New T420 on the way...HDD/SSD upgrade strategy

[mfeller]

I have a new T420 on the way. I have a few questions on upgrades...

My original plan before ordering was to order an mSATA drive, and then swap in a larger 2.5" drive for data.

I have an unused 120GB SSD. Now I wonder if I should swap that instead, and then maybe add the 2.5" disk to a drive-bay caddy. Maybe in addition to still having the mSATA drive (for three drives total). It seems like this is getting away from "keep it simple". My options, I think are:

1. mSATA + Data Drive
2. SSD only with data drive in caddy
3. mSATA + SSD with data drive in caddy

Thoughts or comments?

For the mSATA drive, it seems that OCZ and Kingston have alternatives to the Intel 311 drives. Any comments on these other brands?

[Shadowku]

I don't think there is much difference between those options other than the amount of money you will spend and the amount of trouble/complication you are willing to go through.

If you already have the SSD then I would just swap that in place of the main HDD instead of spending money and buying an mSATA. Since you will already have the standard 2.5" drive that comes with it, you can just get the ultrabay caddy. Do you think you will be needing the capacity of 3 drives?