512GB mSata SSD?

Hey guys, I'm here to discuss with you about 512GB mSata SSD's (or larger).

Do they even exist? I've been unable to find a single one. You would think by now there would be some, but why isn't there any?

Thank you.

P.S. The reason I ask is because if there were 512GB mSata SSD's, M18x R2 owners could have 4x 512GB SSD's in a RAID 0 configuration. And yes, I know performance would be decreased because mSata is SATA II, but it's still something I'd like to do one day, or at least try out. Even SATA II SSD's are still faster than the fastest HDD, so, yeah. But 2TB SSD RAID 0 (4x 512GB) on a laptop would be insane.

 

There was going to be a 512GB M4 mSATA SSD i read a few months ago but nothing come up. Give it a year maybe.

 

A year? Oh, I hope not. If Crucial released an M500 mSata SSD after the regular M500, that'd be a deal breaker for me. I'd buy it in a heart beat.

 

Actually, there is the Mushkin 480GB Atlas mSATA MKNSSDAT480GB which is SATA3, some retailers are shipping right now. But I'd check the thickness - they managed to jam 4x 128GB ICs on it. On the plus side that means it apparently is using all 8-channels of the SF-2281 controller, the downside is 1 watt/3watt standby/active power usage vs 0.1 watts of the Samsung.

I assume it's 512MB all up and the 480GB capacity is a little over-provisioning. I'm going to run with 25% OP as stable write performance is very important in my work.

I'm waiting for my Samsung 840 Pro 512GB to arrive for my Lenovo X230 which came today. I really would like to stripe two SSDs together with btrfs (I like ZFS but it's not going to be my root FS on this laptop..), the mSATA is the only way to do it.

There are a few other "coming soon" products I've noted at http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=2047116

 

We are waiting for double density NAND chips to hit mass production.

The atlas "cheats" with a daughter board which takes it a smidge out of mSATA specs.

 

Anandtech says the m500 should come out next quarter: AnandTech - Micron/Crucial Announces M500 SSD Line of SSDs

Half a year maybe?

 

Samsung are offering a 512GB version of the 13.3" Series 9 which is meant to be on the shelves. I'm waiting for anyone to get one and report how they fitted 512GB into it. There's not a lot of spare space in the chassis and previous Series 9s have all used mSATA (which was created by Samsung). Perhaps they have 512GB mSATA in production and are not publicly telling anyone because all the production is booked.

John

 

Sounds good. Over the past few years, I've become brand-loyal to Samsung. Thanks for sharing that, I'll keep an eye on its progress.

 

Newegg.com - Mushkin Enhanced Atlas Series MKNSSDAT480GB mSATA 480GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

muskin has a 480GB and the m500 will be 480 as well. m500 will be out soon and cheaper but should have less writes but be faster. The muskin is out now but out of stock on newegg. try a good search for it

 

A Samsung SSD with 512GB mSATA is now available.

512GB mSATA Solid State Drive/SSD - Samsung SSD - MZMTD512HAGL de Notebooks Laptops billiger notebook.de


greets

 

Perhaps dual mSATA ports? Or since it's Samsung I'm sure they can make some special provisions for their own laptops.

 

Way too expensive for that level of performance. I want to see 500+ MB/s like Mushkin's 240GB.

 

going to have to wait for m500 or get the mushkin i posted

 

BTW how they fit more was with thicker flash chips...check out my mushin link and compared the size to the 256GB crucial. They are the same size but thicker

 

Anyone know if 2 mSATA SSDs can be cramped into a single SATA 2.5" slot and work? (with some RAID adapter or?)

OT: Alienware R18 doesn't use regular SATA ports but mSATA for all 4 disk connectors??

 

You mean like this: 2.5 Inch SATA to Dual Mini PCI-e mSATA SSD Raid Card [R2021D] - $29.80 : Drivestar Store



Keep in mind a few things. TRIM may not be supported in this configuration, because it would be seen as a single drive by the OS and it has its own RAID controller. Also you'd be limited to the SATA II speed for the SATA connector you'd still be limited to 375MB/sec, unless you can find one that works with SATA III.

