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    To all those with a Optical Sata caddy, what is the Sata operational speed?

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by widezu69, Sep 11, 2012.

  1. widezu69

    widezu69 Goodbye Alienware

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    So as the question states, to those who have swapped out their optical drive with a caddy to install a third (forth if you count msata) drive, what is the speed? Sata I (1.5GB/s), Sata II (3GB/s) or SATA 3 (6GB/s)?

    Thanks!
     
    widezu69, Sep 11, 2012
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  2. Alienware-Natalia_J

    Alienware-Natalia_J Company Representative

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    Given the fact that the M17x r4 only supports up to 2 SATA III ports, I'm pretty sure it's a SATA II (not 100% though since we have not tried it)
     
    Alienware-Natalia_J, Sep 11, 2012
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  3. long2905

    long2905 Notebook Virtuoso

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    It's Sata II (3GB/s), the same with the mSATA slot.
     
    long2905, Sep 11, 2012
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  4. widezu69

    widezu69 Goodbye Alienware

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    That's cool. Is it possible to run two RAID volumes? Like RAID0 the SATA bays and RAID0 the msata with the ODD. 4 drives, 2 volumes. Is that theoretically possible?
     
    widezu69, Sep 11, 2012
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  5. long2905

    long2905 Notebook Virtuoso

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    havent tried that out myself but I don't see why thats not possible. But it does take awhile to get to both the optical drive and mSATA slot.

    That actually sounds like a great idea!
     
    long2905, Sep 11, 2012
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  6. mx308250

    mx308250 Notebook Guru

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    Interesting topic. So my question would be on using the optical sata caddy, would it be possible to run 4 SSD in a raid 0 array?
     
    mx308250, Sep 12, 2012
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  7. widezu69

    widezu69 Goodbye Alienware

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    Theoretically yes but only if you are willing to sacrifice SATA III speeds. Basically, 4x SATA II is almost the same as 2x SATA III in terms of speed. Those with unlimited money can go 2x 512GB SATA III SSDs, with 2x 256GB mSATA SSDs (second mSATA in the ODD bay with adapter) for a total of 1.5TB of high speed SSD storage space.

    If I was really ambitious I would get 2x 128GB mSATA drives, I would bios RAID the mSATA with the ODD. This generates a 256GB RAID0 volume with speeds practically the same as SATA III at around 500MB/s. Then I would RAID my two existing 256GB SSDs (which are not in RAID) with the new RAID0 volume giving me 768GB of space at 3x times the speeds, I estimate around 1200MB/s.

    This is only a theory and probably totally un-achievable.
     
    widezu69, Sep 12, 2012
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  8. long2905

    long2905 Notebook Virtuoso

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    I smell a Yo dawg meme in here...But really can we do a RAID within a RAID?
     
    long2905, Sep 12, 2012
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  9. ArdDrea

    ArdDrea Notebook Enthusiast

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    Not with Intel. High end ($1K+) controllers usually can.
     
    ArdDrea, Sep 18, 2012
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