Aftermarket mini PCIe SSD options for Precision M4500

If wanted a SF1200 solution instead can see benchmarks from the 60GB product in my draft review: Renice X3 (SF1200) 1.8"/msata SSD User Review. The 120GB product is faster.

 

I imagine the speeds are probably better than the Samsung SSD's that were designed for the Dell's. Would anyone have a Samsung test for comparison...?
The test was on the empty drive so I'll do another when I've got the OS cloned onto it. As far as I know this thread is the first confirmation of alternative mini PCI-e SSD's for these models.

For reference, I tried the Runcore 50mm equivalent before the Intel and it didn't work, nor did the screw-holes line-up properly. But hopefully more manufacturers will enter this market as time goes on.

 

This article is a bit old... but still relevant, i.e. Intel X25 G2 is still current, the Samsung model is still what they put in Dells, Sandforce are still faster, etc. etc. etc.

The SSD Relapse: Understanding and Choosing the Best SSD - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

Samsung has very poor random write performance on their mlc drive.

I suspect the Samsung pci-e card is similar or worse performance to the bigger drives as it's capacity is quite low compared to what the others are making, even though Samsungs full-size drives actually have better data density than the faster guys.

Note that the Samsungs however are still leagues ahead of a traditional hard disk. As you can see from the article they also have superior performance at straight read/write operations, similar to a traditional hard disk.

 

I read the benchmarks for the Intel 310 SSD, and ended up buying it from Newegg for $189. Installed and there are a few caveats:

1. Two chipset drivers will not run on quad core machines. They are the Intel AMT HECI, and the Intel Dual-Core Turbo Boost. This is because V Pro is not supported on the quad core and because Intel says that AMT v. 6 will not run on the I7 840 and above.

2. To update the Intel chipset, make sure to disable the RAID function or the update will not run.

3. Having said that, I was able to load up Windows 7 x64 Ultimate, Office Pro Plus 2010, and Adobe Creative Web Suite 5 on the SSD, offloaded all data to the 500GB dell drive that shipped with my unit, and noted that the disk performance clocks in at 7.5 on the performance index. The system gets a 6.6 score only because that is as fast as the NVIDIA 1800 will run. The performance increase when loading big apps like Photoshop is VERY SUBSTANTIAL.

My conclusion: I would NEVER purchase another laptop or PC without an SSD for the OS and programs. The performance gain is so substantial that it makes no sense to do anything else. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

 

I'll second that. Windows 7 and my editing apps all star up in less than half the time. But there is a downside, I've got no time to have a coffee anymore...