which m-SATA to buy?

Hi guys, i wanted your help in deciding which mSATA SSD to go for?

at this time in my AW R4 i have the 256GB 840Pro running win7 and a 750gb HDD (partitioned) between Win8 (250GB partition) and a storage area for games, softwares and stuff . The m-SATA that came in the system is a Liteon Model 64GB, now i want to replace the liteon with a 256GB mSATA so i can clone/ install win8 onto that, and get some speeds on bootup

issues
dont want to spend a whole lot
i dont need win8 to be the fastest most optimised OS, just a redundancy to my win7Pro
the mSATA port only runs at sata II

options
buy a mSATA II device at 256GB (but i can't find one in AU)
buy a LiteOn 256 GB for $ 201 AUD (shipped)
buy a MyDigital SSD for $ 235 AUD (shipped) with the mSATA to USB 3.0 adapter ( a good way to utilise the LiteOn that will be replaced in the system) from the US

What would you recommend?

Much obliged

PS is there an issue where if i use a mSATA III device in a mSATA II port it affects writes or something?

 

Just to answer at least one question. Sata II will only limit the write and read speeds of the SATA III msata to SATA speeds. Still faster than HDD, but figure a Windows7 boot time in the range of 20-30 seconds as opposed to a typical 45-60seconds. Depending of course on your set up.

Crucial M4 are a pretty common, basic, relatively inexpensive, and reliable msata. But if the models you are looking at have similar reliability, go with whatever is cheapest for you to get. Since you are only utilizing Sata II, the fastest mSata is not necessary.

 

Yes it would limit the read and write speed, but I was more concerned over "damage" sustained if a drive that is SATA3 spec'd running in a SATA2 port
And would you consider 128 GB enou for a bog standard (with all drivers and updates installed) enough with over-provisioning

 

I ran a system like that for less than 4 hrs. The difference is noticeable (to me) and was slow enough that I felt I was wasting the investment in the mSATA SSD.

No damage can occur: almost all SATA3 devices can run reliably at SATA2 speeds...


When I took that same (M4 256GB mSATA) SATA3 capable SSD and used it in a NUC - I was blown away at the performance it offered when 'unleashed'.


Sure, what you want will work. But you must really, really want it for other than the performance reasons.


I don't suggest a setup like that to anyone going into the second half of 2013 - may as well pocket the $$$ (and yes; 128GB is too small - especially on the even less optimized mSATA platform) and stick with what you already have.


The SATA3 to SATA2 storage subsystem performance delta is huge... it is like having a crotch-rocket, but limiting yourself to 1st gear and half the RPM's... sure, the 'thrill' is experienced - but when compared to using the power band of the engine/SSD fully, you suddenly realize just how silly it was to run the bike/system that way.


Hope this helps.


Good luck.

 

It does, unfortunately, which is why I wanted a cheap 256gb ssd, to put my redundant OS (windows 8) and either leave the HDD as it is or upgrade to a 960gb SSD when feasible, so ideally just want it as a storage system for an OS exclusively

If you guys know of,a place that can ship msata 2 drives to Australia, or you can advise on which of the above 2 would be more feasible, the help would be appreciated

 

So what would you recommend ...

 

Here in the states, retail pricing on the Cruicial M4 and Plextor M5M are about the same (~$115 for 128GB, $200 for 256) so I would go for the latter as its a newer chipset with higher performance.

 

Hello,

I would like to know which mSATA SSD has the best performances.

Needs are for Hyper-V virtualization, NFS games and benchmarks.

Thx a lot

 

The mSATA SSD with the best performance is the one connected to a SATA3 connector...

Note that NONE of the mSATA options are currently better or faster (real world use) than a 2.5" version of even the same drive.


Benchmarks is one of your criteria???


The most stable/least expensive and most reliable one ime is the 256GB M4 - can be found regularly for ~$150 (if you're patient and wait for a sale).


I've seen many others 'score' better in benchmarks - but benchmarks don't mean much in the real world.


The 'best' performance (period) in real world use I have seen/used is the Intel 525 Series of mSATA drives - but those cost easily double (if you can find them).

