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
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.
------------------------------...man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but usually manages to pick himself up, walk over or around it, and carry on.
Reply to 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.
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
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.
------------------------------...man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but usually manages to pick himself up, walk over or around it, and carry on.
Reply to sub mesa
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!