phrozenpenguin, sorry for the dumb question, but since you seem to know these HP Elite 8300 Ultra Slim models so well, I thought I'd ask.
1. If I wanted to swap out the optical drive and use the included HD as a secondary drive, what type of cable is needed to supply both power/data to the secondary HD?
Here's an image of the internal guts of this ultra-slim with the optical drive and boot SSD removed with a close up on the connector:
I have also found that with the included metal bracket that holds the SSD, it's actually possible to stack the SSD and HD right on top of each other with the included bracket, provided the HD is on top and facing with the data cable in the opposite direction (toward the back of the machine). Not sure if this is a good idea due to heat, but it fits and almost looks as if this was intended with a cutout of the metal for the top data port.
2. So in theory would it be possible to have the SSD connected as the boot drive normally, the HD connected as a secondary drive to the blue SATA port (which is normally used by the optical drive on the motherboard) and then the optical drive connected via the mSATA slot via an adapter?
Just thought it would be cool to have the SSD, HD, and Optical Drive all connected at the same time if possible. Thanks for any info.