About the msata SSD

Was planning about buying an msata ssd for my m17xR4 and came across a doubt. I thought msata port meant the port is a standard one, but looking at an ssdboss comparison chart, there was more than one msata port, like the mSATA PCI-Express port, msata sata III, etc. I was about to buy Plextor 128GB mSATA SSD M5M Series PX-128M5M, and wanted to confirm if it will work my R4. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Also if time permits, please tell me about any pros and cons about the plextor ssd I mentioned above, like if it supports TRIM, if there is better compatible msata ssd for the same price etc. Thank you.

 

The mSATA connector as in the pin arrangement is standard and any mSATA drive will work in a mSATA port. The differences stem from the fact that some mSATA ports also double as mPCI-E ports, so they are wired to function as either depending on what is connected to it. As for SATA III, SATA II, etc. it's just like for standard SATA ports, the speed will be determined by which SATA port on the chipset the mSATA is connected to, it could be SATA II or SATA III, it varies from notebook to notebook. I think it'S SATA II for the R4.

The golden rule for SATA still applies though: SATA is SATA is SATA. In other words, aside from the maximum data transfer speeds you can achieve, TRIM and any SATA drive will work on any SATA port. SATA is forward and backwards compatible.

tl;dr: Any mSATA drive will work in your R4.

 

It should work without issues.

 

yes it would work in the mSATA port on the R4, but be aware, it'll only work at SATA2 speeds