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    1TB 5400RPM SATA + 80GB mSATA SSD Caching question

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by salabarria, Aug 25, 2014.

  1. salabarria

    salabarria Newbie

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    Noob question, I just bought an alienware 14 for school and also for gaming and my question is, is the 80gb msata ssd a separate drive? or is it part of the 1tb drive? Im asking because i want to replace it with a SSD and want to know if i would have to re install windows 8 onto the new SSD or will it stay on the 80gb drive.
     
    salabarria, Aug 25, 2014
    #1
  2. Screenio

    Screenio Notebook Consultant

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    It is separate. An mSATA is like a WiFi card as it uses a PCI bus under the laptop. It is removable.
     
    Screenio, Aug 25, 2014
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  3. salabarria

    salabarria Newbie

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    ok thanks, now my OS is on the 80gb msata SSD, would it be smart to put the OS on the SSD drive that i am purchasing or would it be the same speed as the 80gb
     
    salabarria, Aug 25, 2014
    #3
  4. tilleroftheearth

    tilleroftheearth Wisdom listens quietly...

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    It depends on the specific model and capacity of your new SSD, but generally, it will be faster (80GB mSATA SSD seems very, very old to me).
     
    tilleroftheearth, Aug 25, 2014
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  5. Shemmy

    Shemmy Notebook Evangelist

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    For the OP: If your laptop already has an 80GB SSD, why purchase a second? Unless you need high-speed data storage (for example, you want a place to keep VMware or Hyper-V guests), I would think having the OS on the 80GB mSata SSD with your data folders (Documents, Pictures, etc) relocated to the 1TB HDD is a great way to go (plus, you could use the money otherwise spent on the SSD for something else).
     
    Shemmy, Aug 25, 2014
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  6. Jarhead

    Jarhead 恋の♡アカサタナ

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    There's really no point in having a cache drive that's 80GB big. If you're thinking of getting an 80GB SSD cache, just get a regular 80GB SSD and install your OS and programs onto it.
     
    Jarhead, Aug 25, 2014
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  7. ajkula66

    ajkula66 Courage and Consequence

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    Knowing *what exactly* mSATA SSD we're discussing in the first place would help quite a bit...
     
    ajkula66, Aug 25, 2014
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  8. salabarria

    salabarria Newbie

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    I am not sure what kind of ssd the Msata ssd is but it is from a Alienware 14 model if that helps.

    I was going to get a 512gb samsung ssd for my games and school work (computer science)
     
    salabarria, Aug 26, 2014
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  9. Shemmy

    Shemmy Notebook Evangelist

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    If you use VMware Workstation heavily and can't get an SSD large enough for what you use, a large cache does help. But that's neither here nor there.
     
    Shemmy, Aug 26, 2014
    #9