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    Using Caddy to replace Optical drive with HDD and installing SSD

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Yash Akhauri, Jun 8, 2016.

  1. Yash Akhauri

    Yash Akhauri Newbie

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    I have a HP p208-tx.
    It has 1 tb HDD and an optical drive.
    I wanted to replace my optical drive with the 1 tb HDD and add a 120gb/greater SSD in the former HDD port.
    I checked, my current HDD port is SATA2, and Optical drive port is SATA1.
    How do i go about it?
    Does putting a SATA2 HDD in a SATA 1 optical drive (DU-8A6SH 9.5 mm DVDRW Ultra Slim Internal Drive) port cause significant decrease in speed?
    And does using SSD in SATA2 make it pointless?
    Can you suggest me a caddy for my laptop?
     
    Yash Akhauri, Jun 8, 2016
    #1
  2. CaerCadarn

    CaerCadarn Notebook Deity

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    Welcome to the Forum! :)

    It's not a big deal to swap it like you suggested. You won't sense much difference in Speed when running your HDD in the OD-Slot, BUT you will sense a HUGE increase in Performance when putting a SSD in the SATA 2 Slot! Just buy a cheap 120GB SSD and you're golden. Even better when maxxing out the RAM. 4-8GB RAM is recommended today.

    http://www.2ndhddcaddy.com/hp-pavilion-15-p208tx-2nd-hdd-hard-drive-caddy.html


    Cheers! :vbthumbsup:
     
    CaerCadarn, Jun 8, 2016
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  3. Plur

    Plur Notebook Consultant

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    Sata1 is 1.5Gbps so a mechanical HDD is fine to still operate at full read/write in this slot however a SSD in a Sata2 slot will be bottlenecked by a 3Gbps limitation.

    Although not entirely pointless it surely is bottlenecked by the 3Gbps Sata2 throughput.
     
    Plur, Jun 8, 2016
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  4. alexhawker

    alexhawker Spent Gladiator

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    Are you sure the ports are different speeds, or are those the port number (ie port 1, port 2, etc.)?


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
    alexhawker, Jun 8, 2016
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  5. CaerCadarn

    CaerCadarn Notebook Deity

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    But in comparison to HDD + SATA II a SSD in SATA II will make a BIG difference, even when bottlenecked. Heck, I ran a SSD in SATA I and it was like whooosh, what's that? I would still recommend the swap to SSD, even in SATA II.
     
    CaerCadarn, Jun 8, 2016
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  6. Starlight5

    Starlight5 Yes, I'm a cat. What else is there to say, really?

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    @Yash Akhauri it's not wise to buy 120GB SSD, price difference with 256GB is very small! Get the cheapest SATA caddy of the right height (e.g. on eBay), they're pretty much all the same. Other posters pointed it right about SATA speeds impact on SSD and HDD performance.
     
    Starlight5, Jun 8, 2016
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  7. kosti

    kosti Notebook Virtuoso

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    Good observation. Those are BIOS labels for each port not to be confused with their actual speed. Your laptop should have SATA 3 ports (6Gb/s).

    http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/compatible-upgrade-for//pavilion-15-p208tx

    Just get an SSD you can afford and put it in your HDD slot. Use this for your OS and apps. Then put your mechanical drive in your optical slot with a caddy and use it for storage. This is a good one:

    http://www.newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_5&products_id=583
     
    kosti, Jun 10, 2016
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    CaerCadarn, tilleroftheearth, Starlight5 and 1 other person like this.