What to do with 32gb msata SSD's?

[AlexKlouczek]

Hi, it has been a long time since I posted something here but, anyways, lets get to the core subject.

 

I have a bunch of Smart 32Gb SSDs ( around 5 of them) lying around here, and I want to do something with them. Is there some project or any crazy stuff that could be fun ou useful to do with them?

 

Please give me your thoughts and/or ideas!

[Xandaaa]

i mean you could give em to me. ORRRRRRRR you could run em all in RAID 0! just to see how fast you can get

[Granular]

Which is it, 32gb (gram-bits) or 32Gb (Gigabits)?

[DnFx91]

2 minutes ago, Xandaaa said:

i mean you could give em to me. ORRRRRRRR you could run em all in RAID 0! just to see how fast you can get

yeah beat me to it, find a dell precision or latitude with multiple Msata slots and RAID those badboys.

 

in seriousness though, just install windows on them, MSATA ssd's get posted so fast i can think of few storage devices that boot faster 

[AlexKlouczek]

4 minutes ago, Xandaaa said:

i mean you could give em to me. ORRRRRRRR you could run em all in RAID 0! just to see how fast you can get

I wonder what kind of hardware I need to make a 4 msata raid 0. I know there is something out there but I think it is unreliable AF.

[DnFx91]

2 minutes ago, Granular said:

Which is it, 32gb (gram-bits) or 32Gb (Gigabits)?

the pedantry is strong with this one

[DnFx91]

1 minute ago, AlexKlouczek said:

I wonder what kind of hardware I need to make a 4 msata raid 0. I know there is something out there but I think it is unreliable AF.

I've seen PCIE cards for MSATA drives, i don't know how you would RAID them any other way than windows striping though, so not sure if u could boot a quad MSATA RAID. Pretty sure u could just get 2 dual MSATA PCIe cards and stripe them in windows though, just for funs

[m0k]

13 minutes ago, AlexKlouczek said:

Hi, it has been a long time since I posted something here but, anyways, lets get to the core subject.

 

I have a bunch of Smart 32Gb SSDs ( around 5 of them) lying around here, and I want to do something with them. Is there some project or any crazy stuff that could be fun ou useful to do with them?

 

Please give me your thoughts and/or ideas!

find a usb 3.0 adapter for the drives and then

you could try out different operating systems 

Linux

OSX

 etc

[AlexKlouczek]

4 minutes ago, DnFx91 said:

I've seen PCIE cards for MSATA drives, i don't know how you would RAID them any other way than windows striping though, so not sure if u could boot a quad MSATA RAID. Pretty sure u could just get 2 dual MSATA PCIe cards and stripe them in windows though, just for funs

I already have a SSD to boot from, boot speed is not a concern right now, I think I could get one of those Msata - USB 3.0 adapters and make a bunch of fast 32Gb "thumb drives".

[Xandaaa]

4 minutes ago, AlexKlouczek said:

I already have a SSD to boot from, boot speed is not a concern right now, I think I could get one of those Msata - USB 3.0 adapters and make a bunch of fast 32Gb "thumb drives".

i mean ya, but thats no fun...

[DnFx91]

6 minutes ago, AlexKlouczek said:

I already have a SSD to boot from, boot speed is not a concern right now, I think I could get one of those Msata - USB 3.0 adapters and make a bunch of fast 32Gb "thumb drives".

yup, i actually happen to have a few spare MSATA drives myself, would you beleive that surface pro 3's are pretty fragile haha ?

 

But yeah that is literally the best use for them, get a little USB3 MSATA enclosure and use it for transporting your legally acquired media. decent "samsung-grade" MSATA drives can almost saturate USB3, faster than any USB3 stick anyway

[AlexKlouczek]

6 minutes ago, Xandaaa said:

i mean ya, but thats no fun...

But it is A LOT more practical, I don't believe there is more reliable options.

[AlexKlouczek]

4 minutes ago, DnFx91 said:

yup, i actually happen to have a few spare MSATA drives myself, would you beleive that surface pro 3's are pretty fragile haha ?

