Jump to content

Which mSATA to buy for e6330 that works in macOS?


Semaj

Recommended Posts

  • Administrators

 

You are most definitely mistaken, not Dell's personnel. The mini-PCIe/USB slots of the E6x30 series are not mSATA capable. Argue all you want; won't change anything... mSATA support was introduced in the E6x40 series.

 

Any mSATA SSDs you'd fit in your E6330 could only be attached to a SATA slot, through an adapter. Don't torture your brain and get a regular 2.5" SATA-3 SSD. Any will do.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the reply. Makes sense! So Dell has shipped these laptops with those drives that have firmware updates listed with those disks fitted in the optical bay maybe? Just makes little sense to me that they would offer these firmware upgrades on the e6330 support page if they weren't an option at some point. 

 

I'm still tempted to try a disk with build-in SATA controller in it but they're hard to find. Most specs don't list if they have build-in controller or not. Either way, for now I won't be spending any more money on it until I figure out the ram issue. I'll contact Dell tomorrow to see what they can do. It's out of warranty but not for a long time. Maybe 4 months.

 

I also wonder what Dell designed the 3rd 1/2 size slot for that doesn't have any antennas... Intel turbo memory perhaps?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Administrators

mSATA SSDs would not be mSATA if they had a built-in SATA controller, they'd be mini-PCIe cards... The only mini-PCIe SSDs that you may find today will be IDE/PATA (with built-in controller), not SATA.

 

By definition, an mSATA SSD operates like a regular SATA SSD and connects to a SATA I/O controller via an mSATA interface just like an IDE/PATA disk connects an an IDE/PATA I/O controller through an IDE/PATA interface.

 

This was subject of lengthy discussions many years ago. I remember a topic in which I engaged on the very matter back in 2015 at IM:

https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/308127-question-regarding-msata-on-eeepc-901-which-has-a-mini-pcie-slot/

 

http://www.supertalent.com/products/ssd_category_detail.php?type=Mobile Computing&category=Laptop

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...