mSATA SSD + HDD or larger SATA SSD?

As I await my T420 and plan my dive in the world of SSDs I'm curious if anyone has comments on the pros and cons of the following two options: get an 80GB mSATA SSD for windows/applications and keep the 500GB drive for files, or get a bigger SSD (300GB) and simply replace the HDD with that for applications and files.

Obviously the latter will be more expensive, but one reason I want to go SSD is to get away from the weakest link, reliability-wise, which is the HDD (I do a lot of traveling) so I'm still wary of keeping a spinner as a secondary disc. The latter will also be faster, which is another advantage.

 

i'm thinking the same too, btw from where to get msata if you were looking already? ebay? what model number?

thanks

 

The Intel 310-series mSATA SSD is the one to look for, but it's usually out of stock everywhere (especially the 80GB version):

Newegg.com - Intel 310 Series 80GB mSATA mSATA (mini PCIe form factor) MLC Enterprise Solid State Disk SSDMAEMC080G2C1 - Enterprise SSD

a couple other models are listed in this mSATA FAQ thread here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/574993-msata-faq-basic-primer.html

It's slightly more per GB than a regular 2.5" SSD, but the advantages are obvious: having an SSD, an HDD and an optical drive all in the same laptop. I'm starting to think this is the solution I'm gonna try

 

yeah i've been into newegg and noticed it was soldout

thanks for the other thread, will check out

 

I've had my T420 setup with an 80gb Intel 310 mSATA and the 500gb HD for several weeks now and it's been great. Plenty quick to boot and tons of room to store data. Win-win.

I've got a number of machines with SSDs and a 40gb is a bit tight for a Windows install on anything other than a server install. By the time you add all your typical programs you're often over 33gb, that doesn't leave a lot of room to spare.

 

I'm not a windows user, so i'll keep the windows installed on the 500GB if i want and get ubuntu on the mSATA one

whats the red/write speed on the Intel at the mSATA port ? how is it s ofar?

Thanks

 

Actually, the mSATA/HDD route may be better in this regard. You can put a "back-up OS" on the HDD. That way if your primary OS fails while you are on the road then you simply disable the mSATA SSD and boot from the HDD until you get a replacement.

And if the HDD goes you can still run off of the mSATA SSD and then recover the data you had from the HDD when you get home (or use a cloud back-up solution.) Of course if you want to go top shelf you can install 2 SSD's

 

I always thought SSD's had a higher failure rate than HDD's? I've never had a HDD fail, maybe I'm just lucky. Never had an SSD fail, but then again only had a few. But either way I went with the mSata + HDD. Having the backup drive if either one fails is nice. Both Intel 310/320 have pretty similar power draws so there wouldn't be too much savings there. However comparing the 310 to other SSD's, you'd see some savings.

 

The 310 80 GB is in stock at Amazon:
Amazon.com: Intel Solid-State Drives 310 series - Solid state drive - 80 GB - internal - PCI Express Mini Card: Computer & Accessories

 

thanks for the heads up.... I ordered one (canceled my Provantage "backordered" order). Interestingly, the Datavision site itself says these are no longer in stock, so let's hope the Amazon storefront stock count is the correct one.

 

HD's are a more mature tech, and in desktops/servers would probably be considered more reliable. However, they are also dependent on high-speed moving parts that have to be precisely aligned. In a laptop, where unexpected bumps and jolts are normal operating circumstance, the solid state nature of the SSD means they are less likely to suffer wear-and-tear damage.

Technically, HD's still have a longer time to failure, based numbers of read/write cycles. But laptops are hard on them.

 

Yeah, hopefully that's the case. Maybe they reserved some just for Amazon orders. Though I won't count anything until it actually ships.

 

I'm in the same boat as you... never had an HDD fail (either a 2.5" or 3.5"), but I'm thinking it's only time before one does.

