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G55 = 1 ssd + 2 hdd?

pROGammer
Level 7
Hi all,

I know it sounds crazy, but bear with me:

my dream is a notebook with a SSD for the OS/programs and 2 mirrored HDDs for my precious files.

As seen in the G55vw upgrade guide, the G55 actually has 3 Serial ATA ports (mSATA. HDD, CD) so it's plausible to replace the optical drive with a caddy and put the second HDD there.

My question is, is it possible?
Has some one made that work or is the RAID controller restricted to only ports 0 and 1 (assuming optical drive is port number 2 as shown on the picture)?
Is there any performance penalty for the drive in the caddy?
Is the optical drive also a SATA 3 interface?
How about battery life - say playing a movie from the RAID?

Any help/advice is appreciated.

More memory is more.
SSD means Super-Sonic Disc.
Thunderbolt is awesome and then some.
Ergonomics: feel is more important than looks.
4,579 Views
3 REPLIES 3

Apexing
Level 9
Dunno about this laptop, bt I´ve seen plenty of other people replace their optical with a HDD in other laptops and it works fine.
Dont know about the RAID.
Battery life should be about the same, but tbh just have it plugged into a wall socket.
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If you decide to take it apart, let us know if you find out the answeres to your own questions.

c_man
Level 11
All I can tell you is that programs report ODD interface as being 1.5Gb/s, while HDD is 6Gb/s.

rewben
Level 13
to answer your questions:

1. Has some one made that work or is the RAID controller restricted to only ports 0 and 1 (assuming optical drive is port number 2 as shown on the picture)?

for a g55, you need the mSATA and the primary drive for RAID. only these two have SATA 3.


2. Is there any performance penalty for the drive in the caddy?

i have g55 and i replaced the ODD with the second ssd. it works but as c_man stated it runs at much lower bandwidth. a more practical approach is to use HDD to replace ODD.


3. Is the optical drive also a SATA 3 interface?

from the speed test of ODD, i don't think so.


4. How about battery life - say playing a movie from the RAID?

i cannot access my mSATA (will void warranty), so don't have RAID set up. not sure about battery life.


maybe it's possible to boot from the ODD replaced hdd/ssd, but the speed is very much lower.