CoreStore MV mini-PCIe SSD

Machupo

Machupo

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Joined
Nov 14, 2004
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Here are a couple teaser pics :)

I've done some initial test runs and want to work out a couple bugs before I present all of the results (and put together a decent install guide while I'm at it).

More to follow (i'll edit it to this post).

corestore1.jpg


corestore2.jpg
 
Interesting option. Given that this is a "full length" mpcie card, I guess people have to be pretty selective on the motherboard they want to use this in. Of the 1155 boards, I know the zotac wifi model has one of these.
 
There are a few models that use this port. Mostly ones that offer their boards with wifi or BT. But if your like me and want to save space and SATA ports, this is perfect.
 
Ok -- talked w/ supertalent and apparently, even though the newest mini-pcie standard is the v1.2 CEM, that still falls under the umbrella of the PCIe 1.0 spec, so the best we'll get out of a mini-pcie slot is 250MB/sec read (theoretically).

That being said, here are the results I received from this drive on my Zotac H55ITX-a-e. One thing of note, it is actually a 50GiB drive, the remaining portion of the 64GiB is used for spare area and other SSD algorithms.

No word on the 128GB MLC release... that's what I'm going to run in my main system, but these 64GB guys are perfect for HTPCs / NAS / systems that don't use much space.

st_corestore_64_CMD.jpg

st_corestore_64_seqbench.jpg


for comparison, here are the same tests run on my G2 Intel 160GB 2.5" SSD (gparted the partition down to 46GB to make cloning easier)
intel_g2_160_CDM.jpg

intel_g2_160_seqbench.jpg



So, you're paying a premium for space, but this is certainly the highest performing mini-pcie SSD you'll find out there (by about 2-3 fold). I'm interested to see if there is going to be some convergence between mSATA and mPCIe (there's only a couple wire difference... hell, you could make an adapter for less than $3 if you wanted to fit both).

I've got a Giada H55 board out for delivery right now, so when it arrives in a couple hours I'll try the drive on that board and see if there is any difference.
 
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Machupo said:
Ok -- talked w/ supertalent and apparently, even though the newest mini-pcie standard is the v1.2 CEM, that still falls under the umbrella of the PCIe 1.0 spec, so the best we'll get out of a mini-pcie slot is 250MB/sec read (theoretically).

That being said, here are the results I received from this drive on my Zotac H55ITX-a-e. One thing of note, it is actually a 50GiB drive, the remaining portion of the 64GiB is used for spare area and other SSD algorithms.

No word on the 128GB MLC release... that's what I'm going to run in my main system, but these 64GB guys are perfect for HTPCs / NAS / systems that don't use much space.

st_corestore_64_CMD.jpg

st_corestore_64_seqbench.jpg


for comparison, here are the same tests run on my G2 Intel 160GB 2.5" SSD (gparted the partition down to 46GB to make cloning easier)
intel_g2_160_CDM.jpg

intel_g2_160_seqbench.jpg



So, you're paying a premium for space, but this is certainly the highest performing mini-pcie SSD you'll find out there (by about 2-3 fold). I'm interested to see if there is going to be some convergence between mSATA and mPCIe (there's only a couple wire difference... hell, you could make an adapter for less than $3 if you wanted to fit both).

I've got a Giada H55 board out for delivery right now, so when it arrives in a couple hours I'll try the drive on that board and see if there is any difference.
Click to expand...
So, you finally decided to get the Giada H55...;)
How are you powering the MoBo?
One stupid question: since it's a mPCIe interface, could I use it on any mPCIe ports? I have, in fact, a spare mPCIe port on my Acer 1830T...:rolleyes:
 
yep -- finally got one. it will be temporarily powered by a 300w SFX psu (unboxed) until another pico arrives in the mail :D

It depends on how your port is wired -- the state of affairs for minipcie is very confusing at the moment. If you can definitively determine that the minipcie port on your Acer 1830T conforms to the standards (i.e. is not an mSATA slot or a "dumb" slot for wifi / usb only) then it should work fine :)
 
Machupo said:
yep -- finally got one. it will be temporarily powered by a 300w SFX psu (unboxed) until another pico arrives in the mail :D

