M14x R2 Bringing back from the dead

Hi all, dusted off my m14x r2 and fell in love with it again. However it is slow as hell. I have trawled threads but alot contradict each other.

Looking at upgrading the 500gb hdd to ssd. I notice after research I have an msata slot which I never knew much about. Apparently it works at sataIII speeds.

Question 1) is the msata slot limited to 256gb? A few threads say this.

Question 2) what port is next to the msata? Thin one.

Question 3) would i be better to upgrade the primary hdd bay to ssd. Or fine to leave the hdd where it is and fit a ssd to the msata? Basically looking for as much speed as possible.

Thanks any help would be appreciated

 

Question 1 : I very much doubt its limited to 256GB. Perhaps that was the limitation of the drive size at the time of release much like how laptops from 2011-2012 were limited to 16GB because of the 4GB dimm size available at the time. I believe 1TB is the largest for mSATA.

Question 2: I cant be sure to be honest. When looking at the service manual it states the daughter board as having the following. mSATA, WWAN and HDMI / DP. Sim Card. Then half height WLAN.

Question 3: I believe the hierarchy of speed is generally speaking like this. M.2 PCIE > M.2 SATA > 2.5" SATA mSATA. That being said mSATA is still more than capable. Been using one on my M4600 and have had 0 complaints. I wouldnt forgo it if your considering putting the existing drive into the ODD position. If no plans to resuse the old drive as storage then no harm in getting a 2.5" SATA SSD drive.

Hope that helps

 

Thank you very much for your reply!

I think I am going to go with a 250gb mSata SSD and use that to boot Windows 7 and use the HDD as a storage for files etc. Hopefully, it keeps the temp down on it

Fletch

 

Just make sure you dont get the 840 EVO. It has a hardware fault that made its speeds on old files slower than HDD speeds. I dont know if that issue extends to the mSATA variant but it would be something to look into if its an option your considering.

 

The Msata drive, and its subsequent port, will give you the same speeds- in real world values - as the standard 2.5 incher. I used a Samsung 850 Evo Msata drive in my M14X r2 and it was amazing, perfect for gaming, boot or whatever else you threw at it.

You can also go up to any size you might need, above 256GB

Here is the 850 evo msata.
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-500G...&qid=1524924990&sr=8-2&keywords=850+evo+msata

 

Did the ssd help increase performance