How to add TWO (2) additional SATA III (3) ports to your laptop

SYBAUSA - SD-MPE40056 >> 2-Port SATA 6G Card, Mini PCI-Express Form Factor, non-RAID, ASM1061 Chipset

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I'm not sure how good the ASMedia ASM1061 PCI-Express 2.0 SATA 6Gbps Controller are, though? Has anyone had any experience with these?

ASMedia Technology Inc. 祥碩科技

You can install 2 additional MSATA SSD's in your laptop with the help of these:



Amazon.com: Syba mSATA SSD to 2.5-Inch SATA Adapter (SY-ADA40050): Computers & Accessories

I bought two of these, they work great! Plan to create a dual SATA 3 SSD RAID 0 array. Technically, you could create a quad SATA 3 SSD RAID 0 array! Just be careful, something that fast might just tear a wormhole into our dimension!

UPDATE:

The ASMedia 1061 based controller cards are confirmed to be working at SATA3 6gbps!

tonymacx86 Blog: Increasing Disk Performance: SATA 6Gb/s PCI Express Cards Confirmed Working in OS X

UPDATE 2 (benchmarks!):

mini PCIe card slot transfer rate

 

How would you wire in power though?

 

I am also not even sure there is enough room in the chassis for that type of mini PCI-e card. In the M18x there is only enough space for a half-height card. In addition to the question of powering the added devices, where are they going to be mounted? There are no extra bays for additional drives. If the extra mini PCI-e slot in the M17x R4 is made the same as the M18x R1/R2, then it will not be bootable because no power goes to the slot until POST has completed.

See this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ci-slot-wihd-socket-systems-without-wihd.html

 

I recall someone managed to do it with an M17x R3/R4 by stacking the HDDs in the Disk drive bay, he used a slimmer version of a controller (it was flat with sockets coming out the side) but I cannot seem to find the thread.

 

You can tap power from the ODD SATA port with this: Amazon.com: 6-inch SATA Power Y Splitter, 1 male to 2 female.: ElectronicsThere's a thread in the M17x forum, someone already successfully did this, but he used a card that only supported SATA 2 speed; now, they have cards that support SATA 3, which means we'd have 4 x SATA 3 ports for a quad SSD RAID 0 Array.I'm only going to do two SSD's though, quad is overkill for me.

Found it! http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...al-hdd-m17xr3-using-mini-pci-e-raid-card.html

 

Thanks. Now I am wondering if the USB card in the thread that I linked is not bootable and maybe the port does get power during POST. This is interesting. I might try it. So, the power comes from the end of the ODD SATA port, and you connect the Y-splitter there? Interesting! I already have a 1TB HDD in my optical bay, but I could fit two mSATA in that space easily enough.

 

If you look at the lower right corner of the M17x R3/4 in this video (starting at the 2:00 mark):



You can see a rectangular "foot" that protrudes out from the case, it almost looks like it's made to fit a laptop hard drive.

If you do end up trying this Mr. Fox, please take pictures or even better, video!

The guy who did the first dual HDD install into the ODD bay did a lot of the legwork for future storage mods, but unfortunately, he only took two pictures.

 

If I do it, I sure will document it well for everyone. I have not decided if I am going to yet. Adding extra drives will draw more power and the 330W AC adapter is not really enough power for the kind of overclocking I like to do. I value that and gaming more than anything else. Having the extra drives sharing power might take the overclocking ability in wrong direction for me. This is very interesting to me and I am tempted to do it. Thinking about the power utilization is the main thing holding me back right now.

 

What drives do you plan to put in?

The WD Blue models look pretty efficient:

http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/?id=365&type=8

How do you plan to secure your drives? That's something I've been thinking about but haven't really found a good solution, yet.

BTW, this looks like a better option for mini PCI-e card:

MPX-9125 PCI Express mini card (mini-PCIe) Serial ATA 6.0Gbps AHCI & RAID Controller Card

But, I can't find any place that actually sells it. I like how it has 14 pin DF to SATA connectors for easier cable routing. Plus, Marvell is supposed to make some pretty good controllers.



UPDATE:

Just got off the phone with sales lady from that company. Looks like that company is the only company that sells this card and it's direct for $67. It comes with 2 SATA cables that are "low profile"

Manual is here: http://www.globalamericaninc.com/manuals/1507900.pdf

That's too pricey for me.

 

This is great info, if it works then it would be a good mod to have

 

I already have 3 SSD and a 1TB Seagate Momentus LP (low power) HDD. I am trying to secure an mSATA bracket to add an mSATA SSD, but Dell cannot seem to locate any part number for the service part. If I am ever able to get that bracket, it will be 5 drives in total, not counting the rare times I connect my eSATAp slot-load BD drive. That would raise the drive count to 6.