See:
Intel SSD 525 Series mSATA III Solid State Drive, 240GB at Memory Express



As you're asking for best performance: the Intel 525 would be the one I would be recommending right now.


Good luck.

 

That's good, but

Availability in Australia
Using on a msata 2 port

in that regards a M4 goes 230$+ and the PX is about the same, the mydigital ssd is 235$ shipped with the usb 3 msata adapter

I really am not looking at performance just some thing that would be cheap and reliable to a degree, and be faster than a HDD to boot an OS

 

Cheap and reliable: M4 (period).

Good luck.

 

Not cheap at least not down under

Guys an update

The AUD fell and the minuscule margin we had in regards to a good price also went the way of a dodo

So the new options are

A mach xtreme or a mushkin atlas, now things get a bit muddied here, is an msata designed for mini-pcie the same as an msata slot,

Would you know what type of a slot is the msata port on a m17xr4?

Much obliged

 

There's always another SATA II option if you don't want to go the mSATA route.

You can put an 2.5" SSD of your choosing in a caddy in the optical drive bay.

You may get better 4K performance at all queue depths with a 2.5" SSD than an mSATA.

If you don't find that your ODD is obsolete you can put it in an external USB box.

I opt to buy notebooks now without an included ODD.

 

Yeah thought about that, but unfortunately still do some discs burning and what nots,

 

It's OT to this thread that you started, but very small (read convenient) external/USB ODD have gotten rather excellent. e.g. for $34 (which I own) try this one:

Amazon.com: Samsung Ultra Portable Slim DVD+/-RW USB External Drive, Black SE-218BB/RSBS: Computers & Accessories

 

I think i'll leave things as they are, as it is the laptop is big enough not having to worry about additional peripherals....not to mention the fact i have ESATA on this laptop, an external drive is do-able....but that would mean more peripheries...

so back to the question.....

PS now my 840 Pro is giving me issues...check out this benchmark from the 4.1 samsung utility



thisi is with me having partitioned a section as RAW for OP, and using 56GB of the remaining 159GB of the SSD

 

No issues that I see... SSD's slow down over time, some faster, some slower and depending on the workload that is presented to them (period).

 

But the iops ? I mean this has some 200 boot ups in 9 months or so, read and writes I am not to concerned , but what's happened to the iops? , does the over provisioned section of the ssd needs to be formatted in some special way? Currently it's in RAW and samsungs utility says " using RAW partitions can cause data corruption".

 

There are few programs (and no Windows programs that I know of) that can 'use' a raw partition - so that issue is avoided by default.

The iops is directly related to the rest of the benchmark metrics (one does not operate separately from the other) - again; I don't see a problem.

You can try to leave it at the BIOS screen for a couple of hours (which should give the GC routines more than enough time to clean the drive to as like new conditions as possible), but what you're seeing here is the drives steady state operation for the workload you have subjected it to (this can shift depending if/when the workload you present to the storage subsystem changes).


Does the drive feel any different? Is it lagging/stuttering? This is what I would be worrying about.

Worry about 'scores'? Especially 'scores' from a proprietary benchmark like Samsung's for it's own drives?

No.

 

Ok, thanks you see the issue was I never OP'd a drive before (had the 128gb m4 and then the Samsung 830 OEM) but now I don't really know when one OP a ssd does it need to be in some special format or something, and secondly ,yes, the drive seems sluggish, I was contemplating doing a wipe of free space to improve its performance what do you reckon?

Also if anyone still has any resources that can help me get a cheap reliable msata ssd I would be very grateful

 

Well, thank you all for your kind help and opinions.

I finally found a brand new dell OEM liteon 256gb msata for 165$ shipped, well it was better than the 220 on the BP4 and or 240$ for a crucial m4, and for the first time managed to open the unit up to replace the msata, sheesh, was it hard to access the msata slot, in the end I just wedged the palm rest open and sort of squeezed my hands from the side to just replace the 64gb liteon, for the life of me I could not successfully open the palm rest.