I have a Dell Inspiron 1520, and I have three mini-PCIe slots, only one used. I was hoping to add a solid state drive for some storage off my main HD. Just an area for automatic backup in case of sudden HD failure. I see alot of these cards being produced specifically for netbooks, but it looks like the netbooks bring out SATA or PATA lines to the PCIe card connector in a way that a standard laptop does not. Are there cards that have the controller on board and use a standard PCIe interface? Performance isn't an issue, even a USB based card would be fine. I know that there are USB based Expresscards that will work, but my expresscard slot is already used full-time. Thanks guys.
Well, this Google search will show you options for a mini PCIe SSD, but since you're fine with using a USB port, why not just get an external USB hard drive? The Western Digital Passport series is a good line to look at.
Most of the cards that your Google search show interface with the miniPCIe slot in a non-standard way. As I said before, these netbooks bring out the SATA or PATA lines to the miniPCIe connector in a way that normal laptops do not.
When I said that a USB based card would be fine, I meant a miniPCIe card that used the USB lines available on the connector (most cellular cards work this way). I want a card that is always there, internally, not sticking out like a USB flash drive or USB hard drive would be. My goal is for automatic backup that I don't have to remember to use. I don't want to have to plug in a usb device first, but I also don't want a usb device sticking out 100% of the time, ready to snap my port if I get careless.
Yes, Samsung is about to release SSDs capable running on SATA 1 & 2 interface as well as on the USB interface of normals notebooks.... Samsung really deserves a recognition... They are due on Q3 of 2009.
And here it's confirmed it works in ports designed for Wifi cards only.. Also includes Encryption. The only thing will be unclear - if the way it connects is USB connectors, then the writing speed will be maxed out at 30mb per second, not the 100mb specs of the drive. It's the USB 2.0 standard has limit. But still better than nothing or having the port empty. Currently I have Intel Turbo Memory there 1GB, Not sure whether the new 4GB models fit, but Intel only works with ReadyBoost and ReadyDrive, so not avail as drive.