Question Hard drive expansion for home PC

[ShaQBlogs]

I am looking to add additional Hard Drives for my home PC.
My mobo SATA ports are all used up. Mobo is ASUS prime b560 plus.

What are my options?

 

[Lafong]

PRIME B560-PLUS - Tech Specs｜Motherboards｜ASUS Global

PRIME B560-PLUS Intel® B560 (LGA 1200) ATX motherboard features PCIe 4.0 support with SafeSlot core+, two M.2 slots with one flexible M.2 heatsink, USB 3.2 Gen 2, Thunderbolt⢠4 support and Intel® 1 Gb Ethernet. Prime B560-PLUS caters to daily users and all builders looking for well-rounded...

www.asus.com

The board has two M.2 ports.

Use them...or replace one of the SATA drives with a larger SATA drive.

 

[ShaQBlogs]

PRIME B560-PLUS - Tech Specs｜Motherboards｜ASUS Global

PRIME B560-PLUS Intel® B560 (LGA 1200) ATX motherboard features PCIe 4.0 support with SafeSlot core+, two M.2 slots with one flexible M.2 heatsink, USB 3.2 Gen 2, Thunderbolt⢠4 support and Intel® 1 Gb Ethernet. Prime B560-PLUS caters to daily users and all builders looking for well-rounded...

www.asus.com

The board has two M.2 ports.

Use them...or replace one of the SATA drives with a larger SATA drive.

M.2 ports are also used up. What other options do I have?

I just want to add more SATA hard drives, not replace current ones with larger sizes. Most of my current ones are WD black and I got it cheap. Now prices are through the roof.

 

[Lafong]

M.2 ports are also used up. What other options do I have?

I just want to add more SATA hard drives, not replace current ones with larger sizes. Most of my current ones are WD black and I got it cheap. Now prices are through the roof.

If all internal ports are occupied, it looks like you are forced to external.

That's an expense and a complication that you have to evaluate.

"NAS", network attached storage is one option. I've never dealt with it, but some here have.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network-attached_storage

You can hang external drives off a USB port on your case, but your performance will suffer significantly. Maybe you don't care about that...compared to the cost of replacing an internal drive.

 

[ShaQBlogs]

All are crappy options or too expensive.

 

[Lafong]

All are crappy options or too expensive.

OK.

Sounds like you can't do anything at all until the pain level increases to a point where you decide the alternatives are not "too expensive".

There is such a thing as file compression on hard drives. I've never played with it. Not sure how much free space that might generate. I think there is some performance penalty to pay as well.

 

[BFG-9000]

If you still have free PCIe slots then you could install an internal SATA port card to add more internal ports. Storage performance is great compared to USB, but unlike USB or motherboard headers the attached drives will not be bootable.

Or a PCIe M.2 card adapter is in many cases bootable.

 

[Bob.B]

I am looking to add additional Hard Drives for my home PC.
My mobo SATA ports are all used up. Mobo is ASUS prime b560 plus.

What are my options?

Put 'sata expansion card' into google see if that works for you.

 

[ShaQBlogs]

If you still have free PCIe slots then you could install an internal SATA port card to add more internal ports. Storage performance is great compared to USB, but unlike USB or motherboard headers the attached drives will not be bootable.

Or a PCIe M.2 card adapter is in many cases bootable.

s in india prices alw

Yeaaa... I love you guys!

This is exactly what i was looking for!! I did some quick reading and search. My hard drives do not run in parallel most of the time. So a PCIe 3.0 should work for me. So i think I will get a 4 port or 6 port PCIe card.

How reliable are these? Any risks of crashes?

 

[USAFRet]

I am looking to add additional Hard Drives for my home PC.
My mobo SATA ports are all used up. Mobo is ASUS prime b560 plus.

What are my options?

Why not just increase the size of a couple you have now?
Replace the smallest ones with larger.

What size/type drives do you have now?

 

[sonofjesse]

This seems like an easier solution you take out the smaller drive (I'll make up numbers) 1TB drive and replace with a 4TB. You just gained 3TB of space.

Don't make it more complicated than it is.

Increasing drive storage is something I'm sure 100's of people do a day.