An SSD from a notebook made in 2014:
Samsung was a leader in fast economical SSDs with their 840 EVO series, also called a PM851. The format is mSATA which limits speed to SATA III. The capacity of this one is 128 GB SSD and I also have a 500 GB version plus a 1 TB. The model is MZ-MTE128D and the part number is MZMTE128HMGR. The 840 EVO still has a use but not for me.
Who?
128 GB capacity is great to have in your pocket for for carrying files from machine to machine. In my case, I often need more, making 1 TB the minimum carry for me.
People often set up a computer with one boot disk and a separate data disk. 128 GB is enough for you to boot any operating system. If you like the boot disk or system disk separate from your home directory and you are booting an old machine from the mSATA error, this is a good choice for you.
Are you a Raspberry Pi user. This 128 GB SSD in a USB enclosure is an excellent size for most projects.
For people with heaps of data, 4 TB NVMe SSDs with a reasonable speed are now cheaper than magnetic disks of the same capacity with any sort of reliable speed. Reliable speed in magnetic disks means CMR, not SMR.
When?
A 128 GB SSD like this is usually left over from an upgrade. You buy a notebook with 128 GB built in then need more. I have 128 GB, 256 GB, and 1 TB SSDs left over from notebook capacity upgrades. Placing them in USB enclosures or other adaptors gives you lots of options.
mSATA appeared in 2011 and the replacement M.2 format with the SATA interface appeared in 2013. 2014 brought a big rush to the M.2 format SSDs using the NVMe interface for more speed. Most computers with mSATA built in are reaching end of life with the SSD hardly worn. That leaves the USB 3 enclosure the best way to reuse the mSATA SSD.
Start with Raspberry Pi owners. The Raspberry Pi 4 and Pi 5 can boot from a USB SSD. This 128 GB SSD will read at a speed similar to the limit of USB 3, giving you the fastest USB 3 boot.
The Pi 5 can also take a PCIe adaptor for an NVMe SSD, the better choice when people have a 128 GB NVMe SSD left over from an upgrade.
My most recent use was as a boot disk in a file server. The shared directories were on big capacity 3.5 inch magnetic disks. The hardware was a bit old and chewing up too much electricity. I switched to new power efficient hardware and used a left over 1 TB SSD for the boot disk as the 1 TB SSD was sitting on a shelf unused. Plus the old hardware was mSATA and the new hardware is NVMe.
Where?
Some old motherboards and notebooks have an mSATA slot for the boot disk. The notebooks have a broken keyboard long before the SSD is worn out. Motherboards in PCs from the same years will have worn out magnetic disks and fans. The CPU heatsink might be clogged or the thermal paste dried out or the power supply is burnt out. If the SSD is from any good brand, there is a lot of life left in the SSD. Move the SSD to a USB 3 enclosure.
Why?
The left over SSDs are free. The enclosures are cheap. The result is many times faster than most USB flash memory sticks and can survive a hundred times more writes.
The read speed is about the same as the maximum speed for USB 3. USB 3 is 5 Gigabits per second, about 500 MegaBytes per second. The SSD consistently reads between 415 MBps and 465 MBps.
The write speed of the 840 EVO is not as good but still better than many USB memory sticks. The worst speed was 63 MBps and that was for tiny files where there are overheads from file systems and write amplification. The fastest speed, consistent for medium to large files, is 130 MBps and the SSD happily maintained that speed for 100 GB.
I tested many expensive USB 3 flash memory sticks without finding that write speed for more than a couple of GB.
Way?
mSATA adaptor cables and enclosures have USB 3 connections. There is no point in using something faster as anything SATA is limited to 6 Gbps which is 600 GBps or not much faster than USB 3.
