Question 1

how long is the ssd ??

Accepted Answer

Its about 2 inches.  It fit within the MSata port on my HP and Samsung laptops, so it appears to be industry standard for MSata.  (It is an msata  chip, not full size laptop HDD)

Question 2

What is the difference between mSata and Sata.  I have a Dell laptop 300 gb hd and a MacBook Pro 500 GB that I want to change to is it compatible if not what is?

Accepted Answer

They are totally different.  SATA drives are what you think of as "regular" drives - whether they are of the spinning type or SSDs. An mSATA drive  is a tiny SSD (about the size of a matchbook) with a totally different (tiny) connector, which will not fit into  the connector for a "regular" SATA drive. You have to check the specs for your machine(s) to see if it has an mSATA slot (which is usually shared with a WWAN (cellular data) device connection, so you usually  cannot have both).

Question 3

I wonder if this will work on a Dell XPS L321X laptop, which currently carries a Samsung pm830 mSATA 128 Gb SSD?

Accepted Answer

The 250GB mSATA drive will very likely work. I replaced an 80GB mSATA drive with this 250GB drive in an Alienware 17 laptop.

I wanted to not use the caching functionality, but use the 250GB drive an my OS disk and it worked perfectly.

A couple of things to consider:
BIOS: is your BIOS set for IDE, RAID, or AHCI.
AHCI is probably what you want if you're not doing RAID
RAID is probably what you want is you're using the drive for caching with Intel rapid storage technology

I uninstalled the rapid storage drivers an used the drive as the OS drive and used Samsung rapid mode within their Magician software.

Question 4

Will this mSATA work in my Samsung 900X4D-A01 (Series 9) IvyBridge Ultrabook? Mine came with 80GB and that's just not enough.

Accepted Answer

Hi Cary - Newegg asked me to answer your question because I had previously purchased the m-sata 840 evo 256.  My experience with it has been very good, but make absolutely sure your machine has a standard m-sata connector before buying.

I found a review on a UK site of your model of Samsung's laptop, but it was described as using the Sandisk u100 128GB ssd, which is different from what you mention.  In an Anandtech article about an ASUS implementation of the u100, the ASUS device used a proprietary, incompatible connector (search "anandtech" and "asus-zenbook-ssd-and-apples-macbook-air-ssd-are-not-compatible").

In an unrelated article about the Samsung NP900X4C model, the author describes a successful installation of a Crucial M4 m-sata ssd, which uses the standard connector (search "notebookreview" and "Crucial m4 256GB mSATA SSD Review").

I chose the 840evo over Crucial products because other reviews showed the Crucial products running considerably hotter than the evo.  Hope this helps...

Question 5

Is this compatible with the INTEL NUC kit D54250WYK?

Accepted Answer

A quick google search for: Mini PC - Intel® NUC Kit D54250WYK

"Expansion capabilities
One full-length mini PCI Express* slot with mSATA support
One half-length mini PCI Express slot"

If it has a mSATA slot, it is compatable

Question 6

hi does this work with the asus maximus gene motherboard attachment?

Accepted Answer

No.  It doesn't look like it.  You need an NGFF type or m.2.

This is msata.

type ngff ssd at newegg.  They don't sell Samsung.

Question 7

Will this fit the Samsung Series 9 (NP900X3D-A04US) Model??

Accepted Answer

Just checked the specs for your machine. If it lists an "mSATA" slot, then it will apply to your machine. It does not fit in a "regular" SATA disk connector.

Question 8

Would there be a benefit to getting this SSD, if a motherboard (a) has an Intel H61 chipset, which does not support AHCI, and B) is only SATA II compatible? Or will non-AHCI and non-SATA III, cripple the SSD’s functionality in a system to a point that the cost does not justify the benefit in increased performance, if any? If the SSD was utilized for such a motherboard, would a user see a noticeable performance improvement, if any?

Accepted Answer

This SSD plugs into an mSATA port, not a regular SATA II or III, so it won't work unless you have an mSATA. If you do have one then I believe mSATA is just as fast as SATA III. mSATA and SATA III both allow speeds of up to 6 GB/s and the max read/write of this drive is around 550 MB/s (which is as fast as SSDs get). So as far as I understand, even a SATA II (3GB/s) shouldn't hinder most functions of an SSD. I just googled your chipset and it looks to be a desktop chipset. In that case you would want to look at a 2.5" SSD, as mSATA will need an adapter to install in a desktop. Here is the same drive in the 2.5" format: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147248

Question 9

Will this fit a 2011 macbook air?

Accepted Answer

just make sure its msata. I would think an air would be but check. msata is almost the size of a usb drive compared to a regular 2.5 laptop ssd/hdd

Question 10

Does anyone know if this is compatible with an Asus EeePc 901?

Accepted Answer

Need to verify with Asus, but I believe your EeePc uses a SSD,  so that is a good start.
Verify if your Eee uses hard drive that is a mSATA or SATA. (open it up an take a look ?)
I would think it is SATA. Most everything that vintage is.
If your EeePc 901 is mSATA then you will need a SATA to mSATA adapter. That is what I did.

Questions & Answers