I just realized I can replace my optical disk drive with a hard disk drive or an SSD but I have some questions regarding the idea. First I should indicate that my SATA controller supports 6 Gb/s (my optical disk drive's current interface speed is 1.5 Gb/s though)
- Will swapping my optical disk drive with an SSD be limited to 1.5 Gb/s? If so, why?
- In general, is it better to replace my hard disk drive with an SSD and then replace my optical disk drive with a hard disk drive, or is it the same? (from speed and efficiency point of view)
- Can I clone only my OS (from C drive) from hard disk drive to an SSD, boot from it (SSD, whether it's in my optical disk drive or hard disk drive port), leaving me with more space on my hard disk drive?
- Last question. Is this optical drive 9.5 mm or 12.5 mm? (quite sure it's 9.5 but just not to get the wrong caddie)
1 Answer
Typically a system has 1 SATA controller and all ports have the same maximum speed. The SATA interface in the device may limit the maximum of that device, but not the controller.
You'll gain a lot of benefit from your OS being installed on and booting from the SSD, and using the HDD for secondary storage. It doesn't matter where these are physically connected performancewise.
There are tools that exist to do this. Your SSD will likely come with software (Samsung Magician, etc.) that you can use.
Looks like a 9.5mm from your picture but you may want to confirm with a ruler or measuring device as well.
