battery?

 

Ok, so disregard my post above, there are indeed two connectors for drives.
The idea of removing a SATA SSD from its enclosure and attaching it to the SATA port seems to be the way to go. You would just have to find someplace in the system to fit it securely.

 

Thanks for your replies. I'm sorry it took so long for me to get back to you both. Had a lot of things going on.

That seems like a viable solution, with mounting an SSD like that under the battery. I'll have to look and see if I can find an SSD with a small board somehow.

 

To give an idea of what might work:
The samsung 860 pro and 870 evo is quite small up to 1TB, over this and the pcb will be twice the size.




wd blue 250GB, little bigger than samsung pcb
Sata connector is top mounted adding height


SK hynix gold s31 1TB, kind of same size as samsung pcb, maybe wider but thicker.




Crucial MX500 ...im guessing its too big


Ironwolf 110 way to big, seem to use same pcb for all storage spec by just leaving empty pads

 

Thank you very much for that info. I wasn't sure what I would have to search to find the relevant information.