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Looking for a new SB laptop to use for school that accepts 2 hard drives

F

faxon

Platinum Member
Specifically, i want something that isnt an alienware or has a 17" screen, this thing needs to fit on a tiny little desk for class without falling and needs reasonable battery life, but i want to put an SSD in it and still have reasonable data storage capacity since i intend to travel with it a lot as well (my girlfriend goes to school 300 miles away so im out that way regularly). Since I make my visit to my girlfriend every other week I need a unit that has all the responsiveness I've come to expect from my desktop for homework doing purposes, without having to deal with an external drive if possible. If no units exist that met my needs then I'll consider other alternatives but its very difficult to easily search for such units and I honestly have been out of the tech loop for about 6 months now as well and I was never good at knowing the details on individual laptop models to begin with
 
Thinkpads:

X220: 12'5" ultra portable. Accepts mSata SSD (like the Intel 310) + 1 7mm HDD
Usually ships with a 320 GB 7 mm HD, biggest 7mm HDD is 500 GB. No dvd drive.

T420s: space for 1 mSata SSD, 1 7mm drive + 1 9mm drive in the ultrabay (but then no dvd)
T420 + T520: 1 mSata SSD, 1 9mm drive + 1 9mm drive in the ultrabay (but then no dvd)
 
though pricier im digging those t420s, will definitely consider it thanks 🙂. was trying to do this all for less than $900 i guess i should mention but regardless of the price keep em coming if you know of them. this is supposed to last me a while either way as well so im willing to work with what i've got available

ed: thats $900ish including the 120gb intel SSD. as much as i'd like to go for a sandforce drive i simply CANNOT risk the possibility of it fritzing out on me for any reason, and im willing to pay the difference for the intel drive
 
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faxon said:
though pricier im digging those t420s, will definitely consider it thanks 🙂. was trying to do this all for less than $900 i guess i should mention but regardless of the price keep em coming if you know of them. this is supposed to last me a while either way as well so im willing to work with what i've got available

ed: thats $900ish including the 120gb intel SSD. as much as i'd like to go for a sandforce drive i simply CANNOT risk the possibility of it fritzing out on me for any reason, and im willing to pay the difference for the intel drive
Click to expand...

Just keep in mind the T420s has crappy battery life and only way to increase it is by using a ultra bay battery and then you can't use a 9 mm hdd there or dvd drive. According to reviews it last around 3 h - 4 h with main battery only and moderate usage.
So IMHO for your purpose onyl way to make it useful would be with mSata SSD + a 7 mm hdd meaning same setup as with the x220.

x220 = better screen quality if you take IPS option but only 1368x768

T420(s), T520 = better resolution but supposedly pretty bad quality. (have not seen it myself)

AFAIK Dell and HP business laptop offer similar extensibility. So you might look at their homepage but I was able to get thinkpads for about 60% of their normal store price.
 
Do you need an optical drive? If not, then any laptop with one can have a second hard drive. Just crack that sucker open, pull the optical and replace it with an adapter with a hard drive in it. This is a semi-permanent solution, it isn't a hot-swappable thing.

Plus, if you do it on one of the systems that beginner listed, then you can have 3 drives. mSATA is nice, but they are not as widely available as regular 2.5" SATA drives, and although the $/GB is about the same, the speeds are better on the full size drives.
 
faxon said:
though pricier im digging those t420s, will definitely consider it thanks 🙂. was trying to do this all for less than $900 i guess i should mention but regardless of the price keep em coming if you know of them. this is supposed to last me a while either way as well so im willing to work with what i've got available

ed: thats $900ish including the 120gb intel SSD. as much as i'd like to go for a sandforce drive i simply CANNOT risk the possibility of it fritzing out on me for any reason, and im willing to pay the difference for the intel drive
Click to expand...


What you're looking for doesn't exist at your price point. It's the demand for the second HDD that kills you. You're functionally asking for a big, but small, laptop. TheStu is also correct in that any laptop with an optical drive can accommodate a second HDD. Have you heard of hybrid SSD tech? I think that might be your best bet here.

Additionally, let me ask you this: can you accept a 15.6" laptop? If so, there are a few very good options. However, make no mistake - a 15.6" is no lightweight, though you can get a number of those machines at under 6 lbs.
 
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As mentioned, just replace your optical drive with an after-market HDD tray. You can buy whatever laptop you want. You can get external USB DVD drives for like $30.
 
Axon said:
What you're looking for doesn't exist at your price point. It's the demand for the second HDD that kills you. You're functionally asking for a big, but small, laptop. TheStu is also correct in that any laptop with an optical drive can accommodate a second HDD. Have you heard of hybrid SSD tech? I think that might be your best bet here.

Additionally, let me ask you this: can you accept a 15.6" laptop? If so, there are a few very good options. However, make no mistake - a 15.6" is no lightweight, though you can get a number of those machines at under 6 lbs.
Click to expand...
im familiar with the hybrid drive tech, the issue there is it runs me the same cost to get vs upgrading with an ssd at a reduced performance value due to the unit coming with a drive already, and my time factored to do the work costing money as well. also removing the optical drive is not an option as i need to use optical media for a number of my classes regularly. im fully aware of all methods available to get 2 drives on the unit, be it removing optical, mSata drive bays on newer units, USB3 storage and SSD for boot. I'm hard set on getting a 120gb intel SSD and the storage drive needs to be internal. disregarding my prior price point what are my options now? ill also take the earlier recommendations and check out the business lines from those companies, but given it looks like im going to come up against the clock as far as order processing time on these units i may just end up getting a preconfig unit from newegg since i dont want to wait 2 weeks for them to build it. im currently borrowing a unit from a friend but he's going to need it as well very soon so im running out of options. had i planned this sooner i wouldnt even be asking here for recommendations in the first place, i just dont have the time to allot to doing my own research, which sucks 🙁
 
faxon said:
im familiar with the hybrid drive tech, the issue there is it runs me the same cost to get vs upgrading with an ssd at a reduced performance value due to the unit coming with a drive already, and my time factored to do the work costing money as well. also removing the optical drive is not an option as i need to use optical media for a number of my classes regularly. im fully aware of all methods available to get 2 drives on the unit, be it removing optical, mSata drive bays on newer units, USB3 storage and SSD for boot. I'm hard set on getting a 120gb intel SSD and the storage drive needs to be internal. disregarding my prior price point what are my options now? ill also take the earlier recommendations and check out the business lines from those companies, but given it looks like im going to come up against the clock as far as order processing time on these units i may just end up getting a preconfig unit from newegg since i dont want to wait 2 weeks for them to build it. im currently borrowing a unit from a friend but he's going to need it as well very soon so im running out of options. had i planned this sooner i wouldnt even be asking here for recommendations in the first place, i just dont have the time to allot to doing my own research, which sucks 🙁
Click to expand...

The problem isn't your budget, it's the size you want. 2.5" drives are 4" long, two of them together requires a chassis at least 8.5" wide, which is why you only find them on big boned 15.6" laptops or 17" and up. As long as you want to keep the optical bay you're relegated to larger frame laptops. You can't have everything.
 
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