Best options for mSATA (Mini PCI-e) SSD?

I have a Shuttle SFF PC. It has what they refer to as a " Mini PCIe socket".

Assuming this is an mSATA port? What's the difference between mSATA and Mini PCIe? Here's an image of it:



In any case what are some relatively affordable 60-80GB SSD's? I don't need top speed performance. I haven an Intel 80GB X25-m in there now that I'd like to put elsewhere, and would like to free up the hard drive slot in my Shuttle where the SSD is now.

Thanks.

 

From what I understand mSata SSDs go into mini PCI-e slot. NVELO Dataplex SSD Caching Software Review - Seven mSATA SSDs Prove An Amazing Concept - The SSD Review You can also read my review in my signature, you have many options available. The bigger the drive, the faster it usually is. Here are the most affordable options at specified size:

MyDigitalSSD 64GB 50mm Bulletproof mSATA SSD | My Digital Discount

Newegg.com - Kingston SSDNow mS100 SMS100S2/64G mSATA 64GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

ADATA XM13 AXM13S2-60GM-C mSATA MLC Internal Solid State Drive (

RunCore 60GB Pro V SATA II 50MM mSATA SSD | My Digital Discount

 

There's also the Samsung 830 mSATA coming out soon, personally I'm waiting for that.

 

That looks the same as the connector in my W520, though I can't really judge the size. You can look at the W520 service manual and compare the measurements or alternatively find the specs of one of the above SSDs. As stated, mSATA SSDs are run through the miniPCIe port. But note that not all miniPCIe ports are capable of running a SSD if they do not have a connection to the storage controller.

 

mSATA and mPCIe SATA (as used on netbooks) have a slightly different pinout. Their differences are footnoted in http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...sata-1-8-sata-ssds-available.html#post6978065 .

A mPCIe (with pci-e signals) slot is another thing altogether. They are usually used for wifi cards. No mSATA/mPCIe SSDs can be used in those slots as they are expecting to be attached to a SATA controller rather than a pci-e bus.

 

Mini-PCIe is the port name/type. It can accomodate wireless cards, WAN (cellular) cards, etc. mSATA is the specification for SSDs that can be put into mini-PCIe slots.

Not all mini-PCIe slots are mSATA-capable. Z68 chipsets & Sandy Bridge laptops have mini-PCIe slots that are mSATA-capable (have the proper wiring). The connector is physically the same on new and old slots.

I have an Intel 310 Series 80GB mSATA SSD in my ThinkPad T420, and it is AWESOME. It's fast, quiet, low-power, and I can still use my regular hard drive bay to hold a larger HDD for data storage.

 

So how do I know what I have? I think I'll fire an email to Shuttle asking if it can run an SSD and what kind?

It's an H67 chipset and only 4 onboard SATA controllers, I believe H67 supports up to 8 so hopefully one is wired to this slot.

 

I wouldn't bet on it, usually Samsung only supplies to OEM manufactures with mSATA SSD's.

However, there will be a Mircron mSATA SSD coming soon.

 

If it's H67, you might be out of luck. The Z68 boards have mSATA capability, because you can use the slot for SSD caching on the board, or as a regular mSATA boot drive.

 

Notebooks & Tablets with mSATA slots

Acer: Iconia Tab W500, W700
ASUS Eee Slate EP121
ASUS Zenbook: UX21, UX31
Dell Inspiron: 14Z (5423), 17R
Dell Latitude: ST-LST01, XT3
Dell Precision: M4500, M4600, M6400, M6500, M6600
Dell XPS One 2710
Dell Vostro: 3360, 3460, 3560
Fusion Garage JOOJOO
Google: CR-48 Chrome
HP Pavilion: dm4t Series (DM4T-3xxx)
HP ENVY: 15 Series (15-3xxx), 17 Series (17-3xxx)
HP Folio: 13-1000
Lenovo: K26, K47A, K47G
Lenovo IdeaPad: U300, Y460, Y470, Y480, Y560, Y570, Y580
Lenovo ThinkPad: X220, X230, T420s, T420, T430, T430s, T520, T530, L420, L430, L520, L530, W520, W530
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge: E220s, E320, E330, E420, E420s, E430, E430s, E520, E530
LG Xnote: P330
MSI: Windpad 110W
Samsung: Series 7 Slate, Series 9
Samsung Chromebook Series 5
Toshiba Portege: Z830, Z835
WeTab

PC Motherboards

Any motherboard with the Intel Z68 Express Chipset that offers an mSATA port can use an mSATA SSD as a Cache Drive or Main Drive (System Drive).

