Alternatives to Notebooks with 2 HDD Bays

So I was looking for a new computer for college, and I realized that while wanting mobility (thin chassis, lightweight), a huge roadblock is the fact that most don't come with two HDD bays. I'm not rich enough to buy a 768GB SSD, but I need at least 640-750GB worth of data to store not including what's on my 2TB external drive. I'm going to need a SSD after having used the small albeit very fast Crucial M4, but then I compromise on storage.

What are my options here? I've heard about removing the optical bay to install a second HDD, mSATA SSD drives (would they be as fast as my SATAIII Crucial M4?) or buying a very large HDD and using a mSATA cache SSD (around 30GB?). All of these are pretty new to me so any info is always appreciated.

Unless a 768GB SSD costs less than $200 in the future, I would be looking having a SSD + HDD setup, unless any of you know of a dual HDD bay laptop that's also light and thin?

 

I just got an HP dv6t-7000 QE and before even powering it on, I replaced the Blu-ray drive with a SATA drive adapter. The HP came with a 1TB HDD which I placed into the new bay and use a 128GB SSD in the main HD spot. Optical drives are really unnecessary nowadays and I've gone 4+ years on 3 laptops w/o having to use one.

If you do plan on replacing the optical drive with a SATA adapter, be sure to purchase the correct size for your laptop. For mine, I bought this one on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/JacobsParts®-...2857686&sr=1-1&keywords=JacobsParts®+SATA+2nd

 

According to benchmarks the Crucial mSATA M4's are just as fast as their 2.5" counterparts. They should also be comparatively priced.

Your best best is to get a laptop with an mSATA slot. That opens up the option of having a small cache or doing a dual-drive setup. If you can afford a 64 or 128 GB mSATA, go with the latter option. Either way you'll have the option of losing the optical drive to save weight or keeping it for flexibility. Ultrabooks with HDD+cache support mSATA, as do many Lenovo laptops, and some Dell.

The big caveat here is that the mSATA slot might be Sata II, which in theory is half as fast as Sata III, and there's no real way to tell without trying it. Honestly though if you're not benchmarking or hammering your SSD with constant disk activity you probably won't notice the difference.

 

With the advent of mSatadrives, you really have 2 options. Get a notebook that his mSata capable and keep the standard HD (I would still make sure it has a 7200 rpm drive) or do a OD bay conversion with a standard SSD in the OEM slot. Your options are better (larger capacity) and cost lower with the latter option.

 

I have dell latitude 6520.
I am also in same situation as yours ,
What I did is as follows.

Samsung 830 ssd in primary bay.
Original dell Seaget Hdd is installed in place of DVD drive.
I used DVD Hdd caddy and I am done.
It costed me 30$ but loving it.

Hope this helps.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

hmm, are mSATA drives really that fast? It seems they would have some sort of limitation being smaller and all, but if it can boot windows in 15seconds, I think that would do. I looked on specs on crucial.com and the mSATAIII and SATAIII counterparts have the exact same specs. If so, that solves the problem, just that I've seen many people say "mSATA is slower" on forums.

Also, how effective are those caching SSD drives? Much worse compared to a dedicated SSD for Windows..?

 

It used to be that mSATA was slower and more expensive than 2.5" counterparts until the m4 came along. It wasn't really due to size constraints (if you take apart your M4 you'll see most of the space is wasted), but rather mSata was a niche market that got neglected by major suppliers. Now that both Crucial and Samsung are pushing out mSATA SSDs that are as fast, reliable, and cheap as their 2.5" counterparts, things should get better moving forward. The Samsungs are unfortunately not available in retail right now, but the M4's are still great drives (I'm planning on getting the 128GB version myself).

If you can afford at least a 64GB mSata SSD, you're much better going with a dual-drive solution. Even Intel knows this and they have capped cache size to 64 GB.
Have you tried using your Momentus XT as a system drive? SSD caching will perform similarly to that, maybe a bit faster due to having more NAND. If you have the time and space you can carve out a 40GB partition on your XT and install windows. Play around with it for a bit and that'll give you an idea of how effective caching is.

 

im going to say mSATA + another drive as well. I updated my mSATA in my x220 and it is as fast as most any 2.5" SSD I have used

 

Correction: Optical drives are unnecessary for YOU. However, for many others, particularly those of us in media production, optical drives are alive and well and will be for the forthcoming future. In fact I intend to install a BD-XL in my new laptop as soon as I get it.

In addition, it is also still them most economical, and reliable way to backup and store your data. I really wish people would stop heralding the premature death of optical drives. They are still a viable medium and have much useful life left in them.

 

Krane, while I won't doubt for a second that for media production OD are alive and well, they are nowhere close to the 'most economical and reliable way' to backup/store your data.

NOT EVEN CLOSE.

Not when your time and the OD's reliability is taken into account...

 

I value your opinion; and your option? BD are purported to last a minimum 50 years if properly stored. If you know of a safer/lower cost alternative, I'd certainly like to hear it.

EDIT data storage life.

 

Are we talking about bluray disks that we burn ourselves? No.

 

When all aspects of BU are taken into consideration (and we're talking about a lot of data to BU continuously too...) nothing beats the speed, efficiency and $$/GB ratio of BU to HDD's (min to two at a time).

All 'burned' optical media are very unreliable - 'pressed' optical media can theoretically last a few decades.

