No SATA connections on my OMEN 45L desktop motherboard

[Scillonian]

I have just bought an Omen 45L desktop. One of the things that appealed was the fact it says in the blurb that it is "Crafted for expansion - Easily upgrade and expand the memory, storage drives, and interior expansion slots to fit your gaming needs."

However, when I have come to add a new storage drive I have discovered the motherboard does not have any SATA connectors on it and there is no accessible PCI slot for me to add a SATA board either.

Is my only option to use the Thunderbolt 4 connector on the back ?

[Bill_To]

Greetings @Scillonian 

Welcome to the HP Forum.

Most newer MBs have limited SATA connections. The data lanes are being diverted to other storage options.

I'm surprised HP did not include one or two MB SATA data ports. Many newer MBs have two SATA connectors. I have four SATA connections on my AMD B850 MB.

Please provide your PC's product number. We can check to see how many M.2 sockets HP has included in your PC's MB.

I'm guessing your PC's MB may have two or more M.2 sockets for additional internal storage.

And you can use the Thunderbolt port or other USB 3.0 ports for additional external storage if desired.

Regards

[Scillonian]

Hi thanks for your response,

I believe my product number is GT22-3000i.

It looks like there are 3 M2 ports (2 are already used).

So I guess I could add a third M2 drive or as you say use the Thunderbolt port. Just strikes me as a little odd not having SATA ports.

Maybe I need to embrace the modern world.

S

[Bill_To]

Greetings @Scillonian 

My pleasure.

Thanks for the product number.

I don't know what to think. The product specs for your PC at this HP Site states the PC can ship with:

- SATA storage

- And M.2 storage

The above site also indicates the PC has the WildheartOC MB.

WildheartOC MB specs at this HP Site show two M.2 sockets for storage and one WLAN M.2 socket for WIFI/Bluetooth.

HP does not typically list SATA connectivity at their MB spec sites. But your PC's product spec site does list a SATA storage option at purchase.

So it looks like your PC's MB would have MB SATA data connectors somewhere on the MB if the HP product site specs for your PC are correct.

Regards

[Scillonian]

Hi,

Thanks for looking. There is no SATA listed in the bios as a boot option. But I will remove the graphics card and see if one is hiding under there. I have also found you can buy a riser cable that should allow me to use the pci slot that is covered by the graphics card so I should be able to add a SATA card that way.

Thanks again

S

[Bill_To]

Greetings @Scillonian 

My pleasure.

MB SATA data connectors are usually located near the front of the chassis.

Plus you don't see any BIOS SATA boot options. This would suggest either: the MB lacks SATA storage options or HP has disabled booting to SATA drives which would be very unusual at this time.

Or the BIOS SATA boot options would be hidden because no bootable SATA drives are detected by the BIOS.

Regards