It depends on how your port is wired -- the state of affairs for minipcie is very confusing at the moment. If you can definitively determine that the minipcie port on your Acer 1830T conforms to the standards (i.e. is not an mSATA slot or a "dumb" slot for wifi / usb only) then it should work fine :)
Click to expand...
Gotcha!
I'll check out!:D
 
FYI - the mini-PCIe slot on the back of the Giada H55 is only a half-height slot -- similar to the size of a Intel centrino 6200 wifi card. Thus, it is not compatible with the CoreStore MV. :mad:
 
installed the firmware update and drive is now bootable (just installed win7 ult x64 on it) and got a small bump in performance 79MB/sec write, 198MB/sec read in atto

good enough for me :)

oh, and updated timeline on the 128gb version (will probably be 100GiB really) is 3-4mos. :(
 
First, thats awesome, thanks for keeping us up to date. I'll definitely be picking one up for my WHS. Sucks about the slight ver. discrepancy, is that a software fix or is there no hope of a future upgrade?

Machupo said:
installed the firmware update and drive is now bootable (just installed win7 ult x64 on it) and got a small bump in performance 79MB/sec write, 198MB/sec read in atto

good enough for me :)

oh, and updated timeline on the 128gb version (will probably be 100GiB really) is 3-4mos. :(
Click to expand...

Although I'm a little hesitant about installing a server OS onto a 50 GB drive, after some tweaking and SSD optimizing, it shouldn't be an issue. I plan on experimenting with dumping as much as I can off on a 4+GB RAMDisk anyway. I am definitely not waiting around for the 128 GB ver. Which firmware did you update? At least the 4k read/writes are still good. Between that and access times, it shouldn't be too noticeable during normal operations.
 
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AMv8(1day) said:
First, thats awesome, thanks for keeping us up to date. I'll definitely be picking one up for my WHS.<snip>
Click to expand...

Do you plan to do this with WHS v1 or the newer version? The reason I ask is it tried to install WHS v1 (with PP3) on an Intel X25-M 40GB SSD and it wouldn't work. During the loading screen from the install DVD it said it required at least a 65GB drive. I have no idea why it would require this as the OS is much smaller than 65GB, but I got the error several times after trying different settings. So a 50GB might not work either, don't know. Just thought I would pass that along.
 
did you try installing on a larger drive, then using gparted/clonezilla to move it onto the smaller drive?
 
sdsdv10 said:
Do you plan to do this with WHS v1 or the newer version? The reason I ask is it tried to install WHS v1 (with PP3) on an Intel X25-M 40GB SSD and it wouldn't work. During the loading screen from the install DVD it said it required at least a 65GB drive. I have no idea why it would require this as the OS is much smaller than 65GB, but I got the error several times after trying different settings. So a 50GB might not work either, don't know. Just thought I would pass that along.
Click to expand...

It's a hold over from when the OS drive needed to be 80gigs or more cause the extra space was used as "landing zone" for when you transferred files over.
 
Yeah, do a search, there are tons of people complaining about the same thing. There are a few ways around it though. 1 would be installing the whole thing onto a larger drive, shrinking the partition, and cloning it over to a smaller drive. Another would be real similar, installing up to the point that it has passed the HDD "check", shutting down completely during one of its restarts, cloning the drive to a smaller drive, popping that one in, and resuming the install normally. In reality you can get by with 9-13 GB's I think after stripping out all non-essentials. But once you start installing add-ons, 3rd party software, any additional serving duties like proxy caching or additional virtual servers, it will fill up quick.
 
sdsdv10 said:
Do you plan to do this with WHS v1 or the newer version? The reason I ask is it tried to install WHS v1 (with PP3) on an Intel X25-M 40GB SSD and it wouldn't work. During the loading screen from the install DVD it said it required at least a 65GB drive. I have no idea why it would require this as the OS is much smaller than 65GB, but I got the error several times after trying different settings. So a 50GB might not work either, don't know. Just thought I would pass that along.
Click to expand...

I'd like to give WHS v2 (2011) a try. Like everyone else, I was pretty apprehensive when they announced that not only were they not incorporating a fully functional WMC, but they were also doing away with drive pooling. But as long as its free to try, and My Movies has already put out a fully functional version for it. I might as well try it. That and I love Server 2008 vs 2003.
 
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