Micro SD flush with side in M11 R2

Hi.

I have a M11 R2.

I just bought a 32GB Micro SD with Mini SD adapter, on inserting into the M11 it does stick out of the laptop about 1.5 CM. It would have been really nice if it was flush so I could have left it in all the time.

Anyone know if there is an adapter for the MICRO SD like the MINI SD which makes it flush against the side of the M11. As an alternative, could I mod it and solder the MicroSD to the motherboard so it acted as another internal storage drive.

I only ask as I have a nice new Corsair 128GB SSD, I left 10% for trim operations and after Win7 I only really have 80GB to play with, throw in VS2010,Office and a couple of games and not much left.

Goes like a rocket though

Any ideas?

Many Thanks.

 

I know on some sd cards half of the plastic case is empty. So you can cut them in half and they fit flush. I dont remember what cards they were though.

The only problem then is the fact that the m11x doesnt have a eject spring for the sd card... so if you have a flush card you cant take it out without tweezers or something.

Or you can get something like this
http://www.specialtymarket.com/control/detailImage?detail=/images/products/detail/10040.jpg
and run it in a space pci slot to have dual sd cards

http://www.specialtymarket.com/products/PROMOTIONS/p_10040

 

will that dual-card mpci board fit in an m11x R3? I know the machine has two mpci slots, but I thought one was for WWAN only?

 

Not sure if the r3 is bios locked or not, but from what ive been researching you can cover up pin 20 (?) on the pci card and the bios will not be able to ID the card and will just load it up. I still need to do some testing in order to figure out if this will work. I am planning on installing a tv tuner into my wwan slot.

 

The Dual PCI card sounds the best option. I have a M11 R2 which has inbuilt WIFI N.

Will it still have a spare mPCI slot?

 

You have a full height mpci slot for the wwan card. Its a usb power slot so I would think it should work for the sd card readers. But the reader I posted is a half height card, so its too short to fit into the wwan slot without a adapter.

 

But does that mean I would be taking the WIFI card out so I could fit the dual SD adapter? (wwan - wifi the same thing?)

 

No, you will put the sd card reader in the wwan slot, but since its a half height card fitting into a full height card slot you need a adapter like this

http://www.aliexpress.com/product-g...apter-Coverter-wireless-card-wholesalers.html

Also, keep in mind that I do not know if this will even work yet. I have not done any testing.

 

Thats great, ok I mgiht give this a go, thanks for the quick responses ejohnson. So I assume the wifi that I have in my M11 is in another slot, so I will still have WIFI but I will also have the dual SD adapter, at the same time. (assuming the SD adapter does actually work).

Many Thanks!

 

Yep, your computer has the 2 slots in it.

If you wanted to wait till I figure something out before you dump some cash into it I should know with in 2 weeks how to get the wwan slot working for other things.

 

Fairly certain it will work.

Better prices found here.

MR15 (Dual Micro SDXC/SDHC/SD Cards to mPCIe Adapter)

 

There is also these
SD SDHC SSD HDD Mini PCI-e Memory Card reader adapter | eBay

Just use a normal size sd card.

 

Has any one tried it on the R2? Do you need to have wwan option in the bios set to enabled?

 

ok, since no one has reported back i thought i may as well be a sucker and I bought the card reader that ejohnson posted.

i saw a comparison spec and the dual micro SD card reader has a few less features than the full height standard-sized SD card reader....but hey may as well give it a try!

 

If those are true mini pci-e cards they won't work in the wwan slot. The wwan slot is like a usb with a mini pci-e connector. They might work in the slot that occupies the wifi card; I don't know if that is a true mini pci-e or wired for usb.

 

well the card is spec'd as using USB over mini pci-e so it may work.

 

So is the mini-PCI-e slot on the R2/R3 an actual PCI-e slot, or is it a gimped USB interface? I would love to try and enable Intel Smart Response using a high-speeed mini-SDHC card or even full out mini PCI-e SSD if the slot was a proper implementation.

 

Its going to be a usb pci slot. No ssd support for us

 

The same as "thegh0sts" I have bought the dual adapter and backing plate from the following link: MR15 (Dual Micro SDXC/SDHC/SD Cards to mPCIe Adapter)

I will post on here once it arrives, maybe put on a few pics with it working!

 

theoretically it sounds like that if it does work that it'll be slower than SSD so it won't be great to have things like games steam moved on it....provided the motherboard actually accepts it.

