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NanoSSD Plugs Directly Into SATA Slot

by - source: Tom's Hardware US

Elecom Japan is launching two nanoSSDs in a few weeks that can plug into a SATA motherboard slot.

This seemed like utter coolness: an SSD that can plug directly into a SATA motherboard slot. Announced earlier today in Japan, Elecom's two new nanoSSDs--the ESD-IDSAA series--measures 25 x 39 x 6.5 mm, and could serve as a startup drive on a main system, or could even serve as a primary drive on a compact Mini-ITX system.

However, with the small size comes an even smaller storage capacity: 8 GB and 16 GB. Still, the drives offer decent read/write speeds, with read rates of up to 75 MB/sec. and write rates of up to 30 MB/sec. Unlike HDDs, the nanoSSDs feature minimal cooling requirements and are virtually quiet as a mouse.

The drives won't hit Japanese store shelves for another few weeks, and Elecom hasn't revealed pricing, however pre-orders are already underway. Akihabara News said that GeekStuff4U.com is scheduled to start selling the drives online in a couple of days.

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doomtomb 08/26/2009 2:28 AM
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-7+

Faster than current USB 2.0 flash drives that's for sure but what about the price?

cjl 08/26/2009 2:34 AM
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-20+

It appears to be blocking the adjacent ports though...

leafblower29 08/26/2009 2:39 AM
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-3+

It would interesting to RAID these. I think these might catch on.

08nwsula 08/26/2009 2:41 AM
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-8+

whatever can get rid of an extra cable from my case, I'm a fan of.

cah027 08/26/2009 2:42 AM
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exit2dos 08/26/2009 2:43 AM
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dheadley 08/26/2009 2:45 AM
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-17+

I like the idea behind this but i think they should have tried to make them taller and skinnier as to match the connector and not block adjacent connector slots.

the last resort 08/26/2009 2:46 AM
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-20+

quiet as a mouse? shouldn't it just be silent?

spectrewind 08/26/2009 2:53 AM
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B-Unit 08/26/2009 3:09 AM
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-18+

spectrewind :
That's the fault of the engineer(s) who staged the port headers off the mainboard in this configuration. Stacking the ports vertically would likely solve this.


What?!? The mobo came first, the direct connect drive should have been built to fit.

Shadow703793 08/26/2009 3:22 AM
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-5+

This would be pretty cool to have on a mini ITX system.

skine 08/26/2009 3:44 AM
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matt87_50 08/26/2009 3:47 AM
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-9+

hmm, I didn't think sata had any power channels? does it just get its power from the signal?

Anonymous 08/26/2009 3:50 AM
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emphase has had a virtually identical product available for a while... I have a 2GB... http://www.emphase.com/sfm20i

this isn't exactly new.

nachowarrior 08/26/2009 4:22 AM
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utdgrad2005 08/26/2009 4:25 AM
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--1+

http://www.innodisk.com/production.jsp?flashid=92


Faster product much like regular ssd

Impulse Fire911 08/26/2009 4:38 AM
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wow talk about the technology of tommorow they still can only hold a small amount but soon they shall have terrabite's and with that fast speed of read&write i think ill save up to get one of these

bulldoza99 08/26/2009 5:37 AM
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-2+

good call on the power issue.
In regards to the size of it- you could just put a sata cable on it if you had issues with its size - but these wouldnt really have a good market in pcs with lots of sata devices anyway- more for miniatx boards and internet cafe style systems.

mrubermonkey 08/26/2009 5:39 AM
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-3+

Proper SSD evaluation is so complex that lengthy reviews are need to get an idea of how well a SSD might perform. Anyway, instead of the 75 MB/sec read and 30 MB/sec write specifications, you should tell us if it is using MLC or SLC NAND flash and what type of controller it is using or at least the maker of the controller. The three most important factors in evaluating a SSD that I have discovered so far through reading multiple SSD reviews and about SSDs in general would be the SSD's capacity, the type of flash memory it uses, and the type of controller it uses. Only if you have special interests regarding a particular SSD should you bother putting much weight on other factors in evaluating that SSD over the three I have listed.

fonzy 08/26/2009 5:39 AM
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I still got my hopes on PCI express ssd's.I heard IO extreme will be coming out with a driver to make there drives bootable for installing windows and what knot.The price needs to go down though and capacity needs to go up.

bin1127 08/26/2009 6:48 AM
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--2+

but it's slow and low storage. What's wrong with a regular hd?

techguy378 08/26/2009 7:12 AM
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Awful, simply awful. These drives really don't perform any faster than my mechanical 150GB Western Digital Raptor drive in terms of real world performance. I'd rather have an internal hard drive as big as a full height floppy disk drive than this pathetic piece of crap.

dbwalsh 08/26/2009 11:58 AM
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-0+

I use something similar for a boot device for my debian server. Can fill up the box with raid 5 terabyte hard drives

amnotanoobie 08/26/2009 12:51 PM
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Matt87_50 :
hmm, I didn't think sata had any power channels? does it just get its power from the signal?


They provided an extra molex connector. http://www.elecom.co.jp/news/20090 [...] SAA_31.jpg

bin1127 :
but it's slow and low storage. What's wrong with a regular hd?


It is much more ideal either for troubleshooting, or 24/7 ITX boxes (it'd be much more durable, produce less heat, consume less electricity than the hdisk in the long run).

ohim 08/26/2009 1:14 PM
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-2+

welcome motherboards with integrated drive for OS ? :)

ohim 08/26/2009 1:14 PM
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-0+

not to forget all drivers and aplications that come bundled with a Mobo :)

caskachan 08/26/2009 1:22 PM
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-1+

Great, someone foudn a way to sell ,unsold fist generation ssd memories+ newer interface controler

wake me up when 8-16gb 200bm read write stuff liek this pops up, that will be worth it

zelannii 08/26/2009 2:12 PM
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OK, good idea, bad implementation, poor performance...

What they should have done instead was simply have you connect it to the molex connector, and use a very short SATA cable to connect it to the board. Strapping a small SDD to your cable bundle is a better idea than leaving a leverage point sticking up out of a cheap plastic SDD slot, those connectors are not designed to handle stresses of having a compponent sticking out of them like that, and they're too small to properly accomodate a drive without blocking ports...

Further, with Visat, anything less than a 64GB main drive is dumb. I though a 32GB partition would be fine, nearly double what I used for XP. Afterall the install was only slightly bigger. Nope, Vista puts so much crap opn C: in hidden directories, that over time, it grows DRAMATICALLY. Some of it can be moved, but it;s a real pain, and many applications don;t like it.

For Linux, sure, 8-16GB might be fine, even OS X would run nice in a 16-32GB partition, likely XP too, but it's too small, too expensive, blocks ports, and worst of all doesn't actually offer a dramatic performance advantage...

If they were thinking diagnostics, it should have been an esata drive...

theholylancer 08/26/2009 2:39 PM
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err how does it get power? I thought that the SATA port isn't powered.

theholylancer 08/26/2009 2:41 PM
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amnotanoobie :
They provided an extra molex connector. http://www.elecom.co.jp/news/20090 [...] SAA_31.jpgIt is much more ideal either for troubleshooting, or 24/7 ITX boxes (it'd be much more durable, produce less heat, consume less electricity than the hdisk in the long run).


o that's gay.... the adapter is bigger than the damned drive!!

utdgrad2005 08/26/2009 3:11 PM
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-1+

http://www.itechnews.net/2009/06/0 [...] b-nanossd/

This is a look at a prototype 128gb w/ 160 write and 150 read. Maybe a petition for newegg to pick this line up when it ready is in order.


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