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I just bought a Late 2008 Dell Optiplex 960 from my universities surplus store.
Here is a detailed Technical Guide.
I am going to purchase more RAM so it has 8GB DDR2 800MHz(which is supposedly its maximum). But am I allowed to go more than this or will it not work (for Instance if I bought 4x4GB of DDR2 800MHz RAM, would the computer not work with it?
Currently it has 250GB Hard drive in it, but i want to use it to learn about servers (I want to make my first home server to stream media and host a game server on it). But I have no idea how large of a Hard Drive I can put inside it. What limits the size of a hard drive I can put in this thing? I am hoping to put at least 500 GB in in (but preferably 750GB as I have an extra 750GB 3.5" Drive laying around my house.
user2237160
Posted 2015-05-26T17:46:33.330
Reputation: 61
So you have two question. What is the maxium amount of memory your system supports and what is the maxium size HDD your system supports? What limits the size of the HDD is the SATA controller. Determine what the SATA controller the system has then provide that infomration. – Ramhound – 2015-05-26T18:01:25.593
1Your link tells us nearly nothing about your specifications. You will have to provide us that yourself, edit your question, so we have an idea what you are dealing with. The link only displays your hardware information on your system ( auto detection ). While you might be able to use the 750GB HDD for additional storage you won't be able to use it as a system drive. – Ramhound – 2015-05-26T18:04:59.133
The computer has an external eSATA port, does this mean i can put the 750GB as the additional eSATA drive? What limits the size of the system drive? – user2237160 – 2015-05-26T18:12:26.673
The SATA controller is what limits the size of the HDD. I can tell based on the replacement parts, offered by Dell, what the limit is. You should do some research on eSATA ports. – Ramhound – 2015-05-26T18:21:49.030
like the protocol? What do you mean "you can tell based on the replacement parts"? Sometimes the manufacturer doesn't list all compatible devices, i have had personal experience where Apple lists the maximum RAM on one of their 2010 macbooks as 8GB when in actuality it could take 16GB. I just want to know what this will accept as its internal and external drives – user2237160 – 2015-05-26T18:48:16.400
@Ramhound As SATA supports 48-bit LBA, isn't the HDD size limit more than 100 petabytes? I thought it would depend more on the OS, e.g. 2.2 TB for an XP system drive. – Andrew Morton – 2015-05-26T18:51:19.190
http://superuser.com/questions/799669/do-esata-hdd-docking-stations-have-a-capacity-limit This makes me believe that both SATA and eSATA don't care. So i am curious why Dell has limits on its hard drive capacity. – user2237160 – 2015-05-26T18:52:27.050
@user2237160 - Has to do with the SATA controller not the SATA standard in general. I can tell by the parts and from general experience gather over 15 years working with computers. You seem to know enough, simply enough test, hook the drive to the computer and attempt to boot it. – Ramhound – 2015-05-26T18:55:31.213
@user2237160 The chance of finding out if the computer will work with more than 8 GB of RAM are the same as someone who's tried it with the exact same computer happening upon this thread. Searching for "optiplex 960 maximum ram" suggests not. – Andrew Morton – 2015-05-26T19:16:07.043
@AndrewMorton okay, so no go on the RAM probably, but the larger hard drive should be fine? I will be running Ubuntu Server 14.04.2 64 bit – user2237160 – 2015-05-26T19:20:53.447
@user2237160 I expect a larger HDD would work, but I would be prepared to be disappointed. Depending on the operating system, you might need to avoid 4 KB sector drives. If you get a 2.5" drive (possibly with a 3.5"-to-2.5" adapter if the case requires that) and it doesn't work then you could get an external drive caddy and put it in that to use on another computer. (You can of course get external 3.5" drive caddies.)
– Andrew Morton – 2015-05-26T19:28:08.103i would only be putting a 3.5" drive in it. What did you mean by getting an external drive caddy? Can i still use the eSATA port on the computer with any size HDD? – user2237160 – 2015-05-26T19:33:43.303
@user2237160 Re: caddy - if it turns out that the drive doesn't work in the computer, then you could still use it for something else if it was in a caddy - just perhaps not with that computer. – Andrew Morton – 2015-05-26T19:41:23.980
got, it, i just wanted to know if the external eSATA had the same limitations as the internal HDD (if any limitations existed). – user2237160 – 2015-05-26T20:25:17.383