Can I add an SSD drive side-by-side with my existing dual RAID in HP8530w Notebook?

Question

After reading Jeff Atwood's review of the Crucial 128GB SSD Drive, I'm thinking about getting one for my notebook, which currently has dual drives in a RAID 0 configuration. I have:

• HP EliteBook 8530w Mobile Workstation
• 250-GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
• 2nd 250-GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM) in upgrade bay
• HP Advanced Docking Station 150W

What would be the best way to add the SSD to my setup while keeping the RAID drives around? I would be OK with moving the twin 250 drives to my docking station, but don't know if that's possible.

Answer 1

You could use either the new SSD or one of the RAID drives via the eSATA port if you needed it to be portable.

I have an 8530w with the SSD as a boot drive and a 320GB HDD in the upgrade bay. I back up weekly so RAID redundancy is not an issue. You could use the 2nd 250GB HDD in an eSATA or USB external case, or the dock, as the backup HDD.

I got the Intel 160GB Gen2, BTW. See than Annandtech articles for lots of SSD goodness. Sorry about the shortened link - I pasted it from a Tweet of mine.