Can the mSATA be used as a boot device?

PlasticTastic

Bronze Level Poster
Hi, I'm wanting to get a laptop with the boot time of an SSD. I'm going for a Vortex III.

I'd prefer a 15" instead of the 17", although it's not entirely necessary, but I also need a CD drive, and the 15" can't have a CD drive and 2 hard drives. I noticed the "80GB INTEL® 310 mSATA MLC SSD - (mini PCIe SSD for extra storage)". Would I be able to install Windows and the start-up programs (Skype, steam etc) on that? And will it have the same performance as an SSD? If not it's no biggie, I'll just order a 17" with a 120GB SSD as the primary drive :p

Thanks.
 

abakiz

Member
The mSata is SATA2 and yes it can be used as a boot device. The performance will be similar to an SSD.
Just to make it clear, even the USB ports can be used as a boot device or the CD drive (Linux live CD, etc) infact any storage can be used to boot with.

If I'm wrong somebody correct me!
 

PlasticTastic

Bronze Level Poster
Awesome, thanks! So I would be able to install Windows 7 straight onto the mSATA and have it boot off there (As well as all the startup programs)?
 
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