It seems to me that the difference between the two is down to which parts of each option are reliable. In the case of HDDs, the mechanics are the weakest link, while the controller is uber-mature. In the case of SSDs, the solid state memory is generally bomb proof these days, but the controllers are still the weak link. Either way, I consider both to be about equal overall terms of potential failure, with the SSD having the one advantage of speed and the HDD having the advantage of cost. Hence my eventual decision to go with both!

I would not, however, go with anything other than an Intel SSD... they seems to be far and away the most reliable out there.

 

The mSATA + HDD combo is unbeatable... Just keep in mind for how many years HDD was the only mainstream option. How many HDDs did you have die in notebooks due to the woes of travelling? I've only had one notebook hard drive die, and that was after two years of ownership (and still, it would be damn difficult to conclusively attribute the cause to travel). If it breaks down, it's on warranty and can be replaced inexpensively. $100 can buy you 1TB nowadays.

You'll have the convenience of having a huge mass of your files with your laptop at all times, and you can set the HDD to spin down when not in use. Consequently, mine only spins up when waking the laptop (and when I mount it as a Truecrypt partition), and I have a fairly aggressive spindown timer of 1 minute.

 

Definitely see that reasoning since desktops aren't exposed to the same abuse. I've only had laptops so I was just going off my experiences.

Never for me. I even used the same HDD in one laptop for 7 years... no problems. That thing took some abuse and lots of traveling. Who knows, we may just be getting lucky. I really am digging the mSata/HDD combo though, quite nice. Added about 1.5 hrs to my battery too. I have the HDD spinning down after 30 seconds.

 

For those who believe 32GB is too small as a OS drive, I am running one right now with 7GB left over. Installed Photoshop Elements 9, Office 2010, VLC Media Player, Skype, and many other programs.

On my desktop, I also have a 32GB vertex and 1.5TB drive. Been about a year with all the accumulated updates there is still around 5GB free space.

 

How much work did you do to trim down your OS?

 

All I did was reduce the page file to 2GB and moved the USER folder to the other drive. Windows 7 is fully updated.

If anything, all I do to maintain the drive is run CCleaner and disk cleanup once a week.

 

I read you can save 1+ GB by removing language files, but I'm not sure how easy that is? Is it simply disabling a service?

 

By my understanding, that might only apply to W7 Ultimate, as it is the only one where the user has the choice of operating language. All other versions are locked to whatever version was bought.

 

The intel 310 (80GB) + 500GB HDD (7200rpm) is a great solution. I have a Thinkpad W520 and end up loosing around 15GB of space, with the Lenovo recovery/restore partition thought. Has anyone deleted and/or extented that partion to the main one on the 310? Is it stable?

 

I was on the same dilema and I got gobi 3000 option for the msata. I was thinking near $200 for 80g was quite expensive when I can get 256g for about $400 which I thought was big enough for a laptop. I also have ultra thin seagate 7200rpm usb 3.0 external, so the my decision was clear to get gobi 3000.

 

Definitely wouldn't work for me. But I am at 31.5gb as of now. I do also have a couple very large programs though. Whole Adobe Suite, etc. I just bought an 80gb so I didn't have to worry about it and have some room to increase (not that I'll really need to).

 

I deleted my recovery, extended it into my main partition. Now I have two partitions on the 310 called System_DRV and SSD (what I call it). Both offset by 1mb. Everything is aligned and has worked perfectly for the last two weeks. Seems fine to me. I would love to merge that SYSTEM_DRV into the main partition as well, but I've heard that never ends well.

 

Cool were're in the same boat! I need the extra space to install CS 5.5 Production Premium and a 3ds Max Suite package. How did you "extend" the recovery partition into the main one? Right-click on the recorery partition's icon, reformat, 1mb size? Sorry, I'm new to Win 7Pro and ssd HDs.

 

Just delete the Recovery partition. Then I believe you just right click the partition you want to extend and just hit Extend Partition. It should automatically want to extend it to the newly open space. Make sure it is, then go through the dialog box and click ok. That should do it.

 

Cool thanks for the info JohnsonDelBrat