silicon pop culture!

The most common problem with TR on this forum was the Hard Drive. Starting from the 40Gb built in, thanks to so many people contribution we were able to upgrade up to 80gb for sure (i bought 60Gb due to the lack of money). 1.8” HDD are the problem since they would in general live fine for 2-3 years, and then start to make funny noises.
Recently Samsung has started mass-producing the high-density 64GB solid-state drives. http://www.mobilewhack.com/samsung-64gb-solid-state-drive/ and that is where I thought HDD are the past. This SSD has exacly the same interface as HDD at least in Japan models. So this is 100% upgrade you would like to do in the future for TR. We are talking about the lower power consumption (means longer battery life), more durability, more compact size, less heat dissipation, quieter operation and faster speed. The SSD reads 300 percent faster (53MB/s) and writes 150 percent faster (28MB/s) than normal hard drives.
Unfortunately that is were good news are ending. 32Gb SSD drive that is already on the market costs around 400$. Well it is not going to be for long - and when the time is right TR’s will rise from the ashes again…

This would be pretty cool at an acceptable price point.  Having just spent nearly $175 just to upgrade my “new” TR3AP to a 60GB HD, i’m not in a hurry to upgrade again.

Welcome anubius and a great way to get started was this post. We should make this thread the official SSD thread since so many are talking about it and I have mentioned it in my TR Painting Project.

Anyway, more information is needed on this hardware in order to know if the unit will work with a TR or not and if so, what is required. It seems I read somewhere it will, but not sure. If it does, I will buy a 64GB when it hits the $400 mark.

Keep adding information here everyone!

Mr. B - 02 August 2007 04:50 PM

This would be pretty cool at an acceptable price point.  Having just spent nearly $175 just to upgrade my “new” TR3AP to a 60GB HD, i’m not in a hurry to upgrade again.

I spend 120 for my 60gb, but you are right I am not in the rush to do that either, plus i have another 40Gb that was originally in there (don’t know what to do with it, maybe external?). Thanks for your post.

Secure Samurai - 02 August 2007 07:42 PM

Welcome anubius and a great way to get started was this post. We should make this thread the official SSD thread since so many are talking about it and I have mentioned it in my TR Painting Project.

Anyway, more information is needed on this hardware in order to know if the unit will work with a TR or not and if so, what is required. It seems I read somewhere it will, but not sure. If it does, I will buy a 64GB when it hits the $400 mark.

Keep adding information here everyone!

Thank you for your post. I always was reading stuff on TR3A forum, but this is the first time I decided to post anything. When I heard about SSD it got me very excited. Well I think I will do the upgrade when prices will get low. I am pretty sure that interface should work as this drive was made to work in a tiny computers. Unfortunately this is a problem for the TR models that have Hitachi   drives that have a completely different interface.

Once I do the swap over of my guts into the painted casing, I will have a better idea of how the drive is connected and mechanically constructed. Hopefully all of use can figure something out

Damn I wish i had more hours in the day, just not been able to do much at all to my TR projects..

Anyway I have a 16gb Samsung SSD hdd in my TR1MP. (it has 1gb of ram now, and prior to fitting the SSD drive)

I know 16Gb is small but I just wanted to try one, and it was the cheapest way at the moment. It cost a scary $299 inc shipping from USA to UK (other places had it cheaper but would not ship to the UK). I could not find anyone anywhere selling one in the UK!!

It was a simple install just like a normal Toshiba style hdd using the rubber corners, cage and the Toshiba 50 pin connector.. no mods were required. It booted and was shown in the bios correctly. I used restore discs to get XP in then SP2 and all my usual stuff. I have about 5gb space left at the moment.

It is superb it feels like I’ve put 2gb of very fast ram and a 2g CPU in the TR. before my TR1 with Hitachi HDD took 9.5 worm passes when booting it now takes under 1.5 !!!  It’s the fastest booting XP I’ve had on a PC since my last gaming PC that had FX53 & Raptors in Raid 0.

I admit I have a skimmed down start-up but it’s still lighting fast. Also apps open so much quicker & “smoother” it acts like a much faster PC in general, although I guess CPU intensive apps will slow it down just as before..

That is not the best part though…. no the best part is total, (and I must say very freaky) complete silence. It is just so weird not having a sound from it when booting and not for at least 20 mins (or until it gets warm enough for the fan to start).

Even that is not noisy compared to the clicking seeking and whiring of the original HDD…

Add to that far less heat especially in the HDD area and a stock battery life up from about 3 hours to over 4 it’s all good..

