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    Boot Drive Dilemma - SSD

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by Plutonium239, May 29, 2012.

  1. Plutonium239

    Plutonium239 Notebook Geek

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    So, I just ordered an M17xR4 and I already have two SSDs I was going to use, a 128GB Plextor M3 for the boot drive and a 512GB Toshiba for a data drive.

    Then I found out the M17x supports an mSATA drive as well so I was looking at this one: Newegg.com - Intel 310 Series 80GB mSATA mSATA (mini PCIe form factor) MLC Enterprise Solid State Disk SSDMAEMC080G2C1 - Enterprise SSD

    My question is why would you want to use something like that for your boot drive when a SATA SSD (in the example below the Plextor M3) is nearly twice as fast?

    Intel mSATA:
    Sustained Read: 200MB/s
    Sustained Write: 70MB/s
    4KB Random Read: 35,000 IOPS
    4KB Random Write: 6,600 IOPS

    Plextor M3:
    Max Sequential Read: 510MB/s
    Max Sequential Write: 210MB/s
    4KB Random Read: 70,000 IOPS
    4KB Random Write: 50,000 IOPS
     
    Plutonium239, May 29, 2012
    #1
  2. SlickDude80

    SlickDude80 Notebook Prophet

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    if you already have 2 SSD's there really is no need to get a mSATA drive. And mSata is slower right now

    you have a nice configuration there already
     
    SlickDude80, May 29, 2012
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  3. Plutonium239

    Plutonium239 Notebook Geek

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    Exactly what I wanted to know! Thank you!
     
    Plutonium239, May 29, 2012
    #3
  4. The Revelator

    The Revelator Notebook Prophet

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    Most likely because you couldn't afford a M3 at the time.
     
    The Revelator, May 29, 2012
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  5. xHamanx

    xHamanx Notebook Enthusiast

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    My r4 came with a 64g msata ssd and although its not as fast as the m3 its still suffice. Boot time is around 20 sec or less.
     
    xHamanx, May 29, 2012
    #5
  6. Plutonium239

    Plutonium239 Notebook Geek

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    I was thinking about just making a partition for Linux but I think I'll dedicate the mSATA drive to it that way I don't have to bother my other two drives.
     
    Plutonium239, May 29, 2012
    #6