I am going to get a notebook with 256GB SSD. If there is an option to add 1TB of HDD to this 256GB SSD, will it affect the speed and noise levels of the SSD? As far as I know the speed and operation of the SSD is much quicker than HDD. Also, the SSD is quieter than HDD which is noisier.

Any advice appreciated.

depend on the slot it has. if the ssd is on a m.2 slot and you have an empty hdd slot then you can add. for noise not so sure. ssd is for you to install OS to boot fast and application to run faster, while hdd people use as a place to store files,picture and movie i guess.

Quieter? The SSD is purely electronics with no moving part. So, no sound at all for sure

Okay thanks for that. Still in contact with the seller. Not too sure the 256GB SSD is upgradeable to 512GB SSD or 256GB SSD + 1TB HDD. If both versions are available, will look at the cost.

Provide the model number of the laptop you're looking at then we can advise if you can add 1TB HDD on your own instead of having to buy extra from the manufacturer which will cost between 2 ~ 3 times the normal price

Most laptop manufacturers (Dell, ASUS, MSI, HP & lots more) does not void the warranty to add some upgrades provided you open the laptop carefully and not causing any physical damage

hdd make noise
ssd no noise

if i add hdd + ssd, got noise?

i already told the answer before ur questions

You cant add a hard disk into SSD only to the computer .
Nobody use "noise levels" as a performance benchmark for ssd .

Let's fix some of the comments above...as well as the question asked.

Usually an SSD in a notebook is in M2 form factor, and the SSD is changeable. Say Asus ROG GL552 supports M.2 2280 (22mm tall, 80mm long) in PCIe x 4 mode, means strong SSDs such as Samsung 950 PRO M2 NVMe or Kingston PCIe SSD can be installed into this laptop as long as it follows the specification. All of these are expensive SSDs.

Some notebooks will have the M2 slot which supports both SATA interface and PCIe x 4 mode, say MSi GL62, which means it supports all M2 SATA, M2 PCIe and M2 NVMe. M2 SATA is a cheaper variant of M2 SSD because it runs slower than the latter ones, but is already fast enough considering you're not doing heavy rendering, heavy video editing and such.

Thirdly, check your specs of the notebook. Does it support dual drives? Usually, again, notebooks that support dual drives will have a 2.5" HDD, and a M2 SSD. SOME notebooks (slim/ultraslim type) will omit the 2.5" HDD because it adds the thickness of a laptop, leaving only an M2 slot, some even soldered them to the motherboard. Choose wisely, depends on your preferences.

Usually, again and again, running SSD+HDD will not affect the speed of each other, by means it will not make the other to run faster/slower/noisier etc etc vice versa. For instance the image below:



Both runs at different places. In your PC, it will detects as 2 different drives. HDD is for storage purpose for example Spotify songs cache, Steam games and such, while the SSD would be your primary drive, running the OS as well as software which you always use such as developing tools, Steam client, chrome etc. Setting as primary drive between the two can be done in BIOS, but the distributors would have already set the SSD as the system drive instead of HDD.

This post has been edited by lolzcalvin: Nov 28 2016, 03:28 PM