PCI-E SSD - possible?

I love having 750gb of constant storage.

I was running a 120gb SSD on my R1, but haven't switched to an SSD on my R3.

Does anyone know if a PCI-E SSD would be usable? Would the bios see it as a functioning bootable drive?

something like this

RunCore Pro 50mm PATA Mini PCI-e PCIe SSD Compatible with the Dell Inspiron Mini 9, Vostro A90, and Asus Eee PC T91 MT Detail Page

Then I could use that as my boot drive/system files, and use my HDD for storage.

Anyone know?

 

1234567890

 

Well that answers that.

Does it run @ usb 3.0 speeds at least for the R3?

 

Not like it matters - it can't be detected as a boot drive anyways, right?

 

Is it still usable as a drive to store data I would love more storage

 

nope unfortunately, its usable as a 3g/wwan connecter for mobile internet (if u dont wanna tether, or dont like usb's sticking out the side) or for a gps card (again in most phones today) so its kinda like putting in a new tape player in a new car......

correct, not detected sorry. But u can boot from an sd card if thats of any interest to u...

 

Thanks and repped.

Total bummer, because that would be a great feature.

Maybe I'll try one of those hybrid drives.

 

yeah, what he said

 

I can confirm that it doesn't work having tried this. No matter what i did i could not get the system to see it the drive.

 

I've been wondering this for ALL laptops why that mPCIe slot is never fully functional. I know the answer is usually cost, but it could be a nice versatile slot for many functions, and an mPCIe SSD would be a great addition. There are some pretty decent performing mPCIe SSD's in the SSD section of this site that would be a good match for this machine.

Yeah, let's hope the next revision of M11x (M12x?) gets one. I'll most likely go with the next revision if it's reasonably priced.

 

I have one of these in my R1

MR-04 (Flash Memory Card Reader (MiniCard adapter for SD card)

works perfectly fine as additional storage, I currently a 16gb sd card in it, but it supports up to 32gb officially, and if you have money to burn, you could try a 128gb SD card ( http://www.tomshardware.com/news/lexar-128-gb-sdxc,11876.html)......

Anyway back to the real world, I get read/write speeds typical of usb2.0 and no probs since installing it 8 months ago.

 

If it helps, your vision is coming. Intel is doing a few things:

1) They released the Intel 310 SSD drive, which is an Intel-speed SSD drive that fits in a mSATA port. The problem with most other mSATA drives is that they are SLOW (think 1st generation J-Micron slow). Intel 310 SSD solves that.

2) Intel also debuted its build-your-own hybrid technology with the Z68 desktop chipset. You combine an SSD and a mechanical hard drive through the BIOS config, and the Intel chipset will use the SSD as a large disk cache.


And since Intel makes laptop chipsets, I would not be surprised if you start seeing this technology appear in future notebooks. It wouldn't happen anytime soon (my guess is 2+ years out). But it's coming...

 

Thanks for the post - I don't see that helping with overall speed of the system though. Usually r/w speeds to an SD card are nothing great.

 

sorry to necro this thread but does anyone have a screen shot of it actually running? a screenshot of it being detected in device manager would suffice.

 

I have a m11x - R1 with 160G Intel SSD main drive with a 16G SD card modified to be flush mount in the card reader but wanted more space for simple storage! Soooo... I just recived this and tested it working:


I ordered this from this site and it took about a week to deliver:
MR15 (Dual Micro SDXC/SDHC/SD Cards to mPCIe Adapter)

I also ordered the optional Metal Baffle for full height and screws.

For testing i just used a 2G MicroSd sandisk card i had laying around but now plan to order 2 - 32G cards.

Here is the On Computer Shot
Here is the inside Computer Shot

Any questions let me know and ill try to answer them!
-Branden

 

So do you think this will work? i mean from what i have read it certainly should. It also accepts sdxc cards up to 64gb in size which is a real boon.

SD SDHC SSD HDD Mini PCI-e Memory Card reader adapter on eBay (end time 19-Jul-11 17:12:50 BST)

Also can you tell me how you modded the sd card to get it to sit flush? Did you just cut it down (aka butchering it ) ?

Thanks

 

Theoretically that should work being that it lists it as a "USB Device" but i have not tested that specific one to know 100%.

