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m18x R1/R2 replacing ODD with two 2.5" HDD


unityole

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dual 2.5" HDD bay in optical drive area

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look at drive 2, JMB352-raid 0. it gets picked up by intel 7 series raid controller but it doesnt appear in the bios though

i had to file a tiny thin layer of interior bottom chassis to get two 7mm hdds to fit, didn't bother to make a new bracket for it. two 5mm should fit and still have space left, two 7mm without modding chassis would be a real tight fit and might end up tilting the daughterboard a tiny bit by 1 to 2 mm. raid board i got off ebay provides JBOD, Raid 0 and 1 I think. JBOD not working maybe cause port multiplier not working on optical drive cable. raid 0 performance at around 230mb/s 220mb/s read/write so for HDD its good.

raid card: http://www.ebay.com/itm/SATA-to-Dual-SATA-RAID-0-Device-Adapter-w-Mounting-Kit-/280719990939?pt=US_Drive_Cables_dapters&hash=item415c37209b

13pin to 22pin sata: http://www.ebay.com/itm/261184737920?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

thats total of five 2.5" HDD/SSD and one msata in m18xR2 or four 2.5" HDD in m18xR1!

going for a 5x 2.5" and 2x msata in the R2 soon..

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How well do those RAID cards work, how easy is the setup? Must the two drives be in RAID 0 mode or can they be in JBOD. I doubt JBOD since you are only connected via one SATA port, but just wondering.

You could get those fancy WD Black^2 drives :D

I wonder if I can triple stack of drives in my M14x. If I use SSDs they can probably quite easily be stacked like that.

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How well do those RAID cards work, how easy is the setup? Must the two drives be in RAID 0 mode or can they be in JBOD. I doubt JBOD since you are only connected via one SATA port, but just wondering.

You could get those fancy WD Black^2 drives :D

I wonder if I can triple stack of drives in my M14x. If I use SSDs they can probably quite easily be stacked like that.

I don't know about m14x cause of the limited space. do you have two mPCIE ports in m14x? if you did then just need to check if they those slots run on USB or mPCIE lanes. the picture you see there is not a raid card its just a gen 2.0 mPCIE to sata card (card act as a bridge) which is why half length msata SSD will not work in that slot. that 90 degree angled sata thin cable goes into optical bay where I have another similar green half length card and that one is a raid card, which can go raid 1,0 and SPAN. no JBOD because no port multiplier on original mPCIE slot.

get a couple power splitter it'll be a real tight fit to get all in ODD area. but if it just two HDD it should work out pretty well.

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I don't know about m14x cause of the limited space. do you have two mPCIE ports in m14x? if you did then just need to check if they those slots run on USB or mPCIE lanes. the picture you see there is not a raid card its just a gen 2.0 mPCIE to sata card (card act as a bridge) which is why half length msata SSD will not work in that slot. that 90 degree angled sata thin cable goes into optical bay where I have another similar green half length card and that one is a raid card, which can go raid 1,0 and SPAN. no JBOD because no port multiplier on original mPCIE slot.

get a couple power splitter it'll be a real tight fit to get all in ODD area. but if it just two HDD it should work out pretty well.

This seems like it would be awesome for this. Super flexible and thin SATA cable.

SilverStone Technology Co., Ltd.- CP11

The free slot is mSATA in the R2 (which I just upgraded to today @@!). Not sure if it is switchable to be mPCIe, I'd have to look, but I doubt it.

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This seems like it would be awesome for this. Super flexible and thin SATA cable.

SilverStone Technology Co., Ltd.- CP11

The free slot is mSATA in the R2 (which I just upgraded to today @@!). Not sure if it is switchable to be mPCIe, I'd have to look, but I doubt it.

what a great find, that is even a tad smaller than the one im using, amazing!!

the msata slot in m18x R2 uses sata line, if your m14x msata slot can run a msata SSD, then its will not work with mPCIE card. wifi internet card is a mPCIE card. another thing is even though you purchase something and title says msata mPCIE card etc etc, they are only talking about the port and size. msata SSD card will NOT work in mini pcie slot that runs PCI or USB lane same for opposite. USB for USB, mPCIE for PCI, msata for msata...

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what a great find, that is even a tad smaller than the one im using, amazing!!

the msata slot in m18x R2 uses sata line, if your m14x msata slot can run a msata SSD, then its will not work with mPCIE card. wifi internet card is a mPCIE card. another thing is even though you purchase something and title says msata mPCIE card etc etc, they are only talking about the port and size. msata SSD card will NOT work in mini pcie slot that runs PCI or USB lane same for opposite. USB for USB, mPCIE for PCI, msata for msata...

Yeah, I couldn't believe that such a thin cable could run at SATAIII speeds without issue.

I think there is all of probably one laptop that had switchable mSATA <-> mPCIe (in the same slot), thus I mentioned it. But yeah, I greatly doubt I can do so here. I only know I have 1 mPCIe and 1 mSATA. The reason I'm thinking it might be switchable is that in the m14x R1 the other slot is for WiDi. I'd have to investigate further. I'd love to put dual 2.5" HDDs in here though. (run mSATA -> SATA). I could always use the space.

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Yeah, I couldn't believe that such a thin cable could run at SATAIII speeds without issue.

I think there is all of probably one laptop that had switchable mSATA <-> mPCIe (in the same slot), thus I mentioned it. But yeah, I greatly doubt I can do so here. I only know I have 1 mPCIe and 1 mSATA. The reason I'm thinking it might be switchable is that in the m14x R1 the other slot is for WiDi. I'd have to investigate further. I'd love to put dual 2.5" HDDs in here though. (run mSATA -> SATA). I could always use the space.

you could be correct. iirc m17x R3 WIHD slot seems to be both USB and PCI. to my knowledge its different wiring/circuits and how it is powered and most company don't bother to add compatibility to them.

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