how to add drives to B746?

Marcel

Just bought a powerspec B746. I am new with this. I found SATA data connections on the motherboard, no problem. But where are the power connections? I see a few cables at the bottom...

Ian

Greetings. The extra power cables should be secured / tied up and be labelled as SATA. You can trace them from the power supply itself. Here is our guide on how to find the extra drive bays: https://community.microcenter.com/kb/articles/119-how-to-locate-the-additional-drive-bays-in-a-lian-li-atx-205-case

Keep in mind you will need a SATA cable to connect from the drive to the motherboard.

jeff78_9

What's the maximum additional solid state storage that can be installed? Is this reasonably easy to DIY? Can you recommend a product? Turns out that the 1.0TB that comes with the B746 isn't enough. Another 1.0 TB would be great...

TSKyleH

https://community.microcenter.com/discussion/comment/33985#Comment_33985

Greetings @jeff78_9 the B746 uses the ATX 205 case, and appears to have two 2.5 inch mounting points, as well as a tray for 3.5 drives. This would be a total of 4 mountable drives. The motherboard itself supports several Sata connectors and you would only lose one of them with the m2 already installed. So you should be safe to utilize all four mounting points if needed. There isn't a restriction to the size of the drive itself so you can use a 2tb, or even 4tb.

jeff78_9

That's great... any products you can recommend? And any on-line resources for DIYers? Assuming you think this is reasonable as a DIY?

Thanks!

TS_JosephF

It really depends on the capacity you are looking for or what your budget is.

A couple 1 TB SSDs I would recommend are:

https://www.microcenter.com/product/617875/inland-premium-1tb-ssd-sata-30-6-gbps-25-inch-7mm-3d-qlc-nand-internal-solid-state-drive

https://www.microcenter.com/product/501993/crucial-mx500-1tb-ssd-3d-tlc-nand-sata-iii-6gb-s-25-internal-solid-state-drive

https://www.microcenter.com/product/632085/samsung-870-evo-1tb-ssd-3-bit-mlc-v-nand-sata-iii-6gb-s-25-internal-solid-state-drive

If you are looking for a HDD then I would go with Seagate brand. If you just want more storage and do not need high read/write speeds then this would be ideal:

https://www.microcenter.com/product/600551/seagate-barracuda-2tb-7200rpm-sata-iii-6gb-s-35-internal-hard-drive

As far as online resources, the case manual should be all you need. You can find that here.

jeff78_9

All three of the links go to "404, page not found." Can you re-send? Also, is there a 2 TB option (may be cost-prohibitive but worth a look).

Thanks!

TS_JosephF

That is odd, the links seem to be working for me.

You can go to microcenter.com and enter the SKU numbers to see the items:

062802

683888

216952

For 2 TB drives, we have quite a few to choose from. You can view the prices and different brands/models here:

https://www.microcenter.com/search/search_results.aspx?Ntk=all&sortby=match&N=4294945779+4294818519+4294820270+668&myStore=true

You can change your store at the top of the site to which ever location is closest to you. If you have problems with this link, you can use the filters on our website to view the same results. I just selected Products - Computer Parts - Internal SSDs. Then on the left check the box for 2.5" Form Factor and you can select 2 TB to 2.9 TB for the capacity.

Samsung is going to be the best quality so it will be priced higher than others. I personally don't have a problem with Inland drives simply because of how easy it is to use the warranty in the event it stops working.

jeff78_9

Picked up the Samsung 870 EVO SATA 2.5", 2TB, to install myself, but have run into trouble. Couldn't find the mounting screws on the 2.5" mounts, and the chat-line person tells me that the screws "aren't included" with the Lancool 205, but the case manual you connected me with at https://lian-li.com/downloads/LANCOOL_205_User_Manual.pdf says there should be 25 of them (Hardware List "a"), seems they'd be sitting in those mounts. Second problem is that I can't seem to dislodge the cables--is further disassembly required than both side-panels, and the front panel? Something is hanging the cables up next to the power supply.

But if I really need to go back to Micro Center to buy four of these screws, I'm stuck anyway. How do I specify the screws I need?

jeff78_9

In addition to my question from yesterday-- is it legitimate to just ziptie or velcro the SSD back there, and skip the screws? Then my only problem would be dislodging the cables. Trying to avoid dropping the computer off at Micro when I have a deadline I'm dealing with.

Ian

https://community.microcenter.com/discussion/comment/34076#Comment_34076

Greetings, here is what we have about the case and locating the drives:

https://community.microcenter.com/discussion/2868/tech-article-how-to-locate-the-additional-drive-bays-in-a-lian-li-atx-205-case

While using screws / built in mounting is recommended, you can use velcro, adhesive, etc, if necessary, it won't effect the drives themselves as long as they get connected properly with the other cables.