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I have ordered a 500Gb SSD and am considering using a 1TB HDD in the optical drive housing. I understand you can use the SSD for the OS and applications and the HDD for files. Can anybody please help? What files are best stored on the HDD
It comes down to a couple of determining factors. If you need the data loaded into RAM swiftly, you will want it on the SSD. If the item is read occasionally, or only at start-up (example Excel document when opened loads to RAM and works in RAM until saved. It does create backups in the OS drive, though) then the platter drive is best. If you are a gamer, you could benefit from storing your most RAM intensive games on the SSD, as well. If you are a creative, things like Adobe Scratch Disk files would be best on the SSD. IMHO: SSD: OS, Apps, Games, Scratch Files (Virtual memory files) for some apps HDD: Long-term storage, items that are small, backups, archives, etc.
Well almost! You want the HDD in the HD bay and then put the SSD in the optical drive bay. Prep up the SSD as your boot drive with your macOS. The reason you want to leave the HDD in the HD bay is related to the special crash guard services the HD bay SATA port offers. If you put the HDD in the optical bay you risk the drive from a head crash! The I/O speed is the same between the two SATA ports. Both are SATA III (6.0 Gb/s)
