New SSDs to install in AA1?

runcore and mydigitalssd have a new sortiment of ssds - variing in prices depending on size, speed an cell set up.

what they have in common, is that they are relatively cheap for an ssds - and much faster (r:73 / w:38)...

they also have in common, that they are produced explicitly for the eee pc series or the inspirion mini.

what i would like to know is: if one would solder the mini pci exp. connector to the board (as shown by tankgrl:
http://tnkgrl.wordpress.com/category/aspire-one/) and use it for an second ssd.

it might be, that the moddels of runcore are to long (i don't know - but i dont think so...) -but then one could change the wifi card with the new ssd. like this, a dual boot system would be no problem.

the point is: normal mini pci express pinouts shuld normally be identical with all cards. is that correct? why are they then selling different cards 4 the different models? like eee pc 900 / 1000 / dell ins. mini?

xoxo lt

 

It's not going to work in this slot.

SSD uses ATA signals - connector is the same but available signals are different then those in EeePC which is using miniPCIe connectors as well... This connector is for Wi-Fi and WWAN cards only as they use own set of signals to operate - as you probably know they don't even use USB signals available in this connector...

 

thanx 4 your answer.

well - i'm not shure, if i got you correctly. i thought about installing the pci-x connector (solder a connector on the board and set the jumpers).

using this mini pci-x connector, would it be possible, to use the express card or not? what i want to say: are all pci-x connectors using the same protocoll? - as far as i know, you can use the usb-connector from that pci-x set. you just have to solder it and get power from somewhere else...

so: if this would be a complete min.pci-x port - will it be able to work with every mini-pci-x card?

is the version range of i.e. runcore ssds only due to size / fitting problems?

 

NO.

In AA1 you have two places with miniPCIe socket available: one - it's existing Wi-Fi card and another one which is not soldered. Both of them are using signals not compatible with SSD cards. You can compare this with Asus EeePC - in this Netbook you have two sockets (PCIe form factor) but they work ONLY with memory cards (SSD). You can not install there WWAN or WiFi card. In AA1 one you have two possible sockets to install WWAN and WiFi but you can not install SSD there...

 

Allegedly Runcore are working on ZIF versions of these SSDs for the AAO, no ETA from My Digital Discount yet.

In the meatime, both of the PCI-e versions (for Asus and Dell netbooks) have a slave mini-USB connector. Runcore supply a mini-USB cable so that you can ghost your existing internal SSD image to the new SSD via USB before installing it.

Given the extremely low price and high performance of these SSDs, I am wondering if there is any mileage in soldering a hacked mini-USB cable to CN11 and then running one of the Runcore PCI-e SSDs via its slave USB connector as the boot device.

The Dell version is slightly shorter (50mm) and may just fit in the WWAN bay on the AAO or would possibly mount in place of the factory SSD.

Not sure what performance would be like, but I get a solid 33mb/s with a 2.5" SATA drive in an external USB enclosure. If the Runcore SSDs can match this via their slave USB port then this would be more than adequate.

 

jip, waiting for the zif versions as well.

in the meantime, i found there is a quite reasonably priced mtron mobi 3000 1.8" zif, that should work as well. (@ 180€ in germany)

ok, its a bit more expensive, but slc and faster in r/w speeds.

well, maybe i'll give it a shot jan. 2009 - if the price keeps falling.

 

If the Runcore ZIF versions do not materialise then I will ebay my A110 and buy either an A150 + 6-cell battery or an Inspiron Mini 9 + Runcore PCI-e SSD instead.

 

Would these two work:

http://www.mydigitaldiscount.com/Produc ... 1222406293
http://www.mydigitaldiscount.com/Produc ... 1222405827

I'm thinking about popping one of those in and installing ubuntu. Of course if they won't work, I'll have too look for something else.

 

Yes, they should work. The cheaper one is still quite slow, though.

The Runcore PCI-e SSDs are faster and cheaper than both of these. Let's hope that they don't lose these benefits in the imminent translation to ZIF format...

 

140€ for 16 GB, 200€ for 32GB in UK (including shipping):
http://www.dpieshop.com/18-idepata-products-c-21_72.html

11€ for the suitable ZIF ribbon (and i'm pretty sure you can find a better price on ebay) :
http://www.kalea-informatique.com/mag/fr/product-361132.htm

I got the 32 GB one four days after ordering. I secured it to the motherboard like this :
http://tnkgrl.wordpress.com/2008/08/16/modding-the-acer-aspire-one-hard-drive/

The result is quite impressing : 70 MB/s reading, 40 MB/s writing. I can't reach 100/80, probably because the intel PATA chipset is limited to UDMA/100 (and so the ssd can't be set to UDMA6, only to UDMA5)