T61p mini-PCIe SSD - Has anyone done it?

So... Has anyone pulled out the Intel Turbo Memory card and put in a mini-PCIe SSD yet?
Something like: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220358

Thanks!

 

I tried it back in the day with the 4G EEE PC and my T60 and it did not work. The port is the same but the wiring and interface is different. On top of that the bios wont support even aftermarket wireless cards that work in other notebooks because of a whitelist limitation.

 

Has anyone tried this with one of the new mini PCIe cards?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820609407

Are we 100% sure that there is a white list requirement on the mini PCIe connector that the Intel Turbo Memory sits in? Is the white list only for wireless cards, or does it extend to memory/drive cards as well?

My theory is that if I were to get this mini PCIe card and swap it in place of the lame Turbo Memory that it would show up as a 64GB SSD HDD.

I have no idea if it would work. Kevin's experience shows one tick to the negative tally. Does anyone have any additional experience with this?

Thank you.

 

that card is about 20mm too long.   whether it's recognized or not, i don't know.   the bigger issue, however, is the length.

 

Are you sure about that? Keep in mind, the slot that I have a Turbo memory card in is the same slot that is used for Sierra Wireless WAN radio used in cell phone network models.

The Sierra Wireless card is 51mm long, 30mm wide and 4.5mm thick.

I still have no idea if it will work. I do know, though that the space inside the machine is larger than you're giving it credit for. It wasn't exclusively used for the turbo memory.

So, has anyone tried it?

 

I have found some sites with information on how to bypass the whitelist limitation for wireless cards. It looks like the white list -may- be just for wireless. Hard to tell.

Did the card physically fit? I.e. was there clearance for the double sided SSD card in the slot and surrounding topology? Were the connectors a direct match?

So far you look to be the only one who has ever tried to put a SSD card in there.

 

unlike other people who post here, i only post when i'm 100% sure.   i fully understand the dimensional specs of the WWAN/turbo memory slot and assure you that it's 19mm too short to fit the card you've linked above.   mini PCIe cards used in netbooks are 70mm, not 51mm.

so, yes, i'm absolutely sure the card you've linked above won't properly fit.   there may be shorter ones but you'll need to search for them.

 

They are not all that long. Granted, this one says that it is specific to the eee PC or Dell mini 9. Dimensionally these might work. Interface... not likely, but there hasn't been a lot of attempts.

Short card:
http://www.supertalent.com/products/ssd_detail.php?type=Half mini PCIe
I saw a few adds for them on Ebay as well.

Long card:
http://www.supertalent.com/products/ssd_detail.php?type=PCI Express

So, I'm not sure the book is closed on this one. It isn't looking good, but I think it is still worth consideration. I have no idea if it could/would work. But, with the "Half mini PCIe" version, the dimensional spec for width and length appears to be overcome...maybe.

 

Another reference to the 50mm SSD mini PCIe cards from a manufacturer:
http://www.runcore.com/prodshow.asp?ID=161

They have a 64GB version coming out.

I wonder what is different between the Dell 50mm mini 9 PCIe and the Lenovo 50mm mini PCIe slots.

 

again, i understand that.   i simply said that the card you linked is too long.   i also said that there may be shorter ones but that you'd have to search for them.

slow down.   you're reading too fast.

 

Any updates on this?

 

Yeah. You can't. PERIOD.

If you want SSD, you have buy a product that fits in a 2.5" SATA HD cage. Quit trying to do the impossible.

'sides those mini-card SSD cards are terrible in performance anyways. They are meant for netbooks.

 

I actually wasn't thinking of booting off of it. I was think of it as a second harddrive, possibly just putting the page file on it. This could possibly lessen the load on the main harddrive.

 

One could also use it for, say, to keep a back-up of important docs, or, heck, music or ebooks. I like the idea.

 

Like I said those SSD drives are slow.
Just because they are SSD doesn't mean they perform like the SATA-based SSD. They are closer to flash cards in terms of speed. So pagefile use would be a BAD idea.

 

I realize most are probably slow (30mb/s vs 60-70mb/s from a 7200rpm hd), but depending on how much ram you have you could have a very small page file. Say 512mb just for apps that still depend on the page file. There are still other uses.

Either way its not a question of why, its a question of if you can or not.

 

Do you have any benchmarks? Some of them seem to suggest >100MB/s read and write speeds which isn't slow at all, if nothing else put the hybernation file and some media on it.

 

Reviving a dead thread here, is installing a mini-PCIe SSD in a T61 so hopeless that no one considers this option?

Today mini PCIe SSDs are cheaper than ATA SSDs, faster than some 7200 HDDs and the volumes seem to reach very adult 128GB.
However, I've heard that there are two problems with PCIe SSDs and T61 laptops:
1. Size incompatibility (for 70mm cards), but there are smaller SSD cards that may fit physically.
2. Inability to boot from mini PCIe, but that may have changed with a newer BIOS. I have no idea about that, since the option may not be visible in BIOS until you install the device.

Is there anybody here that is using a mini-PCIe SSD in a T61 or a T61p or at least has tried to?

Thanks.

 

** bump **

 

Any luck on this one? I just get people mad when I ask about this anymore. It seems that in the forums I have seen that no one has actually tried. It's all theory. If you've found an answer to this please let me know! Thanks!