pci-e SSD are they any good?

[Mad_Sunday]

There seem to be a few of these about now, I'm thinking about an SSD for the OS and a big 2.5" drive for data, but using one of these would mean not having to remove/swap the DVD drive in order to get 2 hard drives in the machine. They aren't as fast as a "proper" SSD but they must be faster than a normal drive? I was thinking of using the "spare" slot that's used for WAN cards, (once I put the missing hardware in on my model) has anyone tried or done it?

I also suspect if just this "drive" was used on its own, battery life would be massively increased?

Pete

Link to sample drive...... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-128GB...83850218?pt=AU_HardDrives&hash=item257b629cea

 

[kpkp]

There seem to be a few of these about now, I'm thinking about an SSD for the OS and a big 2.5" drive for data, but using one of these would mean not having to remove/swap the DVD drive in order to get 2 hard drives in the machine. They aren't as fast as a "proper" SSD but they must be faster than a normal drive? I was thinking of using the "spare" slot that's used for WAN cards, (once I put the missing hardware in on my model) has anyone tried or done it?

I also suspect if just this "drive" was used on its own, battery life would be massively increased?

Pete

Link to sample drive...... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-128GB...83850218?pt=AU_HardDrives&hash=item257b629cea

First thing i would do is try to see if the second pcie-e is a proper pcie-e. Just try to install a wireless card or if you have a netbook you can take the SSD out... Because back in the days, when we were still experimenting with wireless cards, I tried to put my wireless card in the other slot and i got a message at boot and the card didn't work correctly... Now my memory is a but foggy on exactly what i did and what happened but I would suggest you to try it out before you spend money on a SSD (and is also true that our notebooks arent exactly the same, so your experience my vary).

 

[Mad_Sunday]

First thing i would do is try to see if the second pcie-e is a proper pcie-e. Just try to install a wireless card or if you have a netbook you can take the SSD out... Because back in the days, when we were still experimenting with wireless cards, I tried to put my wireless card in the other slot and i got a message at boot and the card didn't work correctly... Now my memory is a but foggy on exactly what i did and what happened but I would suggest you to try it out before you spend money on a SSD (and is also true that our notebooks arent exactly the same, so your experience my vary).

Yes mate I remember our "lack of info" discussions at the time. I suppose we would need the pinout of one of these devices in order to know what type of device it actually is. I was hoping someone had tried one, at least that would suggest it "should" work. I guess I could "hot wire" one in if I knew which connections it used/needed by connecting my (still in the bag) slot directly to some connections and jumping the others?

They do look tempting tho' ...................

Pete

 

[Mad_Sunday]

So, having done some digging it seems these do have some possibilities. The early versions had no on-board controller and were used on netbooks that had the controller on the main pcb. The later ones have on-board controllers and are fast and much more suitable for our purposes. Reviews of these new drives are very encouraging, especially the speed and power requirements.

BUT, the pci-e and mSSD pinouts are different (they won't work as is) and here is the info on differences......

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/580/msatavsmpcie.jpg/

So I might just be able to use one of these, I'm going to investigate further.

Pete