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Asus G55vw Hard Drive Upgrade Question

Vicodin
Level 10
Hello,
I just wanted to verify the differences in the Hard Drive Port, Disk Drive Port, and the mSata that is hidden deep inside the laptop. I know the Hard Drive was Sata 3, but what does the disk drive plug in to? Is mSata faster than Sata 3?
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9 REPLIES 9

Zygomorphic
Level 17
mSata is likely SATA III in your laptop. The Optical Disc Drive (DVD drive) is most likely SATA II, since that is faster than any optical disc. mSata is just a modified connector, but it is the same speed. It takes special small SSDs, which you can find in most computer stores (and definitely online).
I am disturbed because I cannot break my system...found out there were others trying to cope! We have a support group on here, if your system will not break, please join!
http://rog.asus.com/forum/group.php?groupid=16
We now have 178 people whose systems will not break! Yippee! 🙂
LINUX Users, we have a group!
http://rog.asus.com/forum/group.php?groupid=23

Vicodin
Level 10
Is there room inside this thing near the mSata slot to put one? Or does one need a cable and to place it elsewhere.

Vicodin wrote:
Is there room inside this thing near the mSata slot to put one? Or does one need a cable and to place it elsewhere.


There is room from what I understand. Some models of the G55 come with mSata cards installed by the reseller or ASUS. Any size should fit. The normal size that I am (albeit slightly) familiar with is about the size of a credit card.
I am disturbed because I cannot break my system...found out there were others trying to cope! We have a support group on here, if your system will not break, please join!
http://rog.asus.com/forum/group.php?groupid=16
We now have 178 people whose systems will not break! Yippee! 🙂
LINUX Users, we have a group!
http://rog.asus.com/forum/group.php?groupid=23

Vicodin
Level 10
I still cant find out anywhere if the Disk Drive plugs in to SATA, SATA 2, or SATA 3. I hear of people replacing the Disk Drive with a SSD, but if it is just SATA or SATA 2 why don't they put the SSD in the hard drive bay being it is SATA 3 and the hard drive in the Disk Drive spot?

rewben
Level 13
hi @Vicodin, from what i've learned, the hdd bay port and msata port are sata 3; the port for dvdrom is a sata 2.

you're correct, actually putting ssd in the msata and hdd bay makes more sense, and the hdd caddy should house the sata 2 hdd. as for me, i happened to have 2 ssds, and an empty usb 3.0 external enclosure. so i just put one ssd in the hdd bay (sata 3; OS drive) and then another one is in the hdd caddy replacing the dvdrom (sata 2; games, apps and some data). my stock drive is in the external enclosure, data only.

rewben wrote:
hi @Vicodin, from what i've learned, the hdd bay port and msata port are sata 3; the port for dvdrom is a sata 2.

you're correct, actually putting ssd in the msata and hdd bay makes more sense, and the hdd caddy should house the sata 2 hdd. as for me, i happened to have 2 ssds, and an empty usb 3.0 external enclosure. so i just put one ssd in the hdd bay (sata 3; OS drive) and then another one is in the hdd caddy replacing the dvdrom (sata 2; games, apps and some data). my stock drive is in the external enclosure, data only.


Good thinking. Can I ask you a noob question? Why the mSata SSD? What is a cache drive? LOL at my noobness.

rewben
Level 13
msata is just an alternative form factor (which is lighter and smaller).

a cache drive makes use of a small-sized ssd to boost the performance of a mechanical drive. this is useful when the price/gb of ssd is expensive.

as the price/gb for ssd is going down significantly, i think there is no need to implement this in a laptop like g-series.

I watched the youtube video dissembly of the G55, convincing me to get a reseller to install mSata saving me the effort.

In a related question, I want the reseller to install two 8GB RAM only for a total of 16GB system memory on the two inside (hard to access) RAM slots. If I stop spending with this configuration, can the G55 run with only two 8GB RAM sticks on the inside - same under-side of the motherboard as the mSata?

If so, I could add 2 more 8GB RAM sticks later in the user accessible area, and easily upgrade the hard drive on my own.

Thanks for any suggestions.

raxstime wrote:
I watched the youtube video dissembly of the G55, convincing me to get a reseller to install mSata saving me the effort.

In a related question, I want the reseller to install two 8GB RAM only for a total of 16GB system memory on the two inside (hard to access) RAM slots. If I stop spending with this configuration, can the G55 run with only two 8GB RAM sticks on the inside - same under-side of the motherboard as the mSata?

If so, I could add 2 more 8GB RAM sticks later in the user accessible area, and easily upgrade the hard drive on my own.

Thanks for any suggestions.


for ram upgrade: yes, you can do that. if you're planning for a full swap, you can just put 2x8gb of known compatible ram in the hidden slot, and then add another 2x8gb yourself at later time.