Other Help Topics :: Damn Small Machine

I bought a Damn Small machine not long ago and it is a Damn nice thing booting DSL from a pendrive just simply works.

Now I want to expand by adding a 2.5 inch HD and need to temporarily also add a CD-ROM drive in order to install another OS (Yeah, I know but be nice!!!)

Does the DSM have enough power availableto do this?

The DSL store seems to not say alot about the board, but it has a ide connector, so you should be able to get a laptop harddrive in there with an adaptor. Power might be a problem though since I can't tell if it has any molex power connectors. You would also need a way to mount the hd, since I cannot see any mounting hardware in the picture. As for the cd-rom, a ide-to-usb adaptor would work better.

I have opened the case and it does indeed have two IDE connectors but no 4pin Molex, just a two pin (looks like a speaker connector with only +5 and ground). So I went back to the drawing board over the weekend and came up with a nice workable solution that eliminates the issue altogether (Don't know why I didn't think of it earlier).

I used a powered USB hub and then had all the juice i needed to use an external USB HD and external USB cd/dvd drive! Nice and clean!

original here.