Can I use the mSATA slot for RAID on a W520?

[Carthik]

Might be a silly question, but with Lenovo's shenanigans can never be too sure.

Will a RAID equipped W520 motherboard support RAID on the mSATA slot without limitation?


Cheers,

[Carthik]

Bump, nobody?

[EngineersCake]

That's an interesting thought.
From the cursory research I've done there won't be speed bottleneck. There can be problems with flash technology or controllers being compatible. I don't have immediate experience with laptop hardware RAIDs, but I have worked with some software raid solutions. If you do happen to get the same type of flash storage and compatible controllers in a mPCIe and a 2.5" drive form factor, you'll likely have some luck.

Another option to consider is to use both of the mPCIe slots for SSDs. That way you can rest assured that the hardware is matching. In that case you would lose the Intel wireless card, but that's what the express card/34 slot is there for. (Assuming that you haven't occupied that slot with a USB 3.0 card or something.)

I assume you're using RAID 0 for performance?
Any reason you're not just using the HDD bay and an HDD adapter in the Ultrabay Enhanced slot?

Anyhow, hope that's any amount of help.

[jcvjcvjcvjcv]

Both of the mPCIe slots for SSDs? mSata only works in that 2nd slot. Also note that they are mPCIe, not M.2

RAID 0 with the mSata slot is silly, since the Ultrabay and main bay are SATA-III (600) and the mSata is SATA-II (300). So RAID 0 between the mainbay and mSata will yield a theoretical max of 600 MB/s, exactly the same as just using the mainbay without RAID.