USB 3 is a sloppy standard and USB 3.1 way better. USB 3.1 Gen 1 is the same 5 Gbps as USB 3. USB 3.1 Gen 2 is common and runs at 10 Gbps, a better choice for NVMe SSDs. Most mSATA adaptors and enclosures are USB 3 while most NVMe enclosures start at USB 3.1 10 Gbps. I use the USB 3 enclosures as a cheap way to reuse mSATA storage but for reliability, all my USB cables are at least USB 3.1.
Worth?
There are really cheap USB memory sticks with 128 GB of capacity if you do not mind losing all your data the first time they heat up. Good quality sticks have fast reads but the write speeds are pathetically slow after the small cache fills up. For anything bigger than 64 GB, use an SSD in an enclosure.
Pick any model of SSD. The smallest capacity in a model range will be slow as it will not have the chips to spread out the workload. The larger capacities will have the advertised speed. This 840 EVO has at least two memory chips, suggesting there was a 64 GB version with only one memory chip. It is good value.
NVMe SSDs in USB 3.1 Gen 2, 10 Gbps, enclosures can double the read speed and produce blindingly fast writes for a short time but when you need to copy a 100 GB, they are mostly not that much faster and often painfully slower. To get good fast long writes, you need top models in the best brands and something bigger than the entry level capacity. A locally sourced mSATA enclosure to reuse this SSD is less than AU$10. The minimum cost to set up an NVMe SSD in a USB enclosure with double the consistent write speed for 100 GB is $142.
What?
Samsung is a good brand for SSD except for price. They are at the top end of price and rarely on discount in our local shops. Their EVO range is cheaper and often it is hard to find the shortcuts. In older models, they used TLC chips while their top models used MLC. The latest EVO devices leave out DRAM to reduce cost at the expense of performance.
Samsung make all their own chips. They are one of the few manufacturers of flash memory chips and have their own SSD controller chip.
840 EVO is the model name for retail sales and PM851 is the name for bulk supplies direct to notebook manufacturers. This is mostly so the manufacturers can hide the fact that they use cheaper models or are still using last years devices.
mSATA is mini SATA and about the length of an NVMe 2242 SSD. mSATA is 51mm long while NVMe 2242 is 42 mm then both have extra length in the enclosure to allow for the chip to convert to USB. NVMe 2242 is 22mm wide while mSATA is 30mm. NVMe enclosures are usually thicker to handle the extra heat produced by the fastest NVMe models. The slimest mSATA enclosure is a neat fit in your pocket.
128 GB SSDs are a popular size for pocket storage considering may people still buy 64 GB or smaller. You always need more. In my case, my minimum carry expanded to 256 then 500. I have 1 TB SSDs spare so there is no reason to carry less.
Almost no reason. In NVMe, most 1 TB SSDs are 2280 sized. A big lump to carry. My left over 1 TB NVMe SSDs are 2280 and most good 2280 size SSDs are thick as well as long and heavy.
For the same price, some NVMe models are available in 2242 size and for an extra 10% ~ 15%, you can get 1 TB in 2230 size. The enclosures for that size are hard to find and often excessively bulky.
Model MZ-MTE128D, part MZMTE128HMGR, is from October 2014 and was quickly replaced by the 850 EVO range. My tests of the 850 show the 850 was sometimes much faster, often only 10% faster, and sometimes slower.
Raspberry Pi 4 system disk
This is a test of this mSATA SSD as a system disk SSD in a USB 3 enclosure.
Raspberry Pi Diagnostics
Test : SD Card Speed Test
Sequential write speed 131598 KB/sec (target 10000) – PASS
Random write speed 14160 IOPS (target 500) – PASS
Random read speed 15398 IOPS (target 1500) – PASS
Test PASS
Here is the same Raspberry Pi 4 using the official 16 GB microSD card supplied with the Raspberry Pi 4. You can see the SSD write speed is 20 times faster than the microSD card.
Raspberry Pi Diagnostics
Sequential write speed 20296 KB/sec (target 10000) – PASS
Random write speed 740 IOPS (target 500) – PASS
Random read speed 2022 IOPS (target 1500) – PASS
Test PASS
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