15" MBP incoming, got some questions about two drives

[PardonTheWait]

Hello,

I bit the bullet last night after having mulled it over for months, and ordered a base-spec 15" MacBook Pro with the anti-glare high-res display.

I'm intending on moving the standard drive to an optical drive bay and installing an SSD in the main bay. My questions are:

1) Can I get a cheap chinese optical drive bay? They're plentiful on eBay and cheap even from UK sellers. Seeing as the meat of these it just an adapter in a metal frame, am I right in thinking that this will either work, or not work, and there will be no performance reduction in buying a cheap one? The MCE and OWC ones are obviously only available in the US and price difference is considerable. eBay jobs are around a tenner.

2) Are there any issues with this setup? I hadn't heard of any previously but have heard people mention mounting issues with the second drive and crashes. I can't find anything concrete so hopefully these are rare issues or caused by not having the whole shebang set up right.

3) How's the battery life? My machine mostly stays at home anyway so a hit to battery life's not the end of the world, just wondering how much reduction to expect.

4) What SSDs are people using? I'm sure this has been asked loads and will have a search in a minute but thought I would tag it onto the end of this anyway. Probably will go for 128gb or possibly 256gb. That plus the 500gb standard drive will be more than enough.

Installing/cloning the OS to the SSD I'm cool with, no worries there

Anyone's experience on the above questions though would be much appreciated.

 

[Da[]San]

1) Can I get a cheap chinese optical drive bay? - Yes no issues

2) Are there any issues with this setup? Nope, its easy - undo some screws remove odd/fit optibay with drive (put your old drive in there) keep the hdd bay for your SSD as its full speed.

3) How's the battery life? My machine mostly stays at home anyway so a hit to battery life's not the end of the world, just wondering how much reduction to expect.
Can't say i've noticed.

4) What SSDs are people using? I'm sure this has been asked loads and will have a search in a minute but thought I would tag it onto the end of this anyway. Probably will go for 128gb or possibly 256gb. That plus the 500gb standard drive will be more than enough.
Crucial 128 m4 no issues

 

[PardonTheWait]

Good to know about the cheapy optical bays. I just couldn't see any good reason to buy an MCE or OWC one, seeing as it's just a cable in a frame.

I'll take a look at the Crucial drives, cheers