MiniPCI SSD supplementary storage on Netbook?

I will be getting a Lenovo S10 netbook, which has a miniPCI slot.

I see there are SSDs available in that form factor.

I would not think of getting an SSD for the primary storage on the netbook. It comes with a 160GB 5400RPM HDD, but I will replace that with a 320GB 7200RPM HDD I have.

I will increase the RAM to 2GB.

However, I am wondering if one bought a 32 GB SSD to put in that miniPCI slot, and put the OS and other important files on it, would that significantly increase the netbook performance? Have there been any tests on that?

Also, if the OS is on the SSD, one would have to boot from that miniPCI slot. Is that even possible? (If possible, probably good to have the OS on the HDD as well, in case of failure of the miniPCI SSD.)

Anyone done this?

 

You can't have both, one or the other.

Specifically for the S10, if it doesn't come with an SSD hooked up to the miniPCI slot, then I don't think you'll have much luck in getting one to work. (Still, you might get lucky).

From what I understand, the logic to make the miniPCI slot bootable is proprietary and not included by 'default'.

Even if your S10 had this, I'm not sure how it would handle choosing which device to boot from? I can see it giving you a choice between internal HD and USB CD/DVD/HD/USB Key, but giving a choice on two HD internally? In a notebook? Doesn't seem like the 'economical' route that a netbook is.

For your sake though, hope I'm wrong!

Good luck.

 

Well, it isn't like that is something I am planning to do. I was just curious, what use could be made of the miniPCI slot (other than a WWAN card), had seen miniPCI SSDs advertised, so was curious if that would work, and if so, if there would be any benefit to it?

 

Oh. Well, like I stated from what I know, miniPCI SSD's are great for an miniPCI SSD enabled system. So the benefit to you (with a mech. HD) would be nil?

Sorry!

 

S10 has an expresscard slot. There's some expresscard SSDs you might be able to use. Also S10e has a 4GB SSD soldered onto the systemboard used for recovery purposes. Might be small enough for a basic Linux OS?

If you're after a SSD+HDD hybrid storage solution suggest a 12" HP 2530P or one-gen older 2510P. They can take a 1.8" SSD + 2.5" HDD via optical bay caddy. 2510P covered extensively in my sig.

 

Once again, I am not looking for all that at all, have no plans to change netbooks for the purpose of SSD, don't plan to put an SSD in the express card slot, etc. It is only that seeing miniPCI SSDs advertised, I wondered what they would be used for, etc.

 

If the advertised mini PCI-e SSD that you saw is Asus's or Dell Mini 9's, then it will not work on systems other than those two.