Dell E6530 and half-size mSata SSDs

[Harold Barrel]

Hi to everyone,

I'm opening this thread for I'm trying to clarify my doubts about mSata compatibility for the E6530.

It is common knowledge that any SSD mounted in the 50mm (full-length) mini-PCIe slot marked with "WWAN" won't work, except for the LiteOn IT LMT-128M6M. The source of this information is Dell's website (http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=2M1F3). In 2014, Dell released a driver update for this SSD, and the entire E6X30 series is listed in the "Compatible series" list. So I suppose that this Liteon SSD has an embedded SATA controller, because the WWAN port itself doesn't have it. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a contemporary mSata SSD with the same capability, so the WWAN slot is out of the question.

 

However, more than one user across the web have reported to have been told by Dell support that the half-size mPCIe port (marked as 1/2 PCIe) of the Dell E6530 (but NOT E6430!) has the mSata controller. But I haven't been able to find any report by any user whether it has been tried or not (whereas there's plenty of people reporting that the full-size port doesn't support SSDs).

I think that's because 25mm mSata SSDs are very rare nowadays (as far as I know, only Kingspec is still manufacturing them).

A source: E6530 owners thread

E6530 owners thread

 

So that's what I'm asking you here: has anyone tested a 25mm (half-length) SSD in the free 1/2 PCIe port?

 

I have just ordered a Kingspec MSH-256 SSD drive, designed to fit 25mm mSata slots. So I will let you know whether it works or not when it arrives.

Edited February 1, 2018 by Harold Barrel

[Harold Barrel]

I've done some research while waiting for the SSD. This notebook supports Intel's Rapid Start technology (as stated here in the product details: www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-aand-notebooks/dell-latitude-e6530-premier-laptop/spd/latitude-e6530) so it's obvious that the 25mm slot was intended for a small SSD meant for caching. There must be an mSata controller there.

The question is whether I will be able to boot an OS from there, since it wasn't quite intended for that. At the time the E6530 came up, you sure couldn't buy a 256GB half-size mSata unit for 55$.

[Left-Eye]

Hi, many years late, but i was wondering about your findings on this subject. Did you manage to successfully test this, and if so did it work? I myself have this laptop, obviously, and am looking to upgrade it in every single aspect, and have been looking everywhere for any sort of info on the mini PCIE slot and an SSD upgrade for it. Hoping for a reply, and really hoping for confirmation of this working, I'm not exactly willing to spend ~$100 on an SSD i wont end up using.