 

level of performance for the PM841 is identical to the samsung 840, at 98000 iops 4k read, if your saying that level of performance isn't worth the price (399.99 euro from skinflint price comparison) I don't know what to say especially when they managed to cram a 500Gb 840 to an msata form factor, at least its worth the cost for designing the chips and the advanced programming

 

Thanks, m8!

 

Thanks for the input regarding the PM841! Does this model work well with Samsung's Magician? Can it update the firmware through Magician?

 

BTW in't TRIM done on the SSD and not by OS? I very well could be wrong...just seems like something the integrated controller would handle.

 

TRIM is a command passed by the OS to indicate that a block is clear to erase. Garbage collection is controlled by the SSD firmware that uses TRIM to know it can clear the cells that are no longer in use.

 

Any PM841 users have the answer to this?

I'm highly interested in a SATAIII 512GB mSATA SSD,and this Samsung PM841 seems like a good alternative to the M500. Its just too bad that Samsung hasn't marketed this towards consumers. In my opinion, it would be highly successful.

 

is the m500 even out yet? I am glad i got the 840 TLC when i did....i would be so mad watching this long lol. Granted it is a meh drive...can be slow at times but better than my disk drive and fairly cheap.


Crucial M500 960GB SSD Review - Final Thoughts :: TweakTown

Sadly my 840 beats the m500 in a lot of things or matches it. Only thing it really gets it but kicked in is sequential writes...random and stuff it beats or matches it in almost all of them...kinda weak

 

No its not, but Samsung snoozed on this opportunity by not releasing a consumer mSATA version of their 840 Pro. The 480GB mSATA M500 should be coming online soon but honestly id much more prefer the Samsung to match my awesome 16GB DDR3-1600 RAM. I guess for my purposes of storing all my data on one internal SSD and my OS/apps on another SSD, it shouldn't really matter too much considering my data sits there until the next time i backup my data.

Google "mSATA PM841 TSSDR" for some great info on this little gem!

Yeah the M500 performed worse than the previous M4 in some tests done by Anandtech. Micron just pulled an AMD!!! LOL

 

plus the 480GB model is now going to be 400 not 300 like we were hearing so 280 for my 840 several months ago was a good deal and if i waited i would have been pissed

 

That does put a sour taste in ones mouth. Which 840 capacity did you say you got?

 

of cource 500GB for 280 ^^...any lower size performance tanks like no other. That is why i had my eyes set on a 500GB model or large...performance just sucks on slower drives

 

Wow, great price. Have you set aside any extra spare area? The TLC 840 gets a bad rep by some users here but i think its just nonsense and time will prove its another great (inexpensive) SSD.

EDIT: I found my answer to my own quesiton. TSSDR shows the PM841 is not fully functional with Magician 4.0, since it is NOT a consumer Samsung SSD. The only thing you can do is view some specs and run a benchmark:


For reference here's where i currently stand with my 830 (25% filled, 21.80GB SA), notice the difference in IOPS:

 

no i have not...i have noticed it tanking in performance...office takes like 2-3 s to load...it like hangs. I click on word....1...2...it actually pops up and loads. Like you click on the button and nothing happens for 2 seconds. After that it loads near instantly....not sure why it hangs. I am rocking 226GB free out of 465GB right now.

 

Can you tell me how much O.P. Samsung recommends for it in Magician? It would be wise to set some aside if its going to fill up quickly.

For me, a 512GB mSATA SSD will hold my os and apps with room to spare. I'd like the 960GB M500 for my personal data and both SSDs with additional spare area added for good measure. A third SSD could be added to the ODD bay and it actually operates at SATAIII. I hardly ever use my ODD.

More importantly...

