mSATA ready laptops or at least optional

[BradenHeat]

Just throwing this question out to PC Dreams, Aftershock and others reading


Question, as stated, what are the current specific laptops with decent dedicated graphics card [ lets put money is not the main concern ]

are mSATA ready ?

Unlike specific gaming laptops or laptops with removable/ swapping of drive bay for ssd, Ultrabooks with decent dedicated gfx don't seem to indicate mSATA ready or am I misreading / not looking out for a specific word ?


and would mSATA be cheaper to get in combination with an 750GB 2.5" 7.2k/rpm than say a pure ssd [ torrenting and frequent writes ]


And are mSATA still quite available ?

AS i've come to realize, not many has 2 hdd bay configurations

 

[enenyi]

Just throwing this question out to PC Dreams, Aftershock and others reading


Question, as stated, what are the current specific laptops with decent dedicated graphics card [ lets put money is not the main concern ]

are mSATA ready ?

Unlike specific gaming laptops or laptops with removable/ swapping of drive bay for ssd, Ultrabooks with decent dedicated gfx don't seem to indicate mSATA ready or am I misreading / not looking out for a specific word ?


and would mSATA be cheaper to get in combination with an 750GB 2.5" 7.2k/rpm than say a pure ssd [ torrenting and frequent writes ]


And are mSATA still quite available ?

AS i've come to realize, not many has 2 hdd bay configurations

mSATA is quite subjective. Some laptop manufacturers may prefer mSATA option to cache HDD while some simply give u an SSD.

Leave out the 17.3" laptops since under that class 2nd HDD bays are common. Take 15.6" laptops as the max screen size in this case.

Examples of gaming laptops with mSATA option are Lenovo Y580 and MSI GE60. Both come with GTX660M graphics card.

For ultrabooks, this becomes tricky. Some ultrabooks feature mSATA slot like Lenovo U400 while some ultrabooks like the Asus UX32VD feature an iSSD that is soldered onto the motherboard instead. U need to look carefully at the specs for hints for presence of additional mSATA slot.

For mSATA configurations, laptop makers originally intended mSATA SSDs as HDD caches, making laptop HDDs run faster due to the caching. Hence mSATA SSD supplied by the manufacturers are normally 24GB or 32GB in size. However, the nature of the mSATA slot means that it works like a SATA port, same function as a SATA port for HDD or SSD. So there is the possibility of removing the 32GB mSATA SSD and replacing with a 128GB/256GB mSATA SSD available for purchase in Sim Lim Square. In this case, the third-party mSATA SSD that u add in functions like an SSD drive that u can install your OS and applications on, leaving the supplied laptop HDD as secondary storage. Alternatively u can forgo the more expensive mSATA SSD and simply replace the HDD with the traditional 2.5" form factor SSD if u wan speed but on a budget. The different possibilities are yours to permute.

 

[BradenHeat]

mSATA is quite subjective. Some laptop manufacturers may prefer mSATA option to cache HDD while some simply give u an SSD.

Leave out the 17.3" laptops since under that class 2nd HDD bays are common. Take 15.6" laptops as the max screen size in this case.

Examples of gaming laptops with mSATA option are Lenovo Y580 and MSI GE60. Both come with GTX660M graphics card.

For ultrabooks, this becomes tricky. Some ultrabooks feature mSATA slot like Lenovo U400 while some ultrabooks like the Asus UX32VD feature an iSSD that is soldered onto the motherboard instead. U need to look carefully at the specs for hints for presence of additional mSATA slot.

For mSATA configurations, laptop makers originally intended mSATA SSDs as HDD caches, making laptop HDDs run faster due to the caching. Hence mSATA SSD supplied by the manufacturers are normally 24GB or 32GB in size. However, the nature of the mSATA slot means that it works like a SATA port, same function as a SATA port for HDD or SSD. So there is the possibility of removing the 32GB mSATA SSD and replacing with a 128GB/256GB mSATA SSD available for purchase in Sim Lim Square. In this case, the third-party mSATA SSD that u add in functions like an SSD drive that u can install your OS and applications on, leaving the supplied laptop HDD as secondary storage. Alternatively u can forgo the more expensive mSATA SSD and simply replace the HDD with the traditional 2.5" form factor SSD if u wan speed but on a budget. The different possibilities are yours to permute.

Really, really thank you for the time.

So to sum it :

-its actually easy to obtain an mSATA, @ the sizes mentioned that can be slotted into any laptop with an internal sata slot
-but its difficult to determine whether the specific machine i have in mine would have that slot.

well.....budget, like i put it aside, im more interested [ not yet purchasing ] in whether moderately sized machine with decent gaming specs would have that slot....instead of having 2 bays making the design both bulky and more probably heavier than another machine of similar specs


if anyone could shed a light, i do thank you in advance

 

[TheDisgruntedCitizen]

Really, really thank you for the time.

So to sum it :

-its actually easy to obtain an mSATA, @ the sizes mentioned that can be slotted into any laptop with an internal sata slot
-but its difficult to determine whether the specific machine i have in mine would have that slot.

well.....budget, like i put it aside, im more interested [ not yet purchasing ] in whether moderately sized machine with decent gaming specs would have that slot....instead of having 2 bays making the design both bulky and more probably heavier than another machine of similar specs


if anyone could shed a light, i do thank you in advance

owned a Lenovo y580 that originally comes with a 1TB HDD. Purchased an additional mSATA 256GB and slap it on. Lenovo has made it a no-brainer upgrade for consumer which I like as it only involves removing the back panel and installing the mSATA module. BIOS detected as a normal SSD HDD which you can install OS directly.

Some notebooks which feature mSATA but BIOS could be configure as cache mode only. Not so sure about this but maybe someone with better knowledge can shed more light...

 

[alienwarex]

owned a Lenovo y580 that originally comes with a 1TB HDD. Purchased an additional mSATA 256GB and slap it on. Lenovo has made it a no-brainer upgrade for consumer which I like as it only involves removing the back panel and installing the mSATA module. BIOS detected as a normal SSD HDD which you can install OS directly.

Some notebooks which feature mSATA but BIOS could be configure as cache mode only. Not so sure about this but maybe someone with better knowledge can shed more light...

im currently using a x220. There is this expresscard slot which allows me to put in a msata ssd if i am not wrong. Will it be detected as a normal SSD and allow me to install my os on it?

 

[feitz]

i am interested to get a Lenovo U430p. Where can i find more information about whether this model has a free mSATA for me to upgrade? Thanks!

 

[lawnmowerman]

i am interested to get a Lenovo U430p. Where can i find more information about whether this model has a free mSATA for me to upgrade? Thanks!

u model is ultrabook right, lenove lappy since 2010 batch mostly come with msata slot liao let alone ultrabook

 

[PC_Dreams]

MSI GE60 and GE70 have 1-2 mSATA depending on the configuration.

Else the other way to get SSD is to change the ODD to a HDD bay to house in the SSD.

 

[cscs3]

im currently using a x220. There is this expresscard slot which allows me to put in a msata ssd if i am not wrong. Will it be detected as a normal SSD and allow me to install my os on it?

Yes, you can. Doing the same for my T420. However one point to take note is MSATA SSD only work at SATA2 speed and not SATA3.

 

[feitz]

u model is ultrabook right, lenove lappy since 2010 batch mostly come with msata slot liao let alone ultrabook

Thanks for your reply. Because i see the review here Review Lenovo IdeaPad U430 Touch Ultrabook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

the photo of the interior of U430 cannot find an empty msata slot.... so not so sure. anyone can confirm?