 

But yeah that is literally the best use for them, get a little USB3 MSATA enclosure and use it for transporting your legally acquired media. decent "samsung-grade" MSATA drives can almost saturate USB3, faster than any USB3 stick anyway

Do you have indications for good and reliable adapters?

[spellmanuk]

sell them all on ebay 

[DnFx91]

1 minute ago, AlexKlouczek said:

Do you have indications for good and reliable adapters?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Alcey-Aluminum-Enclosure-Adapter-Housing/dp/B01M9JLX6K/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1486481956&sr=8-15&keywords=ssd+msata+enclosure

 

literally any enclosure that has this physical shell type, they are all the same just branded different. I use one that's branded MySSD and it works great, sometimes flaky if not plugged into a powered hub but that's expected, they are not meant to be external drives but if you use a powered 3.0 hub it works fine.

[AlexKlouczek]

36 minutes ago, DnFx91 said:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Alcey-Aluminum-Enclosure-Adapter-Housing/dp/B01M9JLX6K/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1486481956&sr=8-15&keywords=ssd+msata+enclosure

 

literally any enclosure that has this physical shell type, they are all the same just branded different. I use one that's branded MySSD and it works great, sometimes flaky if not plugged into a powered hub but that's expected, they are not meant to be external drives but if you use a powered 3.0 hub it works fine.

Taking a look at aliexpress and your suggestion, it seems it is all the same board with different branding on the shell. Except aliexpress options are cheaper.

[DnFx91]

3 minutes ago, AlexKlouczek said:

Taking a look at aliexpress and your suggestion, it seems it is all the same board with different branding on the shell. Except aliexpress options are cheaper.

yeah they all have basically identical boards in them just different logos, have you checked if your MSATA SSD is 3gb/s or 6gb/s ??

[Doramius]

There are lots of things that can be done with the drives, however, cost is very prohibitive.  That doesn't mean you can't spend money to play around, but here's a link to a card that you can RAID 4x mSATA cards together.  However, with 4x 32GB cards and the $130 price tag, it's cheaper to get a larger and faster card on it's own.  You could RAID 4x 1TB mSATA cards together that result in excellent cost for the storage size and excellent speed, but now you're not utilizing the 32GB cards anymore.  Best use and places I've seen those smaller mSATA SSDs have been as RAID caches.  

 

Here are some cheaper ones, but I cannot guarantee how well they work, as I have not used these myself:
https://www.amazon.com/Syba-mSATA-Components-Other-SD-PEX40079/dp/B00KKO6N98 - $80 USD

https://www.amazon.com/Addonics-AD4MSPX2-Quad-Pcie-Msata/dp/B0158VPBP4 - $62 USD

 

[AlexKlouczek]

23 minutes ago, Doramius said:

There are lots of things that can be done with the drives, however, cost is very prohibitive.  That doesn't mean you can't spend money to play around, but here's a link to a card that you can RAID 4x mSATA cards together.  However, with 4x 32GB cards and the $130 price tag, it's cheaper to get a larger and faster card on it's own.  You could RAID 4x 1TB mSATA cards together that result in excellent cost for the storage size and excellent speed, but now you're not utilizing the 32GB cards anymore.  Best use and places I've seen those smaller mSATA SSDs have been as RAID caches.  

 

Here are some cheaper ones, but I cannot guarantee how well they work, as I have not used these myself:
https://www.amazon.com/Syba-mSATA-Components-Other-SD-PEX40079/dp/B00KKO6N98 - $80 USD

https://www.amazon.com/Addonics-AD4MSPX2-Quad-Pcie-Msata/dp/B0158VPBP4 - $62 USD

 

Yeah, the cost is very prohibitive, and it is  worthy only with high capacity drives, at least 256Gb.

[Doramius]

Even for $80 you can get a decent 250GB SSD in pretty much any connection.  Again, the 32GB SSDs have very little worth on the market.  RAID cache is about the only thing of worth for them, and even then it's questionable.  Flash drives seem to hold value better. :shrug: