I'm building a computer and have almost made my final decision to buy the Gigabyte Z77-D3H (paired with i5 2500k) which has an onboard mSata port. I like this feature because I know that sometime in the next year, I would like to get an SSD.
What are benefits of having a motherboard with an mSata SSD in contrast to a motherboard without and a separate SSD connected via SATA3.
1. Can the mSata SSD be used for anything other than cache used by the Intel Smart Response technology?
1a. Mainly, can I install the OS (Win7) on the mSata SSD?
1b. As well as my primary applications?
2. Will I notice the same performance if I use a SSD in the mSata slot than any other method?
3. Are there any mSata SSDs which are as cost effective as other internal SSDs? Apparently a 64GB mSata SSD is ~$90 while 128GB SATA3 SSD is $125 at the lowest. If the answer to question 1b. is YES, then I would like a large mSata SSD to hold all my heavy software development tools.
Thoughts and concerns?
What are benefits of having a motherboard with an mSata SSD in contrast to a motherboard without and a separate SSD connected via SATA3.
1. Can the mSata SSD be used for anything other than cache used by the Intel Smart Response technology?
1a. Mainly, can I install the OS (Win7) on the mSata SSD?
1b. As well as my primary applications?
2. Will I notice the same performance if I use a SSD in the mSata slot than any other method?
3. Are there any mSata SSDs which are as cost effective as other internal SSDs? Apparently a 64GB mSata SSD is ~$90 while 128GB SATA3 SSD is $125 at the lowest. If the answer to question 1b. is YES, then I would like a large mSata SSD to hold all my heavy software development tools.
Thoughts and concerns?