 

This right here is what we need! Trying now to find a place that sells it.... the web page that its hosted on sell tons of things like it, but nothing that IS it.

http://www.hwtools.net/PDF/PM3N_dimension.pdf

 

Keep us posted when the parts come in. If it works, I'll be picking one up, along with 2 64GB SD Cards and justifying my move to a 240GB SSD. I've had too much need for a 500GB HDD and 3 64GB SD cards would satisfy my storage needs.

Wonder if its possible to use diskpart to stripe the 3 SD cards together?

 

One of the guys over on the dell mini 1010 forums did this. Not sure how and I cant find the link anymore, but he was able to do it.

 

Are there 64GB micro SD cards?

 

Good to know. With SDXC cards currently doing about 20MBps, 3x in RAID0 would give me a 192GB drive with a theoretical 60MBps throughput. Not bad.

What fits in the smaller MMC port? I thought MMC died a long time ago?

 

64GB MicroSD cards were announced. Soon to be released.

I did make the mistake of assuming that expansion module was for SD cards and not MicroSD. That expansion module does support micro SDXC, which also supports up to 2TB modules when we get to that point.

 

Just wondering if anyone has confirmed this works in the 11x-R1? I currently use a modded 32G SD card in the slot flush mounted, but this would be a way better option.

 

We will know in a few days after the 2 people who ordered them get the part installed.

 

Man the storage on these things is getting crazy. One of the other posted devices took single SD cards. That is one of the ones I am thinking of getting.

 

well, i ordered one yesterday and i haven't heard from the seller yet.

 

Where did you order from? Alot of places no longer contact you after purchise. They just take your money and ship the items.

 

Not sure if you can make a raid out of these because the OS sees them as external removable media.

 

i got mine from ebay, the link ejohnson provided.

funnily enough i got a message from the seller saying the adapter was shipped.

would the adapter appear even though there's no card in it?

 

hmm... thats a good question. It might show up as a USB device with no card in it, but chances are you will have to insert a card before something comes up.

 

true, i have a USB card reader on my monitor and i just plugged it in and nothing shows up in my computer but device manager definitely says it's there but as unused drive letters.

EDIT: here's a comparison PDF.

http://www.hwtools.net/PDF/SD cardreader comparison.pdf

i think the one on the very left is the one I bought off ebay as the listing says it's USB 2.0.

 

Looking at that PDF, look at MR09R... its a micro sd card reader, but it has 2 antenna plugs on it also.

http://www.hwtools.net/cardreader/MR09R.html

 

i wonder what the theoretical speed would be and which is it most dependent on? the card or the adapter?

EDIT: just wondering as I would like to dump some games to a 32gb SDHC card and see how it fairs.

 

Could this be a feasible alternative to the SD Card?

RunCore outs T50 6Gb/s mSATA SSD, SandForce speeds included -- Engadget

And this:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/msata-ssd-flash,2948.html

 

the connector uses USB controllers so the SSD would need the controller on the drive.

 

Even if they can get the bios to see the other slot as not for the wwan. Getting a ssd for it would be like taking a Ferrari, and putting it into LA Traffic. That PCI E is still using USB 2.0 which cant get past 60MBs. When most of the time thats about half because of CPU use.

The smartcards are the right idea, and I hope to hear results soon as I had the same idea before with cutting an external to be flush to keep windows temp swap, page, and downloaded files on.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/575083-m11x-r2-card-read-can-read-sdhc.html

 

I'll have to keep an eye on this thread since I have been looking at those adapters and wondering if they would work. I was bummed to find out the card wasn't flush with the SD slot.

 

you only need windows to be able to see it in device manager for it to work.

 

Just want to put this in here as it may help when the time comes for the cards to go in. This is from my tv tuner thread

 

so we should try it with and without pin 20 masked on an R1 and R2 to see if that works.

 

Yea, try putting it in without the mask first. If it reads it then perfect, if not try to mask it and see what happens.

 

So do we know yet whether the mini-PCI-e slot is true PCI-e bandwidth or tied to USB? If it were tied to USB3, it wouldn't be so bad (M11Xr3).

 

Its not a true pci slot. just a usb plug in pci form

 

Thanks, now to see if R3 has it tied to the USB 3.0 bus, but I don't think we'll be that lucky.

 

you'd be really lucky if it was tied to the sata controller. Would having the soon coming samsung SSD (with a built-in sata controller) work on a USB controlled mini-pcie slot?

 

Now I'm wondering if a SATA to USB 2 adapter, such as those found in self powered USB HDDs, could work for something like this. There's room to make things fit with a little modding.

This may be bad news, but the WLAN card does NOT work in the WWAN slot. The Pin20 mod may fix that, idk.