Lenovo Y580 + SSD + Caddy, questions.

Hello everyone, I'm getting my first Laptop after many years of being a Desktop user and I have some question on how to do things here.

First I'm getting a Lenovo Y580, model #59359513, which only comes with a 1TB 5400 rpm hard drive, there is no msata SSD but I believe I have the option to install one later.
Right now I'm planning in adding a Samsung 840 Pro link from newegg.com, where the hard drive is, and get a hard drive caddy for the hard drive to have it as storage.

Now my questions are:

1. How is the connectors to install a SSD on a laptop, is it just plug and go, is it simple as removing the hard drive and adding the SSD to it or do I have to get adapter of some kind? If I do Please let me know which one.

2. I have been reading and I see lots of people that are using caddy, is adding the SSD to the caddy not the other way around like I want to do it, is there a reason to it?

3. Some people are complaining about heat issues and saying that using it with a SSD + caddy will help to solve that, but keeping the hard drive generate heat the same way, doesn't it?

4. Please suggest me a good caddy for the Y580, I dont know which one to buy yet.

5. If I have the option to add a msata SSD later, I read somewhere that I might have to get some screws to it, does anyone knows anything about it?

Thank you.

 

All of my SSD's were plug and play (I have 4 or 5 in my families multiple laptops). None needed an adapter. The reason you want the SSD in the hard drive bay is most laptops use Sata III for the HDD bay and only Sata II for the ODD bay so you won't be limiting your speed on your Sata III SSD. As for heat, if you use your SSD as your primary drive and put your OS and programs on it, it will be used all the time and if your HDD is a data drive, it will be used a lot less, so should be less heat. As for the caddy, look up the specs of your Optical drive size wise and then look online for compatible caddy's. you should also go to the Lenovo threads here and they can recommend both which caddy's work and if in fact you will need screws for a mSata drive, and also can probably tell you which mSata drives already come with screws, or where to get compatible screws. Good luck and enjoy.

 

Thank you very much for all the information.

Good to know that SDD's are just plug and play, I understand now why it helps to have a SSD as a main drive, for OS, programs, as take the load of the hard drive.

So I got questions, 1,2,3 solved, now for the caddy it seen that I need a 12.7mm and the only ones I can find is from ebay, which I found this one:

For Lenovo IdeaPad Y430 Y450 Y460 Y470 Y480 Y580 B460 2nd SSD Hard Drive Caddy | eBay

Will this work or anyone recommend something else?

 

FWIW I've ordered two different caddies for my new Lenovo ThinkPad T530 where I need one that's 12.7mm thick. The 1st was labeled as being for a list of units and included "T530"

It turned out to be 7mm thick. Still worked so while not happy, I also didn't make a stink about it. Meaning I kept the unit.

2nd unit is 12.7mm but doesn't mention my T530. It wouldn't surprise me if it works for your IdeaPad Y580. I bought two of these at just under $12 total from the AMZeTek (3rd party vendor at Amazon) at Amazon.com: Ultrabay SATA 2nd HD Hard Drive Caddy Tray Lenovo ThinkPad T420i T510 W510 T520: Computers & Accessories

So I wanted 3 caddies, and now have one that's 7mm and two that are 12.7mm thick. They all work.

Oh. One other thing was that the one that included my "T530" cost more money; $16 total vs the $12 for the proper fitting one.