[HH] Alternatives to SSDs for laptops?

[Tom Metro]

Bill Bogstad wrote:
> The other machine has a large (640 gig) SATA drive which is 90% full...
> and for economic reasons isn't going to be replaced with a SATA SSD

How about a hybrid drive? I have a 500 GB Seagate, and they now have
them in 750 MB and possibly larger sizes. It's definitely an easy, no
fuss solution, and pretty cheap, but it is up for debate whether such
drives really provide much of a real-world performance boost.


> Both machines, however, have CardBus slots.   Given that CardBus is
> essentially a 32bit PCI bus connection...

Have you looked at mSATA drives?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSATA#mSATA

  The connector is similar in appearance to a PCI Express Mini Card
  interface, and is electrically compatible; however, the data
  signals (TX±/RX± SATA, PETn0 PETp0 PERn0 PERp0 PCI-express) need
  connection to the SATA host controller instead of the PCI-express host
  controller.

Hmmm...my recollection was that it used a PCI interface, but I guess
that's just the physical connector. So you still need a SATA controller.

Seems like theoretically, if you can mechanically fit everything into
the available space, you could find/make a CardBus to mSATA adapter that
would contain a SATA host controller chip.


The PATA to CF card adapter that Shankar suggests seems like the more
practical approach.


> Unfortunately, that is a CF to 2.5" PATA adapter.   That is much more
> common then the 1.8" PATA ZIF form factor.

Is this just a connector incompatibility that can be addressed with a
passive adapter?

If you can get an adapter of any kind - even one that won't fit into the
available space - if it is cheap, you might want to get it and benchmark
the solution to see if it achieves your goals. If it does, then maybe
you can hack the adapter to be smaller or cannibalize an old 1.8" drive
to build your own adapter.

I wanted to see what a PATA ZIF connector looked like, and a search
turned up this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hardware-components-aftermarket-upgrades/356421-those-slow-1-8-pata-drives-wanting-sata.html

which covers both commercial solutions and hacks for getting an SSD for
a 1.8" PATA ZIF form factor.

Sounds like the best option is a micro SATA (different from mSATA) to
1.8" ZIF adapter, which can be had for $16:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/16pin-Micro-SATA-SSD-HDD-to-1-8-ZIF-adapter-card-cable-/320690745896?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4aaaa87228

and then you use a micro SATA SSD.

micro SATA connector:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSATA#Micro_connector

 -Tom