E6430 Owners Thread

it doesn't have msata, the only solution is get rid of dvd drive now. btw the 03 version bios is already out.

2ND HDD SSD HARD DRIVE caddy for dell E series E6420 E6520 E6320 | eBay

Right now you can get 256gb ssd + caddy for less than $200. I am waiting for 512gb and caddy next year.

 

I thought about that point too. The E6x20 series couldn`t use the mSATA SSDs in the big mPCIe slot, because the mSATA lines of that port were not connected.
I hope, it would be different in the E6x30 series.
Someone has to check it.

1. The maximum amount of RAM depends on the CPU. Check the Intel specification of your CPU.
2. You posted the documentation for E6320, not the E6330.

That was not so obvious in the E6x20, so perhaps Dell changed something in the E6x30 series.

 

e6x30 doesn't have msata and the dvd is still the same.

it does support 32gb memory.

 

Getting a quote for our rep on a E6430. I'll buy the memory after the fact since Dell wants too much for 8gb. I can get 8gb for around $60. Move my Corsair SSD and 6300 WiFi card over and I'm good to go. Have Dell replace some parts on my E6420 and eBay it!

The cycle of life....

 

Bust on the rep. Online price was less than the quote from the rep. I'll wait until they are a bit less money. My e6420 is fine for now.

 

Why do you think so? Because it isn`t mentioned in the specification?
Did you try yourself to use a mSATA SSD? A mPCIe mSATA SSD?
Some people succeeded to use a mSATA SSD on the E6520. The one with a own controller in the drive, that is connected as mPCIe. But the boot was tricky and the system was not stable.
I hardly hope, that with a new chipset and slightly different MB E6x30 could use mSATA. Perhaps after some trickery, hours of talking with dell engineers on the phone, some email exchange, but they could include such functionality in some future bios version.

 

msata and pcie is the same connector style but electric other connection. without a switch or something like that it is not possible. besides that the bios etc shows 4 SATA connectors.
HDD
module bay
esata on laptop unit
esata on docking station.

nothing more

 

I think what oxygen said is correct. Pcie and msata are not the same thing; msata is electrically the same as sata so if there's no sata controller allocated for it then it doesn't exist.

I have to say this is rather disappointing since mSata has made it's way into most of Dell's laptop lines this year. Interestingly the tech spec pages for the E6230 and E6330 both mention mSata, which if true would make this even more disappointing.

 

mSATA
An mSATA SSD on top of a 2.5 inch S-ATA

Mini-SATA, which is distinct from the micro connector, was announced by the Serial ATA International Organization on September 21, 2009.[27] Applications include netbooks and other devices that require a smaller solid-state drive. The connector is similar in appearance to a PCI Express Mini Card interface,[28] 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. Due to the absence of a standard for quite some time, there is still some confusion around this subject. For host devices which support either an mSATA SSD or mini-PCIe card interchangeably, this application note from NXP explains how to use a PCI-express/S-ATA router chip. This chip is essentially a four-channel bi-directional multiplexer. The vast majority of computer motherboards however have single-purpose headers which may support one of either an mSATA SSD or mini-PCIe card, but not both interchangeably.

 

I think, i was misunderstood.

I mean, that it could be possible to use devices like the SuperTalent CoreStore MV, that has both an SSD drive and a hard disk controller chip on the same card.

erblemoof succeeded with this on E6520:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...5905-e6520-owners-thread-104.html#post8458806
http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...5905-e6520-owners-thread-105.html#post8463822
http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...5905-e6520-owners-thread-105.html#post8463410
http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...5905-e6520-owners-thread-106.html#post8469351

The fact, that the bios doesn`t show the internal mSATA port, doesn`t mean, it isn`t physically there. Perhaps they will offer it later in next bios versions. At least, i hope it.