Adding SSD to a W500

Question:

I hardly use the CD drive on my laptops and was wondering if I could take the original HD, have it installed where the CD drive is on the W500 .and install an SSD as the main drive.

I would use the original hard drive for storage only while using the SSD for the operation system and programs.

Would having the regular drive in addition to the SSD make the system slower in any way as apposed to having an SSD alone? I'm talking boot up and general operation that does not require any data from the regular drive. would just the presence of the HD drive there affect performance?
Is that a popular setup?

Would it be possible to have both the original HD and CD drive hot swappable, so when and if I would need to use the CD drive I could just pull out the hard drive and stick the CD drive in without having to change anything in the bios or anything like that.
I'm talking about swapping when the laptop is off of course.

How would I go about all this? I would need the drawer for the original HD to be put in in order to fit and work in the CD Drive by right?

Alot of questions I know, I thank in advance!

 

SSD + HDD is getting to be a more popular combination nowadays. You can easily switch the ODD out and swap it with the HDD, but you will need the ultrabay caddy:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=347870

The system won't be slowed by having a HDD and you can always easily reswap the ODD drive back in or get an external caddy for the ODD.

 

Amiroquai,

Yes, you can load your original HD into your CD bay and use the SSD as your primary drive. You can swap between your HD and CD all you want as long as you don't put important system files on there. You can even "hot swap" under the right circumstances so you don't even have to turn the computer off. Just press the eject button and wait for the drive to dismount then pull it and slide the other one in.

If you really don't need to CD much, that system will allow you to get away with buying a smaller SSD drive since you'll still have your HD for data storage. You could always plug in a CD drive externally as well.

 

I'm also interested in doing this with my W500. The SSD I'm planning to add is:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139030

Would anyone recommend something else that's in the 100 - 200 price range that's better than this one I've listed here?

One question I have for the Hard Drive Bay Adapter is what's the difference between the models other than their metric depth and small difference in weight? As far as I can tell, they're all compatible with most Thinkpad models, and yet there are 3 of them, each slightly smaller than it's predecessor. Is this at all of value? The Drive bay adapter III is also 10 dollars more due to it's smaller size.

 

I ordered the Caddy off of Ebay for $20 shipping included, I just used the keywords "W500 caddy" there's an image shown in the item page of the caddy being inserted into a W500 so I'm sure about the compatibility of it.

As for the SSD, I'd suggest you stretch your budget and get the very popular and well reviewed 80GB Intel X-25

You can get it here:
http://www.provantage.com/intel-ssdsa2mh080g2r5~BITE90LM.htm
for less than $250 shipping included!
This is the newly released version II of the popular drive (better if anything?) and is currently selling on Newegg for $359.

Price research is always a good thing to do, and the seller is well rated on the internet.
The item is not in stock at the store but ships directly from Intel and according to the website, it takes about 3-5 days for them to process these special orders and ship it out.

That's what I did.

 

I'll definitely look into that suggestion, thanks for the tip!

 

SSD and HDD is a very good combo if you want performance but still require a few 100GB of storage. I thought about doing the same on my x200 Tablet, but I don't have an optical drive to swap out (so I just make do with a smaller SSD).

Also an 80GB Intel Gen 2 is a very good choice (especially when < $300).

 

Can't wait until I get my hands on that Windows 7, hate Vista!
Also going to upgrade to 8GB RAM so my setup is going to be pretty sweet for a mobile 3D Cad workstation.

 

Thanks for the suggestions.

What exactly makes the Intel X-25 so well received? I'm very new to researching the SSD's since I've just recently decided to buy one. It' amazing that newegg can offer something for such a high price while this other site has it for less than 250. There are only a few specifications listed on newegg and also the provantage website. What other benchmarks or specs should I be interested in to help me determine the better ssd?

Thanks again for the help!

 

There's not much you need to know for that price lol.
I mean, knowing the specs is always good but just look at the number of people who purchased (and still are) the last generation of it and reviewed it on newegg in comparisson to the other drives, look at their reviews as well.
And they purchased it for the full price .
This is the second and more expensive(on newegg) generation drive.

Not everyone do their price research and Newegg will always have good business selling pretty much anything computer related due to their popularity, it's either they're trying to make extra buck or just not aware of the competitive price other are selling this drive for.

Notice the last review on the item page on newegg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167023

And I quote:

"Other Thoughts: Newegg marked up the price and keeps telling customer their cost of inventory changes all the time. What a joke, everyone know the costs and retail price for this drive. Just stop lying."

That's also probably why it was rated 4/5 and not 5/5


Bang for the buck wise, I really don't think you could do better than the deal they have over at Provantage .

 

The x-25M is very well received because it has an extremely good and agressive controller. This causes it to achieve small random writes (the most important factor for OS performance) at a far higher level than almost any competing SSD (≈70 MB/s vs < 15). The Intel may be a little slower for sequential writes, but it's very fast where it matters.

Also, Newegg is technically pricing the SSD too high. The G2 Intel price for lots of 1000 is ≈$225 (it was >$600 for the G1 less than a year ago). However, excessive demand for the drive at that price has caused normal Supply/Demand pricing to take effect and Newegg, and most other retailers, has jacked the price up considerably.

 

Thanks man, I think I will try to stretch my budget a bit and get this SSD instead of the one I linked before. Definitely a much better investment.

Cool, thanks man, that's exactly what I wanted to know. Appreciate the help as always!

Hope to make the purchase soon!

 

update regarding the status of my SSD order:
the order was placed on the 20th and even though it was a special order item, I was just notified it was shipped today (22nd) so I should be receiving it soon.

I also lost the ebay auction for the caddy to find the same one from the same seller at the same starting price only with free shipping, just won that auction and got the caddy for $13 shipping included!.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=360190849564&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

Always good to do your price research folks!

 

thanks again, I'm sure this will help out a lot of people

 

lol...... +1

 

Am I missing something here?...

 

Provantage is out again :-/

Is this the same one?
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-X25-M-M...2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1253981148&sr=1-2

 

Yea it is the same one, all those units they had restocked at Provantage sure did sell out fast...
It's now backordered and they jacked up the price :
http://www.provantage.com/intel-ssdsa2mh080g2c1~7ITEN0EW.htm

Amazon's is a good offer with free shipping.

 

yeah they went extremely fast. I'm hoping to pick one of these up soon.

Thanks again for the links!

 

I got my Intel G2 SSD at ShopBLT.com for $250 and they were quick. I never ordered from them before, but it worked out well. Best price (no gouging like NewEgg) and good service.

Be sure to get the G2 34nm, not the G1. Big difference.

For the best articles on SSD performance, go to anandtech.com