E6400 With Solid State Drive

hello,

the E6400 model i'm looking has 64 gb solid state drive and optical drive in the media bay. I'm leaning toward SSD since it's future proof and fast. (it's used one so it's not that expensive)
However, I wonder if its possible to add 2nd hard drive in the system without taking optical drive out. Basically I want to keep SSD, 2nd hard drvie and optical drive within the system all the time.
E6400 has a room for all three?
Thank you very much for reading this.

JL>

 

E6400 has room for one internal HDD and one media-bay device. You will not be able to fit TWO conventionally sized drives and an optical drive.

EDIT: BUT, you MAY be able to boot one of the fancy mini PCIe SSDs from one of the E6400's mini PCIe slots and then use a conventional HDD in the regular 2.5" internal drive bay. Don't think those mini PCIe SSDs are terribly fast, though.

 

/Commander Wolf

if that's the case, I can buy 1.8" hdd and swap it with optical drive when it's needed.
However, optical drive bay support ATA only?
if so, it will limit my choice of 2nd hdd in terms of speed. is that right?
JL--

 

/Commander Wolf

and one more question,

you seem to have SDD in your machine (reading your specs)
how was your experice with that?
I'm thinking install all my 3d software and system on SSD and storeing all data in 2nd hdd. How this config will boost overall performance?
JL--

 

I've never actually seen the the E6400 media-bay adapter for standard drives... I'd assume it'll only take 2.5" drives, though there may be a PATA AND a SATA version (as I think this was ultimately the case for the D-Series media-bay adapters).

I only have an SSD because I found a Samsung SLC real cheap on the boards. I mainly got it for the lack of noise, but there are definitely some cases in which it flies (relative to a regular SSD - like when you save a bunch of Firefox tabs and restart the program), but then again, it's ultimately not all that amazing.

I don't think the improvements are worth the $600 or whatever Dell's charging for a performance SSD, but if you can find one of the better drives at a good price, I'd definitely go for it.

 

The media bay hard drive adapter is sata and can only take 1,8" drives, so the choice is limited - 1,8" peak at 250GB/4200rpm or 120GB/5400rpm as far as I remember but are hard to find and slow in both cases.
Maybe someday will see a bay adapter for 2,5" drives, lets hope so.

Do you think it's worth 200$? Thats the price difference for comparable hdd/ssd model in the outlet.

 

The Dell E6400 Service Manual shows that the modular bay holds a 1.8" HDD. The media bay uses a mini SATA connector as on the SATA optical drives.



I think Dell took this route because a 2.5" HDD has the same thickness as the bay height so there is no space for an enclosure. Someone hinted in another thread that Dell might be having second thoughts and were developing a 2.5" HDD version (otherwise I hope some enterprising third party will do the necessary).

Your other, less convenient, option is to use the eSATA port for bulk storage. That's as fast as if the disk is internal but creates some extra baggage.

John

 

I do think it's worth $200. I was going to buy an MTRON 32GB for $200 before I found the one I currently have.

 

/lack

Dell outlet is where I'm looking now.
The most of returned model is with 64gb SDD. there's gotto be a reason for that. That's why i'm hesitating a bit.

How about usb or eeei (spell it right?) external hdd. I can use it for my desktop and pc at work. more versitile. should it be fater than 1.8" 2nd hdd. Right?

 

One source of stock in the Outlet is computers that have been cancelled (or not paid for) at the last minute, parhaps as a result of the economic downturn.

Many of the 2.5" eSATA enclosures also have USB so they can be used with computers without eSATA. I haven't seen 2.5" enclosures with firewire and eSATA but they may exist for desktop drives.

John