Gigabyte Sticks 20GB SLC SSD On Z68 Mobo
It's not often that the ubiquitous motherboard gets considerable attention.
There are lots of models, all ranging in sizes, commodity features, and brands, producing "me-too" products. Rarely do we see features that really command excitement. Enter Gigabyte's GA-Z68XP-UD3 series. There are two types, a GA-Z68XP-UD3 and a GA-Z68XP-UD3-iSSD.
Both models come with an integrated mSATA interface (essentially mini PCIe), allowing users to actually install mobile-SSD modules directly onto the motherboard. The difference is, with the GA-Z68XP-UD3-iSSD, Gigabyte is bundling a 20GB Intel SLC SSD module. Gigabyte told us that they skipped over MLC based modules to ensure higher levels of reliability and speed. While this is true, SLC modules cost significantly higher than MLC modules, and so we expect the iSSD bundle to command a steeper price.
If used, the module can be configured as a drive for your OS, or as a cache drive to be used in conjunction with Intel's Smart Response.
Gigabyte also mentioned that because a module is bundled with the iSSD board, Gigabyte will handle the RMA duties for the module should it ever fail within the motherboard's warranty period -- no need to go to Intel for coverage.
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Great Idea! 20Gig is perfect for OS install.
I want one.
My Windows 7 folder (2 years old) is 22GB... maybe perfect for XP.
This is a pretty cool idea from Gigabyte
Great Idea! 20Gig is perfect for OS install.
Is 20G enough with windows bloat? Or how about dual boot?
win 7 OS is only 3.5 gig. just make sure everything else goes to data drive.
perfect place for my Photoshop cache? and the files I'm currently working with? how bout upgradeable swapable?
Good feature in a motherboard and I believe the SSD is upgradable.
win 7 OS is only 3.5 gig. just make sure everything else goes to data drive.
How did you manage to trim it so much? Mine's 17.7 GB (only the Windows folder) and it is a recent installation (about 3 months). Windows 7 Professional x64
I really like Gigabyte, their mobos are top-notch, and they are true innovators. This is a good example of that innovation at work.
I want one, and man gigabyte is getting on the ball!
i wondered why this kind of thing didn't happen sooner. i had this idea about 5 years ago
i have always wanted something like this.
expect to see os bundles where os is preinstalled, which may be a bonus.
I want one, and man gigabyte is getting on the ball!
I like this idea, you know that just down the road higher storage numbers will be available at about the same price so if we bide our time plenty of affordable versions of this implementation will be available .
I wonder if the OEMs like HP, Lenovo, and others will be far behind in offering this in their laptops?
My Windows 7 folder (2 years old) is 22GB... maybe perfect for XP.
Its true 20GB isn’t enough for everyone.
Presumably the idea is for it to be used in tandem with the z68 chipset's SSD caching abilities, rather than as a system drive.
am i the only one that thinks it's so damn close to the CPU and primary gfx slot, some serious thermal abuse there.....
Presumably the idea is for it to be used in tandem with the z68 chipset's SSD caching abilities, rather than as a system drive.
Exactly.
am i the only one that thinks it's so damn close to the CPU and primary gfx slot, some serious thermal abuse there.....
Good point, the proximity is awfully close.
cool idea but my first thought was it's gonna run much hotter than it would in a drive bay.
wow... I little late on news?
At last someone did it! And who cares that it's only 20GB, it's a start... soon many manufacturers will do the same and more on their premium boards.
nice...
Will buy most definately!
I would like to see W7 preinstalled. Maybe that'd would lower overall system cost with with an OEM OS with no bloatware.
@Horhe: Maybe he got rid of shadow copies, software distribution cache, and other redundancies? There's a lot of duplication in that folder that you might not need if your go-to solution for issues is to reload/reimage (and that's a good option if your important stuff is already segregated from the OS drive).
NICE, SSD is too small, but still NICE.
That would be a really, REALLY fast bootup.
My Windows 7 folder (2 years old) is 22GB... maybe perfect for XP.
openSUSE install is 3GB including a full office suite, Firefox, GIMP image editing, bittorrent client, java, e-mail/contact management/calendar, media player, etc. I think a lot of that 22GB is probably just page file, which I saw witch a Win7 virtual machine install. If it's not all page file, I can't imagine what you've got in there.
Nope, the pagefile.sys file is in the root of the drive.
As far as I know the size of the windows folder in vista and 7 is a bit inaccurate. (2-5GB less in reality)
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/archive [...] space.aspx
I've gotten to 22GB due to all the security updates, not the mention that I've upgraded to SP1.
I'll do a clean install of SP1 soon enough.
20gb is small although....... if you get the version that doesn't come with the sdd , you could possibly add your own thats much larger (might come at a higher price though.)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] %28SATA%29