Dell DCDO, 710 H2C About Serial ATA Drives, General Drive Installation Guidelines, system board

system board.

NOTE: The 5.25-inch Media Card Reader/floppy drive carrier is not interchangeable with the hard drive carrier.

1 CD/DVD drive bays (4) 2 floppy drive/media card reader 3 hard-drive bays (4)

About Serial ATA Drives

Your computer supports up to four serial ATA hard drives and two serial ATA optical drives. Serial ATA drives provide the following benefits by transferring data using serial technology and flexible cables that are thinner and longer than IDE cables:

Improved cable routing facilitates more efficient airflow inside the chassis.

Compact cable connectors save space on the system board and on the hard drive, allowing for more efficient utilization of space inside the chassis.

General Drive Installation Guidelines

The system board does not differentiate between HDD and "other" SATA ports. SATA HDD drives are connected to the same SATA ports as all other SATA based devices in the system including the optical drives. SATA hard drives should be attached to the connectors labeled SATA beginning with SATA port 0. When adding additional SATA devices to the system, use the first available SATA port following the last SATA HDD. IDE CD/DVD drives should be connected to the connectors labeled "IDE."

When connecting a SATA cable, hold the cable by the connector at each end and press firmly into the connector. When disconnecting a SATA cable, hold the cable by the connector at each end and pull until the connector detaches.