SSD in the Optical Bay

[hasheesh786]

I just bought a SandDsk Extreme120gb ssd. i have a thinkpad T530. i was wondering if it would be possible to add the ssd in the optical drive and if there are any performance differences/problems for doing this instead of switching out the original hdd for the ssd and adding the original hdd to the optical bay

 

[Dr_JRE]

1) How are you going to secure a 2½" drive into a 5¼" bay?

2) Does your BIOS allow you to prioritize the hard drive group or does it only boot from the first drive? (Not likely to be an issue.)

3) The mechanical hard drive is sensitive. you want that one nice and secure and cushioned.

Other than that, great idea! Toss out that obsolete tech!

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Laptops don't have 5-1/4" bays so that won't be a problem. Whether you can pull out the optical drive on your particular lappie depends on the manufacturer and model number. My lappiep for example can handle up to three HD's..... two in dedicated HD bays and and the optical can be switched out for a HD and it comes with the necessary screws and bracket for the swap out.

Here's an example of such a configuration.

http://www.sagernotebook.com/index.php?page=product_customed&model_name=NP9170

Whether you can do that again depends on your manufacturer and model number. Check w/ Lenovo but looking here it says it's [ossible:

http://www.lenovo.com/products/us/laptop/thinkpad/t-series/t530/t530-datasheet.pdf

OPTICAL DRIVE
DVD ROM Read Only
Multi Burner/DVD CD Multi-Rec
500GB (7200rpm) HDD with Bay Adapter(4)
1TB (5400rpm) HDD with Bay Adapter(4)
(4) Special Bid

The special bid part makes me think it's a "special" thing and you may void ya warranty if you do the conversion yaself.

 

[Dr_JRE]

Grab your ruler. That's not a 2½ inch bay your laptop is using for it's optical.

Regardless of what you want to call it, there are adapter kits available to adjust for the difference in form factor.

 

[hasheesh786]

i was thinking about placing the ssd into a caddy, and inserting the caddy in place of the optical bay. would that be a problem? would that affect the performance on my machine? the caddy i plan on getting will most definately fit inside the computer as well as fit my ssd.

ive hear that booting through the ssd in the optical bay instead of the hdd bay that the primary is held is sometimes a problem. i can switch the computer to boot through the ssd no problem. but data transfer wise, everything should be the same right?

 

[Dr_JRE]

You will be going through an adapter, which will cause minor (likely unnoticeable) loss in throughput. Also, I don't know what the circuit layout looks like, but I'm willing to bet the HDD SATA is closer to the CPU than the ODD SATA.
Best off putting the SSD in the permanent fixed position and leave the large mechanical drive as a fixed but removable drive. This will also make it easier to recover a downed system and also still leave you the option of using an ODD by way of hot-swapping in the future.

I retract my previous statement. Booting will not be an issue because if a BIOS doesn't want to boot from a secondary drive, the bootloader can be installed onto the primary drive. Still an issue but a non issue.

More efficient, more reliable, less hassle = better performance in my book.

 

[hasheesh786]

Best answer selected by hasheesh786.

 

[hasheesh786]

Thank you so much. you all have enlightened me.