Connecting SATA HDD to Optical Drive 1.5 Gbps Port

[JeremiahRemingt]

Is it possible to connect a SATA Hard Drive to the 1.5gbps SATA Optical Disk Drive port? I realize that this would produce an I/O bottleneck, however for a spinning hard drive that is not written to frequently that is not the end of the world.

The manual says this for the specs:

One Hard Drive SATA AHCI 6 Gbps

One Optical Drive SATA 1.5 Gbps

The only thing that worries me is that the manual mentions AHCI support for the 6Gbps port supports Sata AHCI, but for the 1.5Gbps port it doesn't say AHCI. Is AHCI necessary for HDDs? 

My goal would be to install a SATA SSD to act as the boot drive with a big SATA hard drive to be used just for storage. 

Thank you and God Bless

[old_geekster · Accepted solution]

@JeremiahRemingt , welcome to the forum.

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@JeremiahRemingt wrote:

Is it possible to connect a SATA Hard Drive to the 1.5gbps SATA Optical Disk Drive port?  This is not necessary.  There is a socket for a M.2 SSD on the Motherboard.  Here is the Motherboard Specifications page.  Look in the upper right side of the Mobo to see the M.2 SSD socket.  Here is the Upgrading and Servicing Guide for the computer.  On Pages 12 thru 14 it shows how to install the SSD.  This is a much faster drive for the boot drive.  You can use a standard or NVMe M.2.  See the "Expansion Slots" section in the Motherboard Specifications for the length (One M.2 socket 3, 2280 type for SSD) of the M.2.  I like Samsung SSD's.  They seem to work best with HP's BIOS.

I realize that this would produce an I/O bottleneck, however for a spinning hard drive that is not written to frequently that is not the end of the world.

The manual says this for the specs:

One Hard Drive SATA AHCI 6 Gbps

One Optical Drive SATA 1.5 Gbps

The only thing that worries me is that the manual mentions AHCI support for the 6Gbps port supports Sata AHCI, but for the 1.5Gbps port it doesn't say AHCI. Is AHCI necessary for HDDs?  AHCI is not necessary for a HDD, but to get the full performance of a SSD it is necessary.

My goal would be to install a SATA SSD to act as the boot drive with a big SATA hard drive to be used just for storage.  Definitely the correct choice.  If you haven't used a SSD it will amaze you.  The difference in boot time is beyond belief.

Thank you and God Bless  You are welcome and God Bless!!

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