Precision M6500 three HDDs without RAID?

Can the M6500 run three hard drives (in the two internal bays and one in the optical/media bay) without needing a RAID setup? Dell.com doesn't seem to allow you to configure three drives unless some form of RAID is used.

BTW, what's the part number for the extra hard drive module/carrier that goes in the optical bay? Where's a good place to get that?

Thanks!

 

Yes it works without RAID. I have this setup running.

I don't know if Dell has any part number for the media bay caddy, or even the part at all. It's a standard slot with 9.5mm height and SATA interface. So any caddy that matches these criteria should work. I got mine from here:
2nd Hard Drive (or SSD) Caddy for DELL Precision M6400, M6500 [OBHD9-SATA-SATA-B] - $42.00 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

Edit:
You should watch out when configuring this 3 drive setup! It might be that the 3rd drive is not an HDD/SSD in the media bay but the flash module which has an extra port.

 

Thanks!

 

Does the secondary slot actually support 12.5mm drives? I haven't checked so far but it would come in handy. I'm not sure about the primary slot either but I think I've seen that this one won't support 12.5mm drives.

 

Sorry, I'm not sure if I got you right. The DVD slot in the M6500 can definitely not handle a 12.5mm drive. There might be enough room in the primary HDD slot for a 12.5mm drive, but as far as I can tell, the caddy itself isn't high enough. The same might apply to the secondary HDD slot and caddy, but I never took this caddy out.

 

The M6500 ODD is 12.7mm high, so a 12.5mm height HDD should fit. You just have to find a compatible HDD caddy. The other two HDDs are 9.5mm, while the third listed HDD is miniPCIe.

 

Yes i am running 3 HDs in my M6500 with no issues and not in any RAID config .. 1 SSD and 2 Mechanical..

I bought that caddy from NewmodeUS but i had to file the plastic bezel down to make it fit properly which was rather disappointing .. The model i ordered was the correct one, part number etc..

Other then that everything is working correctly..

 

No! The M6500 has an ODD bay of 9.5mm height. I'm sitting in front of my M6500 and have another laptop with a 12.5mm DVD drive not a meter away. So believe me, I know the difference.

Thanks for the confirmation! I had the same problem, but somebody else who ordered the same caddy told me that it fits perfectly. So I thought I just had bad luck.

 

Whoops, I was thinking about the HP 8740w (also the W701 uses 12.7mm).