Gigabyte z77-ud5 micro-sata port?

[jamesriley94]

I know this is meant to put SSDs in for SSD caching on hard drives, but what if you already have an SSD as the boot drive? does it make it redundant?

Is the speed of it faster in anyway to allow you to put windows on that or what?

Gunna be getting this board I think and just wanna know if there's any point spending another 40 uid on an OCZ Nocti - especially as listed read and write speeds are far slower than my M4...

 

[S_I_N]

nope IMHO it would hinder the ssd boot drive if you tried to cache it with a msata drive

 

[jamesriley94]

I think that too, but otherwise what is the point of including it? Can you get faster mSATA SSDs that will run faster as a boot drive themselves? Or can you only use it for caching?

 

[S_I_N]

its mainly used for caching to an HDD afaik its only for caching i havent researched it out fully as of yet.

 

[SieB]

As far as I know and I haven't really read up much on it either but it is only for caching. With an Msata and HDD it gives you SSD speeds, but if you already have an SSD then there isn't really any point to it as an SSD is fast enough as it is.

 

[jamesriley94]

Thats what I thought. Is there anything else I could use the port for?

 

[S_I_N]

nope if ur not using it leave it be

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

Corsair accelerator is an amazing device.

 

[I Hunta x]

Sorry about the kinda highjack here but ive been wondering this since i saw them pop up on boards but ended up forgetting about it, but it probably isnt worth starting a new thread for this question as its just a yes or no answer.

Can a m-sata drive be used as the only drive in the system and have like windows/programs/games on or is it just for the cache stuff? for something like a super trimmed down lan rig it could be pretty neat for, if it can be used as storage obviously, basically just a cpu, gpu, memory, psu, case and finaly the msata on the board?.

 

[S_I_N]

its for caching to the main drive only no other supported features mate. Truth be told you asked it and we answered it. Asking it a different way doesnt change the outcome.

Its for caching not storage or boot drive cache only.

 

[jamesriley94]

Yeh, dont apologise for hijacking threads, when you ask a question thats still considered within the topic

Thats a shame though really, especially on boards like this. Anyone using a Z77-UD5 is very likely to be using an SSD as a boot drive anyway, making the m-sata port redundant. It's in such a visible location as well

 

[VengeanceUK]

i suppose its a way of making more money from those yet to adopt ssd's (chiefly cos of prices, but they're now tumbling day upon day) but are still running mechanical drives.

it seems like a bridge between old and new techs, i suppose its kinda like the seagate momentus xt (i think thats the right one) hybrid drive, but i think with the recent ssd price trends, its going to find itself as a shortlived stopgap technology IMHO

 

[chocolatejeff]

hey i have the same board too. I've heard if you have a volume in a hard disk, you should be able to cache that volume with the ssd intel technology.