I'm an idiot...can someone help me understand the basics

I've played with desktops for years so I understand what's going on a bit. However, I never really played with notebooks too much. When I got my last laptop it was still really a challenge to get parts at a reasonable price in terms of upgrading from what you ordered from the factory (with the exception of RAM).

So I just ordered a brand new Dell m4500. I have it coming with a traditional 7200rpm 250 gig drive. In the near term, I may want to add a smaller SSD for backup purposes and long term I may want to swap out the primary drive for an SSD (though I do worry about corruption).

here's the link:
http://www.dell.com/us/en/business/...500/pd.aspx?refid=precision-m4500&s=bsd&cs=04

Here are the choices for primary HD:
500GB Hard Drive, 7200 RPM [add $135.00]
320GB 7200rpm Hard Drive [add $120.00]
250GB 7200rpm Hard Drive [Included in Price]
256GB Dell Mobility Solid State Drive [add $620.00]
128GB Dell Mobility Solid State Drive [add $320.00]
64GB Solid State Minicard Drive [add $220.00]
250GB 7200rpm FIPS Encrypted Hard Drive [add $140.00]
128GB Encrypted Mobility Solid State Drive [add $370.00]

And for secondary:
If selecting a second hard drive, 64GB Solid State Minicard must be your primary hard drive selection.
None
250GB 7200rpm Hard Drive [add $230.00]
320GB 7200rpm Hard Drive [add $350.00]
500GB 7200rpm Hard Drive [add $365.00]
128GB Encrypted Mobility Solid State Drive [add $600.00]
128GB Mobility Solid State Drive [add $550.00]
256GB Mobility Solid State Drive [add $850.00]
64GB Mobility Solid State Drive [add $400.00]

The specs also show it has a ExpressCard 34; PC Card

So what exactly do I have access to? And why does it demand a 64 gig ssd mini card for primary? I can't make heads or tails out of what to search for on newegg or crucial in order to understand my options and price to
a) add a second SSD now
b) change my primary drive to an SSD later

Can someone help me out? I need specs like "to replace your primary you need a 2.5" SATA II drive", that sort of thing.

THANKS for any help

 

There's only 1 hard drive bay. The minicard drive takes up a mini-PCIe slot instead of a SATA bay.

Your options to replace your HDD is any SATA drive. Desktop and laptop HDDs function similarly. Only real difference is size.

 

Thanks Lithus!

So 1 hard drive bay, got it.

How many mini-PCIe slots are there (typically)?
What size is the hard drive bay? Is 2.5" standard?
What's the difference between SATA, SATA I, SATA II? Is it just speed or will one not work with another? What's the modern standard?
If I get a minicard, can that be a secondary drive or does it have to be the primary drive (as Dell seems to insist?

 

I believe there are typically 2 mini-PCIe slots on most notebooks, the exact number will vary by model.

The HDD bay is just about guaranteed to be 2.5" and 9.5mm in height.

SATA is the name of the standard, while SATA I and SATA II (more properly SATA 1.5 Gb/s and SATA 3 Gb/s) are different revisions within that standard, with SATA 3 Gb/s being the newer revision. There's actually a SATA 6 Gb/s revision out now, but I don't believe it's shown up in notebooks yet. Regardless, SATA 3 Gb/s is backwards compatible with SATA 1.5 Gb/s, and yes, the difference is primarily speed, although there are some other standard updates as well.

That really depends on how Dell sets things up, in the BIOS and in other places. They may insist on making the minicard the primary just because that's how it's setup for their inventory and configuration system; in other words, they didn't want to have to deal with making the minicard an option for their "secondary hard drive" selection. If by primary you mean your boot drive, I don't see why you wouldn't be able to set the other (non-minicard) drive as the boot device instead of the minicard... although given the nature of SSDs and the relatively small size of the minicard in general, I don't know why you wouldn't want to be using it as your OS/boot drive anyway.

 

Hey Merlin, i think your name should be Merlin the Mage

1-There are usually 3 Mini-PCIe slots in a notebook, sometimes only 1 or 2 for netbooks however, and usually 1 or even 2 is tooken up by your WLAN (wireless internet) card, and another by a Bluetooth module or WWAN (3G worldwide broadband or equal), but you can take any of these cards out if you choose to equip it with something else in Mini-PCIe form (TV tuner, HD decoder, Intel Turbo Memory).

2-For true laptops/notebooks, 2.5" is the standard width of mobile HDD's, however the other standard is 1.8" usually used in netbooks or ultraportables, however you can use a 1.8" in any notebook since there should be an adapter or caddy that fits.

3-The difference between them is that they are just revisions of SATA, SATA revision 1.0 upped the max speed of communication at 1.5GB/s, in other words only really the bandwidth is being changed, and all standards are backwards and forwards compatible, with an exception being eSata.

4-It does not whatsoever need to be a primary drive, it's big enough for any OS so i suggest using the Mini-PCIe SSD for the OS and programs, and using the HDD as storage.

 

You guys are great. I did get a bluetooth module as well as a wireless card so that likely leaves me with one slot left.

What's the de facto "best" choice for mini PCIe SSDs (what brand) and where do people usually like to buy from?

 

I'm uncertain as to whether or not you can use any mini-PCIe SSD other than the Samsung that Dell provides. You see, the problem lies in the fact that PCIe slots usually don't have an associated SATA controller (the usual exception are netbooks). Samsung, however, happens to provide a mini PCIe SSD that has a built-in SATA controller. Thus, the question becomes... is Dell using the Samsung with built-in SATA controller? Or did they bother hooking up a SATA controller to their mini-PCIe slot, which means you could use (theoretically) any mini-PCIe SSD? There may also be a size issue. I can't seem to find it, but I seem to remember that someone was thinking about using a different mini-PCIe SSD in the M6500, but then they found out that the bay for the minicard was just big enough for the one that Dell provided. So, at this point, I think it's a bit of a tossup.

 

So perhaps notebook upgrades have no evolved as much as I thought Is there anywhere where you can buy this samsung? A quick search on google didn't turn much up.

Also it seems like mini PCIe still have some irregularities in size (not standard), same goes for half cards.