Yea on the SD card i found one that has a single chip in the casing that sits horizontally then carefully cut about 60% of the plastic away, then used some black electrical tape to make the end look better. Most people cant even tell that i have a card in there till i tell them or show them.

 

Between a micro sd and a full size sd. Does not full size SD have higher transfer rates? Which also would draw less power? 2 micro or one fullsize?

Edit: And to make sure going back to original post, these wont work correct because the wan in bios? Or windows will still see. The transfers speeds are around usb 2,0 so there wouldn't be much loss versus buying a expensive higher rate ssd with its rate killed by the usb.

http://cgi.ebay.com/KingSpec-IDE-PA...A%2BFICS%2BUFI&otn=21&pmod=250722761402&ps=54

 

The speed all depends on the class of the card. However as a general rule of thumb a full sized sd card of the same class will more than likely have faster write speeds and almost certainly have faster read speeds. The reader wont run at really fast speeds though as in my experience card readers wont transfer data faster than say 20-25 mbps and i cant imagine this one will be much different. Also even a super quick sdhc card such as a sandsik extreme pro will only read and write at 45mbps and they are really very expensive. A decent class 10 should read at 20 mbps and write at a minimum of 10.

The main use of this will be as an internal static storage area for data. Basically very handy if you have a smallish say 64gb or 128gb ssd drive already installed and just want a little bit more.

 

How is the power consumption though? Going back to the original post.

1. We dont need the bios seeing it. We just need windows.

2. As long as you get a slower speed SSD like example given thats around the usb 2 transfer. You wouldn't be wasting your money.

3. Will a SD, micro card or a SSD pcie.
-A: Which will get hotter first
-B: Which is more efficient.

I think these need to be determined. Wont do much good to have a micro or other inside that power wise sucking the battery and heating up the system even more.

 

i believe the speeds all depend on the SD(HC/XC) card that you get.

 

THat still leaves which has the less wattage use and heat.

A
SSD
SD
micro

Im sure there are differences between brands, but we need a baseline. Im still wondering if a SSD would be alright if you got a lower end one with slower read/write below USB 2.0 speeds (like I posted earlier). I have a suspicion with my experience with SD cards the SSD will at least run cooler if not have less wattage use.

 

"All SD card families must power-up at 3.3 volt and use 3.3 volt logic electrical interface, though SDHC and SDXC family cards can step down to 1.8 volt after receiving specific command"

Secure Digital - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

". CF devices operate at 3.3 volts or 5 volts, and can be swapped from system to system. "
CompactFlash - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Power Consumption 16gb mini pcie ssd
http://gb.suntekstore.com/KingSpec-16GB-Mini-PCI__e-SATA-SSD.html?&utm_source=gbus&utm_campaign=gbus


Micro SD:
3.3 volt initialization
1.8 volt idle

Compact Flash
5? 3? Volts? Have to ask manufacturer of adapter.

SSD
Input Voltage 3.3V
Idle 0.5W max
Active 1.5W max

So as I thought, if your after battery life, the ssd is still your best bet.

 

I wish these would work.

MyDigitalSSD mSATA Solid State Drives | My Digital Discount

 

what we need is a mini pcie card that has nand flash chips on it but interfaces with USB so even though it is slow it's compatible.

 

Amazon.com: ZIF CE 1.8 Inch HDD to Mini PCI-E Adapter: Electronics

Something like this maybe? Not sure if its usb controlled though
EDIT: there is a USB port on the board, just no connector for it yet.

MIx that with this, and you have a extra 240gb of space.
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/toshiba-harddrive-hdd,6348.html

 

What about some sort of internal USB 3.0 hub.

Then you could use a USB 3.0 stick, for much faster speeds than any of the current discussed solutions?

 

Wouldnt do anything. The wwan mini pci slot is not a true pci slot, but rather a USB 2.0 port shaped like a mini pci slot

 

I'm talking about a USB 3.0 hub off the USB 3.0 connection for the R3 M11X

 

even if the adapter was USB 2.0 it looks like it won't even fit into the allocated area as you only can fit adapters that are 3cm x 5cm (you can calc that into inches) and there's no place to actually plug in the 1.8 inch hdd anyways.

EDIT: what we need is USB controlled nand flash of at least 128gb to make it worth while...up to 3.0 as it still covers 2.0