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    Laptop: SSD + Stock HD in optical bay?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by brtdud7, Jul 3, 2012.

  1. brtdud7

    brtdud7 Notebook Guru

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    I just got a new laptop with a 750 GB hard drive and I have 2 partitions on it (windows/applications 50 GB partition and a 650 GB data partition).

    I was really thinking about (maybe not now, but sometime in the future) buying a SSD and then getting a caddy to put the current HD in the optical bay and using it as an entire data drive (I already have a 2 TB external).

    If anyone has done this, what's the best way? I was thinking of just getting a 32 GB or maybe a 64 GB SSD (current size of Windows install plus my necessary apps is only 22 GB), rather than overkill with a 128 GB SSD. But I've also heard somehow that the smaller SSDs tend to be less reliable.

    Also, has anyone done the optical bay HD thing before? Where did you get your caddy? How did it turn out?
     
    brtdud7, Jul 3, 2012
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  2. User Retired 2

    User Retired 2 Notebook Nobel Laureate NBR Reviewer

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    User Retired 2, Jul 3, 2012
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  3. saturnotaku

    saturnotaku Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Depending on the drive, some smaller-capacity SSDs can be slower when it comes to writing data. Though most of the time that's only relevant when installing programs, which you wouldn't be doing a lot of on a drive that size. Even a 64 GB SSD will still perform light years better in everyday use than a platter drive.

    What you intend to do - put the SSD in your primary slot and move the platter drive to a caddy in the optical bay - has been done by tons of people on this forum with great results. Even many system builders offer this as an option, so it's becoming a pretty standard practice. If you have the know-how and the right tools, it's a pretty easy project on most standard Windows-based machines (you can also do an ODD swap on a Mac but it's a bit more involved).
     
    saturnotaku, Jul 3, 2012
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  4. Jarhead

    Jarhead 恋の♡アカサタナ

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    Smaller SSDs aren't less reliable, but they're obviously more prone to over-filling. The controllers are the same as bigger drives in the same model number, only thing that's different is the amount of NAND chips.

    I got my caddy from NewmodeUS and it works flawlessly, though it's a little expensive for a Thinkpad caddy. Not sure what options there are for Acer laptops, though.
     
    Jarhead, Jul 5, 2012
    #4