Best hard drive configuration.

Right now I have a 750 gb 7200 rpm and a Samsung PM830 32 gb. I want to upgrade the 32 gb one to a larger one so that I can put my OS on it as well as all my applications. Since it is an mSATA drive I cant go with some of the beefier drives that seem to have faster read and write speeds. I don't want to spend over 300 bucks on this but what is my best option?

 

Why not just replace the 750 GB drive with a large 2.5" SSD drive, unless you need the space?

 

Yeah I have about 160 gigs of movies and music so I need that larger other drive.

 

There are separate msata drive for sell like the m4 and other sandforce. Usually 128gb/120gb is 100ish.

If you have and don't need a optical bay, then you can change the HDD there and buy a cheaper 2.5".

Anyways, which laptop is this?

 

For $300 you can get a 256GB mSata, or as stated earlier, get a caddy and replace your ODD with the HDD, put a decent sized SSD in the HDD bay and get a cheap external Optical drive. You can get a 256GB SSD or a mSata SSD for under $300 and still have the 750GB HDD for storage.

 

Can your system handle two 2.5" drives or just one? If it's just one, is your system capable of SATA III speeds? If it is, then Tsuname's right. You should go for a 2.5" SSD since you can take advantage of SATA III speeds. If your system doesn't do SATA III, then Abidderman's suggestion to get a 256GB mSATA SSD is probably easier installation wise than to get an ODD to HDD caddy and move your drives around.

 

So I have a Dell XPS L521x. The optical drive isn't as accessible as other laptops because it's full aluminum body but I bet it could be done. I actually like having a BluRay player so if I took it out, could I hook it up externally somehow?
The HDD that is in there right now is interfaced for SATA 3 gb/s but I don't know if it is capable of 6 or not. There are two different mSATA drives that I looked at. The Samsung PM830 256 gb or the Crucial m4. The Samsung has read and write of 520/400 and the Crucial only has 500/260. The Samsung on eBay is 330 and the Crucial is 190.

So I checked and it is only SATA II capable

 

Yup, and I looked up the specs for the L521x. It has a HM77 chipset so it's more than likely the 2.5" SATA port is SATA III. The question is what's more important to you: having the optical drive inside and ready for you to use whenever you want, or getting SATA III speeds vs SATA II speeds. Depending on what you use your system for, the difference between SATA II and III may or may not be noticeable.

 

So I looked up that chipset and it says "High-speed storage interface supporting up to 6 Gb/s transfer rate for improved data access. Provides up to six SATA ports with up to two ports supporting 6 Gb/s transfer rate" Since it says that it has at least 2 SATAIII ports, can I assume that one is being used for the primary hard drive and the optical drive? If they aren't being utilized could I somehow get to them?

If I could I would much rather have an SSD in the optical bay but I still want the ability to play movies so I would need to find some sort of adapter.

 

I found multiple caddies This one Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy (OBHD9-SATA-BU9) Univ, 9.5mm [OBHD9-SATA-BU9] - $44.75 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks is quite a bit more expensive than this one Amazon.com: JacobsParts® 9.5mm SATA Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy Adapter: Computers & Accessories. Are these guys just insane for charging so much or is this something that you get what you pay for?

 

Don't assume anything. It can vary. But normally, the optical drive's SATA port is only SATA II. Again, don't assume.

 

So how would I go about finding out which port is SATA III capable?

 

You would need to install a SATA III device in the ODD's SATA port and then see what speed Intel RST is reporting that device is running at (NOT HWinfo!).

 

O man.

 

Does this mean that as long as it's SSD it will run at SATAIII speeds?

 

Nope, the conversation (as in all manufacturer forum)is pointless.

Not sure what you confuse about though, put the SSD in main bay and it will be SATA3. The HDD in optical bay is not gonna matter if it is sata 3 or 2.
The caddy on amazon/ebay works fine, the expensive one is" said to be better built".The one thing that you should make sure if it is 12.7 or 9.5mm high.

 

I was confused because I didn't know if the main bay was SATAIII or not. A straightforward answer was what I was looking for so thank you. And they both were 9.5mm high.

 

Normally (as in 99%) of times, any thing post hm6x chipset will have the main bay SATA 3.

 

Do you know anything about the optical bay being SATA III becasue if not then I will have to take the HDD out and put it in the optical bay and then put the SSD in the primary bay.

Update: I ran some tests and with the primary bay and the mSATA using the two only SATAIII connections, I either have to put the HDD in the optical bay or just live with the slower speeds of the SSD.

 

Very rarely will an ODD's SATA port be anything more than SATA II (cause even those speeds are a LONG stretch for an optical drive). But Baiii's right. With the Ivy Bridge chipsets, SATA III is becoming more common, even with laptops. Most notebooks with Ivy Bridge will have at least one SATA III port and that will always be the main hard drive/SSD port. mSATA is capable of SATA III but I have yet to see it widely implemented into notebooks. The choice between using an mSATA at lower speeds vs installing a 2.5" SSD is your choice.

 

The mSATA is III. I am going to get a 2.5 in SSD for sure but I just don't know where to put it. If I put it in the primary bay and the HDD in the optical bay I fear that it will overheat because I don't think it has the best ventilation.

 

What's your system specs? Some (most, actually) system info apps don't report the correct SATA level the system driver are running at. One that I found does is Intel RST. The RST control panel will report the current SATA transfer rate for each drive, not the maximum the drive is capable of. I just don't want you to be surprised when you get your larger mSATA and it ends up not wanting to run at SATA III speeds.