Is it possible to do a RAID setup between an mSATA SSD and a 2.5" SSD ("SATAII-to-SATAII connection," and "SATAII-to-SATAIII connection")? What about adding a third 2.5" SSD in the optical disk drive bay and RAID'ing that too (Again SATAIII)? I'm not too knowledablge on this subject at all.

 

raid doesn't support trim as far as i know. Also what about magician?

 

Can you tell me how much O.P. Samsung recommends for it in Magician? It would be wise to set some aside if its going to fill up quickly.

For me, a 512GB mSATA SSD will hold my os and apps with room to spare. I'd like the 960GB M500 for my personal data and both SSDs with additional spare area added for good measure. A third SSD could be added to the ODD bay and it actually operates at SATAIII. I hardly ever use my ODD.

More importantly...

Is it possible to do a RAID setup between an mSATA SSD and a 2.5" SSD ("SATAII-to-SATAII connection," and "SATAII-to-SATAIII connection")? What about adding a third 2.5" SSD in the optical disk drive bay and RAID'ing that too (Again SATAIII)? I'm not too knowledablge on this subject at all.

 

not a clue on any of those sorry...new to the SSD thing

I don't think i really need to bother with reserving space...i plan on leave a good 100GB free

 

It has to be an unallocated partition, simply leaving some space free is not the same.

And its easy to see what Magician v4.0 recommends for OP, simply click the tab and it should say a minimum recommended amount. You are free to choose however much you'd like. This same thing can be accomplished using Computer Management in Windows but Magician gives a minimum recommendation. That is all im wondering regarding your 500GB SSD.

 

i don't think i installed magician...i'll fittle around with it later

 

Anandtech, Intel Brings TRIM to RAID-0 SSD Arrays on 7-Series Motherboards, We Test It
RCLABS SAMSUNG 840 PRO 128GB RAID 0 TRIM SSD REVIEW

 

I will look into this whole raid possibility as AMD does provide raid driver support for my chipset. The SSDs i choose would have to also support trim in raid. I will also look into that.

 

To what i have read, AMD chipset/drivers dont support TRIM command on a raid array, but research it, as on intel there are some people that have been able to do it with older chipsets with modified bios/orom.

 

so i checked my drive...i thought the SSDs already come with a certain amount hidden to allow them to run faster or whatever. Maybe i miss read someone's post a while back. I have 465GB of space and 500GBi worth of space if i got that right. How much should i shrink it 25GB?

EDIT: wow i just shrunk it by 25GB and i can alreadu see a difference...after i installed 250GB worth of space i would open word and excel and nothing would happen for 3s. Now it loads right away. The hanging is gone...sweet!

 

How did you "shrink it"?

 

Right click 'Computer', select Manage, select Disk Management, select the drive/partition (either in the list or the graphic view) you want to 'shrink', right click and select Shrink Volume.

 

well i am very happy with it now lol...just shrunk only 25GB and it runs like new....i was wondering what was going on with it....the things hanging was terrible

 

So far my drive is fast everywhere except when I open the downloads folder. Can you de-shrink if shrinking does not do anything performance wise?

 

Yes u do it in the same section

 

Well i increased my shrink to 50GB because i filled another 50GB of data so it started running like butt but it is great now. I only have like 10.5% shrinked, which i remember somewhere i though recommended was 15% right?

 

The recommended "shrink" is to shrink the volume, then create a new partition in the empty space, then delete that partition. That way it clears the actual space that can be used for OP.

 

wait so if i had 500GB and i shrinked it to 400GB

I then need to create a 100GB partition and than delete it?

for all that to work?

BTW i still got to do the whole magician thing that someone else recommended in another thread

 

If you don't mind going the paid route, MiniTool Partition Wizard make a great application to make it a quick and simple task. Just move the slider forward or back and click to set.

 

Yes. And it will be for long term performance changes not immediate. If you happen to do a lot of writing one day, it will help keep performance near peak, and over the long run your performance should last longer before it starts to degrade.

 

ok i'll try that

EDIT: nm word still lags but i'll do magician thing later and try that too.