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    Boot from PCIe SSD Supertalent

    Discussion in 'Alienware M11x' started by azazul22, Jul 19, 2010.

  1. azazul22

    azazul22 Newbie

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    Hello anyone have testet to boot from any PCIe Half Card SSD ?

    I think i would buy any Supertalent SSD with 16 or 32GB if it work.

    Are the speed ok with read 40MB/s • write: 15MB/ or to slow ?

    I have the Dell Configuration HDD 500GB.

    If it work i make Win7 on it and i have a Silence Laptop with many GB in Background (500HD)
     
    azazul22, Jul 19, 2010
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  2. patchseven

    patchseven Notebook Guru

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    PCIe SSD's use the same plug, but a completely different pin configuration to normal PCIe.

    A PCIe SSD will simply not function at all when plugged into the m11x.

    If you want to use the PCIe slot for extra storage you will need something like this:

    MR-04

    Which supports up to 32gb SDHC.
     
    patchseven, Jul 19, 2010
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  3. surfxombie

    surfxombie Notebook Evangelist

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    Interesting, thanks for the link.
    Ah but not for booting as that page says. So what you effectively get is an internal SD card that will run at USB speeds (limited by PCIe slot).

    "Note:
    MR04 is standard USB mass storage device. Design for Extension/Secondary HDD. Application for readyboost and backup/Storage function.
    Basically, MR04 can’t bootable to Windows XP/Vista."
     
    surfxombie, Jul 20, 2010
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  4. patchseven

    patchseven Notebook Guru

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    I am relatively sure, based on the fact it is simply mounting the SD card as a usb device, that if you went into your bios settings and set usb boot priority to 1st, and had a bootable partition on your SD card it would boot fine from it, just like any other USB stick. They are simply playing it safe, so they dont get a whole bunch of people complaining when the SD cards start dying because of over use in their capacity as a boot drive.

    Performance however as noted would be restricted by the USB speeds... however many linux live cd's run fine of a usb flashdrive..... so it still could be handy.

    Also remember that all card readers on laptops are mounted in the same way, so you can test out the performance on any old SD card you have lying around and see if it would be useful.
     
    patchseven, Jul 20, 2010
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  5. kent1146

    kent1146 Notebook Prophet

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    Your PCIe SSD is going to be very slow. To give you an idea, a 7200rpm hard drive is going to transfer at rates roughly double of your PCIe-based SSD (70MB/s - 80MB/s read speeds, 40MB/s write speeds).

    And your Alienware M11x will never be "silent", because of the large fan in it. When gaming, that fan is going to put out a lot more noise than any hard drive will. If you want a silent computing environment, then use a pair of noise isolating headphones :).
     
    kent1146, Jul 20, 2010
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