Aftermarket mini PCIe SSD options for Precision M4500

Appears the M4500/M6400/M6500 have sata pins on the mPCIe socket. Not many systems have this. So yes, could use the Intel 310 series, or the Renice X3 50mm mSATA (Mini SATA PCI-E) SSD.

 

I spoke with Renice they claim that their system has twice the write speed of the intel model. You can talk to them to buy one or wait for them to be on the regular market, but the intel ones are on newegg already lol

 

I'm going for the Intel. I already have an X25 so it's essentially the same thing. I've never heard of Renice before, and there is a golden rule to never be an SSD guinea pig. That said it seems to be a Sandforce, so *should* be okay, but I'd rather not waste more money on dodgy SSDs.

 

I got the 60GB 50mm Renice X3 SF1200-equipped mPCIe SSD which I benched test of here. Summary: 60GB is slower than the Intel G2 SSDs. 120GB would be faster, similar to the benchmarks of the Vertex2.

Newegg's US$190 price for the 80GB mPCIe 310 means it's faster AND cheaper than the US$200 for the 60GB Renice X3 msata SSD.

 

Likewise, the 80GB Intel drive seems quicker than the 40gb one:

40gb: 170mb/sec read; 35mb/sec write
80gb: 200mb/sec read; 70mb/sec write

These seem identical to the X25 speeds. I recall the X25 80gb model having the slower speeds, the 160gb model and recent 120gb model having the faster.

I'm going to order and will report back. I'm always a little reluctant to be the guinea pig, so hopefully I won't get bitten... !

 

Intel 310 SSD was delivered today. Well, almost. Sadly the clueless delivery driver firstly took it to the wrong address, then took it back to the depot. When it turns up for real I'll let you know my findings.

 

Dell 310 SSD update: Installed, went in a trick, works straight up, 74.5gb formated size. Benchmark puts it at 250mb/sec read - 50mb/sec faster than my Intel X25, but that might because the latter has a little mielage on it or perhaps it was fighting other drive activity.. FWIW Intel rate both drives @ 200mb/sec but basically this is a full speed drive every bit the equal of a full size X25.

Just remember to make sure your WWAN antennae wires are returned properly (including at the base not just at the tips), otherwise you might spend a minute or so wondering why the case won't shut like I did.

 

Thanks for being the guinea pig fanjules. I ordered the same for my 6500 based on previous posts here and I´m currently waiting for it to arrive. I´ll hopefully be able to post a confirmation for the 6500 when I´ve tried it out.

 

The Intel 310 works fine in my Precision M6500. Here's a quick benchmark I did with CDM:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : Crystal Dew World
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 208.991 MB/s
Sequential Write : 85.696 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 158.217 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 85.109 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 13.288 MB/s [ 3244.1 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 20.786 MB/s [ 5074.7 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 145.578 MB/s [ 35541.4 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 81.928 MB/s [ 20002.0 IOPS]

Test : 500 MB [B: 0.1% (0.1/74.5 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2011/01/29 17:00:28
OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)

What a relief.

 

Some great benchmarks there!