 

Ok thanks guys, was just curious about what the benefit of a 64-256GB SSD cache was compared to my 4GB one.

I think the mSATA solves the problem. I was looking at the MSI GE60 and a Momentus XT + mSATA III drive should be as good as what I have now.

I don't really think optical drives are dead, but I do see the removal of them when wanting to slim down the profile a good compromise (Razer Blade etc).

 

I'd be wary of using a Hybrid XT with a caching mSATA SSD...

 

If you absolutely need an optical drive, I would get an external. Its also pretty simple to pick up a 5.25" external enclosure with USB 3.0 and put your choice of DVD or Bluray burner in it.

 

That's a great suggestion; and one that I adopted long ago. But it doesn't seem like an OD is of interest to the OP. I only mentioned it because it tends to get a lot of heat from many of the members here, and I still believe OD have a lot of use left in them.

As of today, its still the only way to get full 1080p HD video and uncompressed audio and nothing via the net, cable, or satellite can match it.

 

I wouldn't be using the mSATA drive as cache, I was just curious as to how the performance is with such large SSD cache. I'll probably wait for the 256GB M4 mSATA III drive to go down in price to the $150ish range before I buy it, that should happen by next year.

 

Just make note of the mSATA port speed. Many come as only SATA II. And while I find that is still plenty fast, just make a note of it so you're not scratching your head when your sequential performance isn't where it should be.

On the off-topic discussion of optical media (I can't help myself), burned discs are simply unreliable. I guess as a secondary backup that's replaced regularly, ok, but I would never store my sensitive data ONLY on optical media. Not gonna happen. Well I never store my data on ONLY a single backup location anyhow. If it were truly a cost effective and reliable solution you would see data centers burning their archives to BU over complex RAID systems which costs tens of thousands of dollars. Even on smaller scale, a RAID 1 NAS with an external backup in addition will still be more reliable. But on the topic of video and audio media. I do 110% agree that there is nothing better than a blu-ray video. None of this streaming compressed 720p that's passed as HD.

 

I'm not sure where you're getting this or where your claims of unreliable comes from? Nevertheless, RAID is inherently unreliable. In additions, it comes nowhere near close in safety or cost effective/reliable storage as UDO or blu-ray disc: For one, it is susceptible to EMP and magnetic fields, unlike optical disc which offer the highest degree of resistance to environmental forces.

Second, HDD are easily modified and/or erased--accidentally or on purpose--since it is a readily retrievable device not a storage/archival one. And last, reliable equals only to 3 years or so. While optical disc range is closer to 50 years. They are also simple and easy to transport. Don't be mislead, OD is the clear winner here.

 

Burnable optical media are created using a chemical process and are suscptible to environmental conditions like heat, humidity, and direct sunlight which can destroy the data. And claims of optical media running 50 years or more is impossible to tell since the technology to burn has only been around about 25 years. And show me any burned CD from the 1980's that you can still read today that hasn't been stored in a climate controlled vault free from UV rays.

There is a huge difference between burned media and replicated media which is actually physically stamped, not chemically altered.

Like I said, show me a single corporation that uses optical media as their primary source of backup and I'll shut up. With the server farms available today, the data is in a complex RAID array of servers (not just discs) in multiple locations around the country or globe that all the data can be reproduced nearly instantly if one or two server farms go down. Lose your optical disc, leave it in your hot car for a day. Forget it.

Here's a good read from the Council of Information and Libarary Resources: http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub121

Start here on storage info:
http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub121/sec4.html

 

Really? Is that you argument? Gather enough data and an extrapolation can be made. This is a legitimate scientific method.

Another flawed attempt to make your point. Have you seen computers from 30 years ago? We've come a long way since the disc was invented. Nevertheless, discs from back then still work.

You're splitting hairs; and my point is still valid.

And your RAID array would survive these conditions? The longevity of any media presupposes that it will be stored properly and not damaged or abused. Still, we're storing data, not nuclear spent rods.

 

Krane, we've had this discussion before (you and I).

Let's just say I agree with HTWingNut here - and saying that burning and stamping a DVD is 'nit-picking' is showing that you don't really understand the complete process as much as you may think you do.

Don't want to reply again (just show support for the 'other side').

 

Let me guess, cast vs forged, right?

Anyway, I'll counter your final post to say I come here to learn as much as I come to share--but today no one here has taught me anything new.

 

4. How Long Can You Store CDs and DVDs and Use Them Again?

 

Since we're both here to learn:

No, not the same as cast vs. forged - more like mechanical vs. chemical.

Physically stamped 'pits' are simply (infinitely) more stable than 'burned/vaporized, with chemical accelerants' pits in a race to last as long as possible without deterioration (and therefore data change/loss).

 

Right. You've got a physical depression on a metal layer vs. a burned depression on a light, humidity, heat sensitive chemical surface. Would you rather have a car assembled with welds or with glue?

 

I kinda already know that but I was also trying to make a concurrent point:

Private school vs Public? Death penalty vs Life in Prison? Automatic vs Stick Shift? but it must have gotten lost in the translation?

Anyway, since despite our disagreements, its unlikely the Organian will let us fight, therefore, we may as well be friends?

 

Here I was, researching how to add a hard drive caddy to my laptop... until I got side tracked about how to store data long term, thanks to you guys. Spent 15 minutes reading you going back and forth and another 30 finding out for myself what I'd rather do. Thanks