L502x dilemma: SSD with Blu-Ray optical. What should I do?

Hi guys, I've got a couple of SSDs in my gaming rig which are treating me nicely, and I feel that an SSD in my laptop will be a drastic improvement. Especially with the i7, I don't want to hold it back anymore

After reading other articles and threads, it seems that a popular method of upgrading is to move the hard drive over to the optical bay to make room for the SSD. It seems like a good idea, except I've got a nice Blu-Ray drive in the caddy that I'm not very willing to give up...

The other method would be to simply replace the hard drive with the SSD. Problem there is the loss of a 750GB hard drive.

I guess it's only a matter of preference really, but I was wondering, what are you all doing in this situation? I'm thinking about getting a 256GB drive, which should be relatively substantial. I could fit a few games on it along with Visual Studio and other production software I would need for school. It looks like I'll have to sacrifice either the 750GB HDD or the Blu Ray. Decisions, decisions

 

^^^ You can legally rip your Blu-ray contents to the HDD. With a slimline SATA-USB adapter, you can make that Blu-ray drive an external device for using at your desk and for ripping contents to the HDD to be consumed on the go.

I have a "big enough" SSD + a "huge" HDD on my L502X. I'd rather have stuff with me than an empty optical drive.

 

I've been thinking of doing the same thing (around xmas, when there's going to be a mass price drop on SSDs... I hope). My plan is to use one of these external optical drive enclosures (we have several kicking around the office that nobody ever uses): External Media Bay Module for Dell Latitude XT2/ XT2 XFR Laptops : Laptop/Notebook Accessories | Dell Canada

I have tested it with my BD-ROM and it works. Might be worth looking into a slim external drive enclosure if you want to keep the BD-ROM as well.

 

Thanks for the replies! I was looking around Newegg and noticed a pretty hefty sale on their larger SSD, Samsung 830 Series: Newegg.com - SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC512B/WW 2.5" 512GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

I know it isn't the cheaper option, but I would also be able to save some power rather than keeping the hard drive installed as well. Not too often you see a 512GB SSD with the <$1/GB ratio going on.

EDIT: The Crucial M4 series is an even better deal on Amazon!