Can someone explain what a 40G mSATA SSD would be good for?

My previous post was pretty unclear, but the question is in the title.

Either a $120 upgrade to a 40G mSATA component along side the stock 500G 7200 HD; or

A $60 upgrade to a 500G Seagate 4G SSD Hybrid drive.

Is the combination of a mSATA with a stock HD playing exactly the same role? More so, do i need to specifically install programs to the 40G mSATA or will it learn as the hybrid supposedly does?

 

mSata is like adding an entirely new drive - Most people use it to install the OS onto and core programs. I do this and use my normal Mechanical drive for all my media like Movie files, music etc. You do have to manually install things onto it, which isn't a bad thing.

Not sure about the hybrid drive but from what I know the SSD portion of it is only like what 4gb? not sure how it utilizes it and how much control it gives you over it.

If you want more speed and can fit your OS and some core files on 40gb get the mSATA but this might be pushing it a bit - At the least you probably want 60gb or 80gb.. Alternatively you could get both the mSATA and hybrid but from what I know, an SSD drive is faster than a Hybrid

 

...Or, if your motherboard/chipset supports it, you could use the 40GB mSATA SSD as a cache for all the hard disks you run. That way, even if you still have mechanical storage, the SSD will buffer the most frequently used programs and files so you can access them faster. Boot-up and shutdown will benefit from this, mostly.

 

SSD caching will be more effective than a hybrid HDD because it has more space, but also keep in mind it's an entirely different solution (your chipset and BIOS have to support ssd caching). You should read up on the differences:
AnandTech - Seagate 2nd Generation Momentus XT (750GB) Hybrid HDD Review
AnandTech - Intel Z68 Chipset & Smart Response Technology (SSD Caching) Review

Personally, I use a 40GB Intel 310 mSATA in my Lenovo X220 for the OS (Linux) and the mechanical HDD for data. It's just faster that way.

 

I've hunted all over this forum and this thread seems most appropriate for my question (not sure I should start a new thread since my question just piggy-backs on the OP).

I am strongly considering purchasing an Alienware, and the two options for drives that I can fit in my budget are these:
750GB 7,200 RPM + 32GB mSATA Caching SSD
500GB 7,200 RPM Storage + 64GB mSATA Boot Drive

I will game, general web browsing, office software sometimes, not anything more demanding than the gaming, though. I do use the hibernate feature a lot as I like to come back to my PC exactly as I left it last time. I obviously see the physical specs difference in the GB size...but will one be more beneficial to me overall? I had thought since I don't power all the way down a lot and that I do game, that the Caching option may be better, but I am not sure.

Can anyone chime in on the advantages of one setup over the other please? Thanks!

 

Hi Knight

I would think about getting a hybrix 750gb Seagate Momentus instead, which should be cheaper than both configs. But out of those two, I would go with the second option (500 + 64) if you played more games, or with the first if you didn't.

 

Hi mtrein,

Thanks for providing some insight. Ultimately I'd love to have a full SSD, but for now I do think the mSATA option is appealing, since I can still add that SSD later when funds are more available. I just wanted to get an idea of which of those two options may be more appropriate.

Thank you again for the input, it is appreciated.

 

I have the 64GB ( Intel® SSD 310 Series (80GB, mSATA 3Gb/s, 34nm, MLC)) as my boot drive ONLY in my ENVY 17-3090NR 3D. It came with a single 750GB SATA II HDD as well. There is still room for 1 more HDD.

My mSATA has an OS up time of 12-15 seconds, it has PLENTY OF ROOM FOR JUST THE OPERATING SYSTEM AND ESSENTIAL PROGRAMS....
You should not concern yourself with the lower SEQUENTIAL WRITE times, you will not be writing long movies or music files to the mSATA.
The mSATA has plenty of speed to do the RANDOM WRITES that are necessary updates for the OS and essential programs.

I put a 160GB SSD (INTEL) in my 2nd HD bay strictly for GAMES, ASTRONOMY PROGRAMS and PHOTO/VIDEO EDITING, the programs that benefit from the extreme speed of an SATA III, and all my moves, music, word docs and p0rn (etc) go on the HDD, its SATA II.

 

Cool! Thanks for that info AU4U. That is some seriously fast boot time there!

 

The hybrid will be faster than than an HDD, but any SSD will be faster than the hybrid. The hybrid will learn your most used programs and speed them up, but not to the degree the SSD will.

I would suggest you do not order either the SSD or mSata with the lappy, but instead buy after you get it, and you can get a larger mSata or SSD for about the same price. I have an Intel 310 80gb in my tabby, and in my lappy I use an Intel 510 128GB SSD in the HDD slot, and I replaced the ODD with a Scorpio Black for data. I put my OS and certain programs on the SSD, get the added speed that way, and still have a huge drive (the Scorp) for data, backup and music and such. On my lappy, the HDD bay is Sata III and the ODD is Sata II. So, check the specs of your computer, in many of our lappys, the HDD can be Sata III and the ODD or other bays are Sata II. Using a Sata III in a Sata II bay will not let you get the fastest speed from your SSD.

Also, if you don't use the lappy in hibernate, you can gain several GB's by eliminating the hybernation, and if you have a good amount of ram, you can make the page file smaller. My windows 7 install is something like 11GB.



There are also newer mSata SSD's that are so much faster than what you may get from buying preinstalled, and there are SSD's with 128 GB in size fro retail, and maybe even 240GB, although I haven't been in the market for a while, so I am not sure. But the basic rule, the larger the SSD, the faster it is. So price out some at either your local stores, or on Amazon and Newegg, etc. and see what you could get sizewise, speedwise and pricewise for the amount your looking at spending.

 

If you tell us what lappy you are ordering, we can tell you what your possible speeds are for the bays, and I will look up what retail SSD's and mSata SSD's you can get for the price your looking to spend.

 

I've been looking at the Alienware M17x or M18x (not decided between those two, but I imagine the equipment for the drives would be the same).

You have already been very helpful, thank you for that! I never even thought about adding an mSata drive on my own as I didn't know how hard that would be to accomplish. I have added/changed regular disc drives in a laptop before.