mSata to PCIe question?

[GoNz0]

I have bought a replacement mSata card for my laptop, I will have a 512gb PM851 spare, my sata2 games rig has a spare PCIE1x slot without much space behind it so I thought I could use that to stick in the spare SSD to make good use of it (or flog it on here depending)

as my games rig already has a pair of 250gb SSD's running sata2 I wonder if I will get any benefit by trying to cram this in as a new operating system drive, on top of that do they make a decent PCIE1x to msata card?

ta.

[AETAaAS]

Generally, my opinion is that SATA2 is already fast enough that most home users will not see a noticeable benefit going up to SATA3. Having said that, I think a few SSD specific features were added in SATA3 like better TRIM support. Also depending on your PCIE card, if it is Gen1 1x, it might be slower than SATA2 (unless I'm mistaken).

So I'd say; not worth it unless you are short on space at the moment, in terms of the effort and financial cost; for an effect which may be negligible or even worse than what you have currently.

[Stuen4y]

Another thing to consider is that despite the linear speeds of the SSDs is the most obvious performance advantage over HDDs, the main difference maker when the SSD is used for an OS drive is the lower data access latency compared to any HDD system. You can achieve similar linear speeds with a Raid 0 array of HDDs but they will never have as low latency as the SSDs, even the fast spinning 10k+ RPM models that were the high end OS drives before SSDs arrived. I think AETAaAS has said the rest you need to know right.

[GoNz0]

thanks but i really do not needs advice on HDD vs SSD's as I already have 3 SSD's in the PC and a pair of platter drives. it was more a case of what to do with a spare 512gb mSata drive thats just come out my new laptop.

For a 3 year old system it still holds its own!


I think I am going to go down the path of sata to mSata card and throw the 60gb SSD to my m8 so he can load BF4 in less than a week!

[Stuen4y]

The comment I made about HDDs is manly due to your questions about the different ports. The difference being only in transfer rate cap, experience will not suffer much even on SATA 2 with latency being the most important and noticeable feature of SSDs. I guess your choice is correct, this will be cost efficient and will make use of a part you would otherwise not be able to use.

If you have empty PCIe slots, I think a mSATA to PCIe card like that or that would also make sense. I cannot give any tested option though, you will have to research how those adapters perform and how reliable they are. Or wait for someone who has used one to write in the thread. Theoretically it should provide speeds up to 500MB/s through the PCIe 2.0 x1 so you would be able to achieve almost the full speeds a SATA 3 device provides.

[Bonebreaker777]

1, Sell it?
2, Replace your main system drive (by inserting it into a "mSATA to 2.5" adapter" )?
3, Replace your pair of 250GB SSDs and sell those?
4, Purchase a SATA 3 expansion card for your PCIe 1x slot so you can have all/some of your drives on SATA3?
5, Purchase a (bootable for all eventualities) mSATA to PCIe 1x slot adapter and sell your 2 x 250GB SSD for additional funds or upgrade?
6, Or as you suggested, add it to your system and surprise your mate with a free SSD gift (lucky bastard, I don't even get a lolly for free from my tight friends).

Of possibilities there are many, depends how much work you are willing to do :-)

I think most of those adapter just provide circuits to connect from one physical form to another aka no bridge involved but I may be wrong (mSATA to SATA shouldn't need bridge but mSATA to PCIe may...)