Bootable Express/34 w/ Macbook pro 2.2GHz, 667MHz ram (pre-unibody)

[bg002h]

Using a Wintec Filemate 48GB Ultra SSD (which seems to be the only express/34 ssd on the market that is internally pcie, not usb). I installed Mac OS X on it using a pre-unibody macbook pro and it boots just fine. Beware, many of the express/34 cards are internally USB, not pci-e x 1, and thus are not good for boot drives.

for the drive:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4505183&CatId=4218

for info on the internal interface:
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3135

<strike>Doesn't seem to want to boot on a unibody, but, I haven't had time to investigate</strike>(see follow up post). Also, I'd like to try raid with it.

For those interested, total boot time from press of powerbutton to Finder ready is 27 seconds....x bench report remove txt

 

[alphaod]

What could you possibly RAID with it?

 

[bg002h]

got it to work on unibody 2.4 GHZ 1066MHz ram

Works fine on a Unibody macbook pro from october last year...it turns out the problem I had booting from the express card was that the startup disk preference was locked (it's not my computer and I didn't know the password)

I'd like to try it in raid configuration, but, seeing as I don't myself actually own a laptop (yet) I can't do everything I'd like right now. I'll be getting one for graduation in june (med school)...stay tuned

FYI: used GUID for the partition table and case-sensitive journaled filesystem...which may not be the best choice....there are _tons_ of articles on the web detailing in far greater detail than I can understand on the best choices for filesystem and partitioning parameters....

 

[bg002h]

Raid...

What could you possibly RAID with it?

I don't know the first thing about raid...is it impossible to set up a striped raid with the internal drive partition? I dunno....

If you need two identical drives, you can remove the optical drive...
http://store.mcetech.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=OBSXGB-UNB&Category_Code=

I have no idea what the possible applications of this configuration would be, but, from what I have observed about computers it seems that the following law holds: for every possible operation that a computer can do, there exists at least one well funded genius working on a project that would benefit from that operation happening more quickly...and 10 more beside who'd love to do it on the cheap.