Laptop upgrade to SSD, should I use the CD bay ?

[matthieugd]

Hello,

I have a laptop (DELL latitude E6500) with a SATA HDD and I want to upgrade it to SSD one. Since I need some space I can't have only the SSD drive. I have seen that it's possible to use the CD bay to plug a SSD drive and so I can keep my existing SATA drive.

I have three questions:

- Is it recommended? It seems to me that the interface (which I don't know) between the motherboard and the CD bay would be a weak point?
- If I can use the CD bay should I get a specific type of SSD?
- What should I install on the SSD and on the SATA? The distinction I have seen is OS and ProgramFiles on SSD and other data on the HDD. I'm a software developer so I have a lot of document (source files).

Thanks for the help !

Matthieu

 

[zagood]

Install a caddy: http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...-ssd-hdd-storage-using-optical-bay-caddy.html

Install as many applications as you can fit on the SSD leaving about 20% free. This will leave you room for more applications in the future while leaving some room for wear leveling. There's built in spare area, but having extra is always benificial. Data on the HDD.

 

[Zap]

I'd say to put the SSD in the normal spot and the HDD in the optical drive caddy. That makes it easy to install Windows on it with the optical drive installed.

Recommended? Sure! Lots of people are running SSD as boot/app with HDD as data. If the optical drive is SATA, then there is no "weak point" in the interface as SATA slim optical drives can use the same data cable as any SATA hard drive (only the power connector is different).

Alternately you can go hybrid with the Seagate Momentus XT.

 

[matthieugd]

Thanks ! I didn't know about the hybrid solution. I just made a quick search about it and it seems a good compromise.

Maybe I will do the SSD-only jump when I buy a new laptop.

Matthieu