Now the possibility exists to add yet one or two more drives... I think that might be too much power draw to be a good thing. And, while I believe it would work, I think that would make overclocking fun difficult or impossible with only a 330W AC adapter.

 

first of all, mini pcie is x1 lane, by default spec x1 is 250mb/s bandwidth in both direction. also, try switching up adapter type as well as cable. you can find 1.8" Msata to msata adapter or 2.5" 22p sata to msata adapter.

note first one is Msata (capital M) because it's 1.8"
-1.8" Msata to msata adapter Mini PCIe mSATA 3x5cm SSD to 1.8" Micro SATA Adapter converter card PA6010B | eBay
-2.5" 22pin to msata to save space, New MSATA( PCI-E ) SSD 50mm to 2.5 inch SATA 22Pin converter board Adapter | eBay

the 22pin cable for 2.5" is easy to find, for 1.8" Msata to 22pin will be this 1.8 to 22pin | eBay. after that just grab 7pin sata cable and a power splitter for 15pin sata cable and you're set. just make sure wire is long enough and the 7pin sata cable is angled due to laptop's height



power related issues
this is the biggest obstacle, Mr fox seems to reach the limits of his machine hes hardcore overclocker I guess at that point theres not much we can do. also note MOST msata uses 3.3v and by taking that into consideration, most of the msata drives actually uses MORE power than regular 2.5" SSD because of current draw, the same with SSD vs HDD, SSD ain't all that better in power consumption vs HDD. WD green HDD uses less power than most SSDs.

ie. intel 520 240gb on 5volts under incompressible write max current draw is around 3.7 watts, thats around .74amps or 740milli amps. intel 525 msata is on 3.3volts but uses 4.5 watts during heavy incompressible write and it draws 1.35 amps or 1350milli amps.

I looked around and on wiki showing 15pin sata power in general gives 1.5 amps, so with a power splitter, the two combined drive best not to exceed 1.5 amps or may see drop of performance or issues.



low power HDD/SSD/msata
HDD in general is pretty good but majority of them comes in 9.5mm and theres size/height issues. 7mm HDDs are slow in performance, kinda a waste of minipcie slot. may have to wait till 7mm/5mm HDD SSHD from seagate/WD and see how well they do in benchmark.

SSDs, BF4 120gb/240gb and SuperSSpeed SLC 128gb peak at .5 amps usage, pretty damn good but loses out in capacity. msata just suck in general, until BF4 msata is fully tested by Tweaktown and Anand, won't buy them. SSDs 480/512gb is probably no go cause needs more juice to power all the nand, but may work (see below)

also note most reviews had these drives run under sata6gbps, where as our mini pcie is maxed at less than 3gbps, maybe able to pull a 512gb samsung 840pro in this.

finally i am obviously addicted and waiting for my parts to arrive so i can go all out, PEACE OUT BROTHERS

 

These are both MSATA SSD's running in the M14x's SATA 3 MSATA slot. Benchmarks looks pretty decent to me. Except for WBC wasn't enabled so write speed isn't hitting its full potential.

 

when I meant msata just "suck" in general, I meant to say they suck in terms of power consumption xD. but anyway look at their 4k read and write, it really is quite low. there are a few that has good 4k read at almost 40mb/s and 4k write near 130mb/s but quite expensive, you can find them on Tweaktown msata storage reviews.

read speed wont hit over 250 with mini pcie x1 lane but the msata slot, depending on machine, m14x is 6gbps? m18x r2 is 3gbps. anyway, haswell should be full sata 6gbps =D im looking forward to that.

intel 525 msata is able to write over 250mb/s but if you were to run it off mini pcie, you'll need a power splitter for that and 525 uses a ton of current during heavy write so not recommanded. 520 is good though.

 

i know it may be answered, but have to ask.

on my Alienware M17x I have already installed 2x1tb hdd and a 120 gb ssd, also want to add another ssd on the DMC slot with a mini pci-e ssd.

Is it possible?

 

m17x? not sure, but m17x R3 yes, not m18x R1/R2 though

 

I don't believe it works on the M17xR3/R4 either. I believe the DMC slot only works for mSATA on the M14x, but I cannot remember for sure which model (or both).

 

it seems m17x R3/R4 DMC (or so dell calls it) runs on pcie lane, which mini pcie cards gets picked up. unlike the M18x which runs on usb lane. my guess to that maybe because M18x have 1 more graphics card so most pcie lanes were used up.

 

Maybe so. If that's the case, I'll take the extra GPU over an extra drive any day of the week.

 

or we can just have lots more pcie lane, with newer chipset coming up it should give more.. if Dell gives it to us.