Alienware m14x r2

Mobile Devices

Drobo Mini Portable Storage Array



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You wouldn't have a table that shows which notebooks have SATA3 (6GB/s) mSATA ports too?

 

no cos there are no SATA II in production anymore .. so that is no need to be searched .. sata 3 is downgrade able
so that is it..

 

AFAIK, almost all notebooks with mSATA ports are SATA2 at the moment (at least the ones I'm interested in...).

I was asking if you know which notebooks ARE SATA3 speed capable...

 

More to the point, that is due to Intel's Ivy Bridge cpu lineup which can only have a max of 2 SATA III devices connected at SATA III speed.

I'm with you; I too would like to see a complete list of the few notebooks that currently have an mSATA port that is capable of SATA III speed.

That should soon change, with the release of Intel's new Haswell cpu lineup, which will increase the number of SATA III ports.

 

My Envy 17 3200 CTO has a SATA3-capable mSATA port. The primary of the two 2.5" HDD bays is SATA3 as well (left bay when the access panels are open) with the other 2.5" HDD bay being a SATA2 port.

That's where my Crucial m4 256GB drive has been sitting since it was available for purchase.

 

Plextor PX-256M5M vs Crucial CT256M4SSD3?

Which should I pick?

 

While I only have the M4 256GB mSATA drive (which I can recommend for it's reliability), I would be tempted to go for the Plextor in this case.

See:
Plextor M5M mSATA SSD Review | StorageReview.com - Storage Reviews


The above link is a favorable review of this SSD.


The link below shows why I would want to try an SSD based on this controller/nand combination (see the last graph which shows steady state reading AND writing (70/30%) workloads.

See:
HARDOCP - Iometer & Steady State Testing - Seagate 600 and 600 Pro SSD Review



Note how the highly regarded Samsung 840 PRO 256GB is eclipsed after a queue depth of one (again: last graph on the page above).

I believe this is why I 'feel' the Samsung Pro I have as being slow - even with a 3 core controller, it can't handle mixed reading and writing scenarios (which is almost every single real-world use of a storage sub-systems today).


I am really impressed with the LAMB controllers (now a property of SK Hynix) - if you do decide to try the Plextor, please let us know if it meets all your expectations.

 

what??
come oon why they would make mSATA SSDs sata 3 and use sata 2 speed ??
that would be stupid..

 

plextor is faster but more expensive ..
and u wont notice that difference with normal use ..
i purchased m4 256gb 6gb for 140 pounds..
will be replacing in iconia w700p tablet.

 

Stupid? Yes. But that is exactly the situation we're in (even with IB based platforms like this):

See:
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E530 6272-55U w/ Core i7-3632QM, 4GB, 500GB, DVD+/-RW, 15.6in HD, Win 7 Professional 64-bit at Memory Express


See:
mSATA 2 or 3 in Ivy Bridge E530? - Lenovo Community


Quoting Jin Li from above link:

Quoting WonderWoofy from above link:

It is hard to objectively disagree with you (after all I have the luxury of using both M4's and Samsung 840 PRO's side by side in identical setups - see my comments above for my 840 Pro impressions after a few months of use) - but depending on how much more expensive the Plextor is; I would tend to continue to think it would still be worth it in the long term over the M4 (which still seems faster/smoother than the 840 Pro to me in daily use - especially when price is considered vs. the 840 Pro).

Unless the price is much over a $100 more - the faster drive is always the better choice imo.

 

Here is review of hp tablet and comparsion of few more tablets ..
They have all same HW .. just coat is different ..
if u disagree with m4 or plextor .. or samsung msata ssds , now it doesnt matter since all speeds will be reduced even less than SATA II it looks like is SATA I IF we talking about new ivy bridge tablets ..
By the way those your links lenovo comumity is over a year old so check latest..

 

As far as I know, tiller's Lenovo related comments are still accurate.

 

It will be better buy ultrabook which is ivy bridge and speeds are enormous . in acer s7 they used kind of RAID 0 and results are 1gb/s..