MiniPciE, what, how and why not?

[eyeland]

Few simple questions:
How many miniPcislots in the following models: t61, t400, t500, w500

Any MiniPci cards other than Wifi, SSD and intel turbomemory?

At the same price I can either upgrade my t61 from 3 to 4 gb ddr2 OR I can get 8GB minipci SSD which could be used for readyboost, pagefile, scratchdisk, bootdrive or for audiosamples.
Any REAL performancegains in any of these areas?

[ThinkRob]

At the same price I can either upgrade my t61 from 3 to 4 gb ddr2 OR I can get 8GB minipci SSD which could be used for readyboost, pagefile, scratchdisk, bootdrive or for audiosamples.

Go for the RAM upgrade, no question.

Most MiniPCIe SSDs suck at random writes, which is pretty much the main thing that a scratch disk does. Further, when it comes to larger writes you're not likely to gain that much from a MiniPCIe SSD over, say, a fast hard drive.

General rule of thumb is to work on staying out of swap before working on making swap faster -- and a RAM upgrade will definitely help with the former.

[eyeland]

ok, makes sense I guess, still, any idea of how many slots the t61/t400/500 has?

[JesseKnows]

Just a reminder: to use more than 3GB you need a 64-bit OS. If you stay with a 32-bit OS, the 4th GB would do nothing. In that case, choose the SSD.

[ThinkRob]

Just a reminder: to use more than 3GB you need a 64-bit OS. If you stay with a 32-bit OS, the 4th GB would do nothing. In that case, choose the SSD.

Or a 32-bit OS that supports PAE, which most do. (Linux and Mac OS X certainly do. Windows 2000
Professional and Windows XP Professional also do, IIRC.)

Also, regarding the SSD: I'd save your money, even if you don't do the RAM upgrade. Most mini PCIe SSDs have abysmal random IO performance, and given that you're basically talking about uses that are almost entirely random IO, I don't think you'll be as happy with it as you might think.

[eyeland]

ok, I see
Too bad, I kinda hate to have unused expansionslots .. feels... empty..

[ThinkPadophile]

OK, I'll take the other view. I recently purchased a fast expresscard SSD that boasts 115MBS/65MBS read/write speeds. I'm running Vista Ultimate 32-bit w/ 3GB RAM. I use eBoostr to cache my app files. Application launches are definitely faster. I'm hoping to upgrade to Windows 7 soon and try the SSD with Window 7's improved version of Readyboost.

In other words, a super fast SSD can greatly improve your application launch times. But if you can only afford either the SSD or RAM, the decision is based on how you use your computer and what's important to you. If you normally max out your RAM and are constantly swapping out to the pagefile, more RAM would be your best bet.

[ThinkRob]

OK, I'll take the other view. I recently purchased a fast expresscard SSD that boasts 115MBS/65MBS read/write speeds. I'm running Vista Ultimate 32-bit w/ 3GB RAM. I use eBoostr to cache my app files. Application launches are definitely faster. I'm hoping to upgrade to Windows 7 soon and try the SSD with Window 7's improved version of Readyboost.

What are the random read/writes like?

I ask because although there are a number of mini PCIe SSDs with impressive-looking sequential speeds, I have yet to see one that can put up random 4K performance that justifies the cost.

[ThinkPadophile]

I ran Crystal Diskmark, five passes of 100MB block. 4K random read/write speeds: 9.39 MB/s/1.349 MB/s.

By comparison, I ran the same tests on an 8GB Lexmark expresscard SSD that I had. Its 4k random read/write speeds: 4.707 MB/s/0.017 MB/s.

Finally, I ran the test on my HDD (a WD Scorpio Black, 7200RPM). Its results: 0.369 MB/s / 1.288 MB/s.

The bottom line: the expresscard SSD is faster than my near state-of-the-art HDD, and 25X faster during random 4K reads. Given the use I've put it to (as a cache device to form a "hybrid" drive) and the purpose I have in mind (to speed up app launch times) it seems to me to be doing its intended job. Thoughts?

[ThinkRob]

Thoughts?

Hm. Well TBH I don't tend to put much faith in Crystal Diskmark, as I've seen it produce impressive numbers on JMicron-based drives before.

Do you have any other benchmarks?

Also, just wondering, but what's the make/model of the drive? I'd like to see what controller's in it.

Thanks!

[ThinkPadophile]

No, I haven't run other benchmarks. What would you suggest? I am interested in getting an objective appraisal of this thing.

The "thing" is a Wintec Filemate Ultra SSD. See its product page here. Aluratec markets the same product under its label also. There seem to be a few others along the same lines, but I'm not real familiar with them.

Its controller is a JMicron JMB36X.

[ThinkRob]

No, I haven't run other benchmarks. What would you suggest? I am interested in getting an objective appraisal of this thing.

For Windows? Hm... I'm not in my element here, but I'd suggest ATTO and/or HD Tune Pro.

[ThinkPadophile]

Thanks, ThinkRob. I'll try them.

I don't want to divert eyeland's thread away from his original question. For anyone interested in following the discussion on my use of the expresscard SSD as an alternative to a true SSD, see the thread "A Cost Effective Alternative to an SSD?" in this forum.