Using same boot drive ssd for pc and laptop possible?

Well, you can have two OSs on one drive for one rig with dual boot, so perhaps you could have two individual OSs for two rigs. You'll definitely need two separate OSs anyway. Unless, of course, you set up a USB drive with Ubuntu that would boot both systems, but not sure how that would cope with your progs. Worth a try with two OSs on the SSD tho, partition it roughly in half, install Windows on one partition whilst in desktop, move to laptop and install Windows there on other half, can but try, nothing to lose! Not sure how the MBR will react...

1. Windows doesn't take to product keys at a time
2. no way to boot a PC and a laptop with the same win installation - driver config is to different
3. two os'es on SSD may work, but you have to maintain them both - not what you wanted
4. SATA plugs are not made for frequent changes - they will break sooner or later
5. you can at least synchronize you personal data between the devices. Microsoft SyncToy is free and does a good job.

Okay well thanks guys for pointing out the now seemingly obvious flaws in my plan.

Either way, here is my alternative plan.

I will just keep the systems separate, each with their own ssd. And synchronize possibly with software like noidea mentioned(thanks for that).

However this means I know need to purchase 2 SSDs which is difficult on my budget. The 120gb samsung 830s seem cheap enough though they are good drives I read, that is correct right?

These drives do seem to benefit quite a bit from sata III which I am not sure my laptop has. Does this matter or could anyone tell me whether this laptop has sata III?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00829IDNM/ref=ox_sc...

I am also open to other suggestions for laptops, but this one seemed to fit my needs. And also kind of stretches the budget already.

I will buy an optical bay ssd caddy for that laptop to put the ssd in.

And lastly my desktop's sata III performance is appaling and besides those ports are taken by my raid0 setup which I would prefer never to tamper with.

Thus I would like a sata III expansion card to exploit the samsung's performance completely. Now I now nothing about this stuff so could anyone recommend such a card? Again budget is constricting here, so cheaper the better and I don't need raid functions.

I use amazon.de and amazon.co.uk for all my purchases so cannot get anything that is not sold by them sadly  .

Thanks again

1. some people here will hit me for that, but don't care about SATA III. The real advantage of SSDs is the fantastic seek time. You will never notice the small difference in transfer speed with SATA III unless you copy big files from one SSD to another.
2. If budget is an issue a smaller SSD plus the HDD for the laptop should do it. 60GB holds windows plus all important programs and gives you the same real world speed.

I will still have the hdd in the laptop as I will install the ssd in the optical drive. I don't think the 60gb is worth it though. /Gb the 120gb is much cheaper so yeah I ordered that.

Thanks very much for the advice though!