Help with ssd -> optical drive considerations

[mullenc525]

Hello,

I have done some research but need some guidance as to what would work best for me.

I have a mid 2010 15" i5. I use boot camp with macosx primarily to play and windows 7 to work. I'd like to start using the laptop for work more instead of my 3.0 ghz q6600, 8800 gts desktop.

First, I need more storage, so I am going to install a 2nd drive in the optical bay. 2nd, since the performance of the laptop is less than my desktop, I am considering options to make it run faster.

My initial thought was to use one drive for mac and a 2nd (possibly SSD) for windows. I don't need massive storage capacity, 2x 250gb is fine, and I backup files / place media on an external drive.

I've heard of people running a pair of drives in RAID though. How would this compare in speed to the SSD? I see I can get a 250gb SSD for $120 more than a HDD.

Currently my OEM HDD is partitioned, and I am assuming I can clone that without any difficulties onto whatever storage setup I choose.

I see people are mostly happy with the ebay hdd caddies. I will use one of those, and am comfortable making any required minor adjustments myself.

Thanks for any insights!

 

[ayeying]

You can't use RAID under bootcamp. You can't access a RAID HFS+ under bootcamp either. It will cause BSOD and such, unless they fixed it under BootCamp 4.1.

You could do like - 1 Drive for OSX and 1 Drive for Windows. That works and still have the ability to access files using stock BootCamp drivers.