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    M570RU: Put SSD in mini-PCI slot?

    Discussion in 'Sager and Clevo' started by sbussinger, Jul 21, 2009.

  1. sbussinger

    sbussinger Notebook Guru

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    I have an M570RU laptop with a wireless module in one mini-PCI slot and the other slot is empty. Is there any way to plug in a mini-PCI SSD into the second slot and use it for the boot drive?

    I guess there's really two parts to my question -- would it work? And is it a good idea?

    I'd love to get the OS onto the SSD and leave the HD free for virtual machines. Even a 32 GB boot partition would be plenty big for me and mini-PCI SSD's are fairly cheap these days.

    Thanks for your insights!
     
    sbussinger, Jul 21, 2009
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  2. User Retired 2

    User Retired 2 Notebook Nobel Laureate NBR Reviewer

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    No.. those mini pci-e SSDs require SATA I/O pins. The mini pci-e in notebooks does not have a SATA controller attached to those pins. A manufacture needs to integrated a expresscard SATA card + mini pci-e SATA SSD onto a mini pci-e card, then it would work. There are some expresscard SSDs that do just that.

    Cheapest option is to do a SSD + HDD setup using your systems optical bay caddy. See sig.
     
    User Retired 2, Jul 21, 2009
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  3. akaltenbach

    akaltenbach Notebook Consultant

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    Actually nando the intel turbo memory slot, is hooked to a sata controller, ive been working this problem on my m570tu, but i stilll need to get a sata controlled mini pci-e to test it out, the one i got on ebay turned out to be a pata controlled one.
     
    akaltenbach, Jul 21, 2009
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  4. sbussinger

    sbussinger Notebook Guru

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    akaltenbach: You're using the M570TU vs. my M570RU -- would that make any difference? Does the fact that it will accept a Robson module mean that it's SATA compatible?

    nando4: A hot swap drive is another option that I'll consider as I don't really use the DVD drive all that often anyway. It'd be nicer to just use the now-empty mini-pci slot though. I appreciate the efforts you put in to document the hotswappable caddy options, but that's an amazing complicated bunch of options to sort through! I'm also a bit worried about the generic caddy fitting into the M570RU case (the standard caddy has a bit of a wierd shape to it).
     
    sbussinger, Jul 22, 2009
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  5. akaltenbach

    akaltenbach Notebook Consultant

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    To be honest i dont know. I tried contacting clevo and sager and neither bothered to respond to my question as to if it would work. I know when i load up intel's storage manager utility it lists 3 internal sata ports, one is our optical, another is the hard drive, the third(unused in my machine) would seem to be the turbo memory slot, because the m570's only have one hdd bay. The only real way to find out is to put one of the ssd's into it. Sadly I dont have the funds to try it out right now. I am hoping to be able to order one up next month tho so i will keep the forum up to date.
     
    akaltenbach, Jul 22, 2009
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