I'm looking for a higher-performance build for our 1RU Dell R320 servers, in terms of IOPS.

Right now I'm fairly settled on:

• 4 x 600 GB 3.5" 15K RPM SAS
• RAID 1+0 array

This should give good performance, but if possible, I want to also add an SSD Cache into the mix, but I'm not sure if there's enough room?

According to the tech-specs, there's only up to 4 total 3.5" drive bays available.

Is there any way to fit at least a single SSD drive along-side the 4x3.5" drives? I was hoping there's a special spot to put the cache SSD drive (though from memory, I doubt there'd be room). Or am I right in thinking that the cache drives are simply drives plugged in "normally" just as any other drive, but are nominated as CacheCade drives in the PERC controller?

Are there any options for having the 4x600GB RAID 10 array, and the SSD cache drive, too?

Based on the tech-specs (with up to 8x2.5" drives), maybe I need to use 2.5" SAS drives, leaving another 4 bays spare, plenty of room for the SSD cache drive.

Has anyone achieved this using 3.5" drives, somehow?