Boot from mini PCIe SATA SSD in laptop

[onoffpt]

Is it possible to boot a laptop from a mini PCIe SATA like a "OCZ OCZSSDMPES-32G Mini PCIe 32GB Mini PCIe SATA Internal Solid state disk (SSD)" ?

If so, then it would be a very convenient and affordable upgrade.
The booting and loading speed of the OS and software suites, combined with the huge and cheap space of a HD.

It might not be very energy efficient having two drives

 

[sub mesa]

Since the SSD uses virtually no power when idling, there is no concern of power usage for SSDs. And yes, any PCI/PCIe addon should be bootable, though BIOS problems may exist or functionality is missing causing this to not work. But normal BIOS should all boot from PCI/PCIe controller. Though for your operating system, you may need specific drivers.

 

[onoffpt]

Since the SSD uses virtually no power when idling, there is no concern of power usage for SSDs. And yes, any PCI/PCIe addon should be bootable, though BIOS problems may exist or functionality is missing causing this to not work. But normal BIOS should all boot from PCI/PCIe controller. Though for your operating system, you may need specific drivers.

I will check if my laptop includes a option for miniPCIe boot.
Is it possible that the option only shows up when there is a miniPCIe in the slot ?

Going to the power consumption problem, I think that this was already studied by TomsHardware.
Check the conclusion of the test:
"The results of our testing are a shock for anyone who cares about battery runtime, as our results prove unmistakably that battery runtimes do not increase when using flash based SSDs. As a matter of fact, most flash SSD products actually contribute to emptying your battery even faster"
source:http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-hdd-battery,1955-15.html

 

[onoffpt]

Is there any new ideas for this challange ?

 

[sub mesa]

Flash SSDs use between 0.1 and 0.5W idle
2.5" notebook drives use between 0.68W idle and 1.5W idle (old models)
2.5" Velociraptor uses 4.0W idle
3.5" WD Green 5400rpm disks use around 3-5W
3.5" regular 7200rpm drives (capacity not relevant) between 7 and 9W

Also note SSDs don't have a spin-up period. 3.5" disks use up to 35W per disk to spin-up, causing systems with many HDDs installed to power down, because the overload protection of your power supply is triggered.

As you can see, there is not much power benefit from going to 2,5" HDD to SSD, because both use very little power. Still an SSD should be superior.

 

[onoffpt]

Thank you for your contribution "sub mesa".

Do you known anyone using this configuration ?
Using a small SSD in the mini PCIe for the Operating System and a
regular 2.5 HD for storage

 

[Davide-NYC]

I too am interested in doing this. I have emails out to OCZ and Runcore.
I here Samsung is making a mini-PCIe SSD with a SATA controller.
I'm using a Dell D820.
And and all info very much appreciated!

 

[warewolf801]

Something like this: http://www.startech.com/item/PCI2MPCIB-PCI-to-MiniPCI-Adapter-with-Bracket.aspx

Or this one looks better, and has a compatibility list (at least they're testing it, and being honest about what it works with, and not): http://www.hwtools.net/Adapter/MP2S.html

The 2nd company also makes this one: http://www.hwtools.net/Adapter/MP2S-P.html (if you don't have sata ports..)

This seems like an area many people are ignoring or skipping.. There are great values out there for cheap Mini PCIe SSD drives..

Sure would be nice if somone would package a kit with a tested combination of adaptor, and SSD drive.

 

[nekollx]

my laptop has express card not mini pcie, can i do something similar?

 

[shugav]

Here is the answer to you question!


The PCIe Mini SSD has to have a SATA controller to be able to work on a LAPTOP.
THE CARDS are not sold yet , but they will be very soon.

http://www.slashgear.com/samsung-mini-pcie-ssd-up-to-64gb-of-super-compact-storage-2347726/

more

http://www.hardforums.com/showthread.php?p=1035324678

http://www.siliconmadness.com/2009/06/samsung-mini-pcie-ssd.html