The downside is capacity, and cost… but I can live with 16gb until sensible 64gb prices are here, I just have a 60gb Hitachi in an external USB case with all my big files, music, vids etc..

So at $299 was it worth it? difficult question but I don’t regret a penny, (or dime). Similar cost to fitting the 2gb of ram from memory 10, and I’ll bet all my TR’s that the SSD is a far more noticable upgrade!!

will post some images and do a proper boot speed test as soon as I can

————————————————————————————

A question.. I have Vista home on another drive and that used to take ages to boot on a TR5, (we are talking minitues). An SSD and 2gb of ram might make it viable? I’d try but I don’t think I can get vista on the 16Ggb is there a vista “lite” or similar?

Excellent job! You made my dream come true! So glad that someone finally made it happen, so my predictions were not just imaginary result. Please post any information you can get to make the story more exciting including the model you have. Unfortunately they are so expensive right now. 16 Gb is a little bit small, but if you like the speed that was really worth it.
As for the Vista I think chances that it will work better are more than possibility. As for the size that shouldn’t be a problem I’ve installed on 15 Gb drives - so you can try doing that. Good luck. You rock man. Thank you for the post.

So BladeRunner - are you telling me there is no issue in the location of the pins when connecting the SSD? Are the pins located at the same end for both the stock and the SSD when hooking either one up? Or are they in different locations?

I hope this question makes sense

I had taken some images of the Samsung SSD drive along with a Toshiba & Hitachi, but seem to have deleted them, might be on my work PC I’ll check tomorrow. Anyhow the SSD drive is basically exactly the same externally as the Toshiba drive… same size shape and connector 50 pin.

So if you have a Toshiba HDD it is a simple swap exactly like replacing a dead Toshiba drive. If you have an Hitachi all you need is the Toshiba drive cage, 4 rubber corner supports, and the Toshiba ribbon connector.

It was thought these drives would only come with a ZIF connector, but fortunately they saw sense and made them with the 50 pin type I think 50 pin is commonly used by apple with I pod??

Anyway there were no mods required, and it truly was plug and play, (once you’ve taken the TR apart obviously).

Here are a few images anubius more details tomorrow

last 2 images show battery life on maximum battery with BP2T & BP3T

Wow BladeRunner! Thank you SOOOO much for clearing up some concerns about compatibility and connection. I have a Toshiba hard drive in my TR2A so it sounds like it will be a simple drop in and go! But I want to make sure - does it matter that the OEM drive uses “side placement” of the pins and the SSD uses “end placement” of the pins?

I will get a 32GB only because I want dual boot. I see NewEgg sells a 32GB for about $400 and that is a price I am willing to pay (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147021). So it is my guess that in a month or two, once my laptop has been painted, I will buy one YAY!

Here is a cheap (so far) 16GB you bought: http://cgi.ebay.com/Samsung-16GB-SSD-Solid-State-Disk_W0QQitemZ150163443313QQihZ005QQcategoryZ16178QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD2VQQcmdZViewItem

Thanks for the posting of the pictures. You have really helped out!

Yeah I’d have gone for a 32gb too at neweggs prices, got mine from costupdate, they weren’t cheap but newegg wont ship to UK. I’ve seen the Austrian ones for sale on eBay, of course they weren’t around when I decided to get mine but I know the value or price of mine will drop like a stone as other suppliers get stock… I simply wanted to try one now is all….. I’m happy

SSD seems brilliant at initial visit, and really transforms the TR, just can’t wait for them to get cheaper, bigger & if possible faster…

Still have to see how reliable they are what happens if a chip goes bad? will it be like 3d card… corrupted graphics… corrupted data!!

also there are new questions… Defrag?? not required, still worth doing or is it bad to do it? how about disc caching and power management relating to the SSD drive??

Never thought of the defrag question and in the beginning I did worry about the relaibility of the chips in these drives, using thumb drives as a reference.

I have to ask you again though BladeRunner, does it matter that the OEM drive uses “side placement” of the pins and the SSD uses “end placement” of the pins?

I was going to reply to your question with pictures, beacuse I found the ones I deleted from my home PC at work… I have to resize and upload them so will do it later.

I’m happy I found them or I’d have to take the TR1MP apart again. I think they may answer your question more clearly than I can with text.

All the drives together here, if you look at Hitachi top left, and Toshiba top right you see Hitachi has pins on side, Toshiba pins or rather socket on end. I’d guess this is what they mean by “side placement” of the pins and the Toshibia & SSD using “end placement” of the pins?

Not an issue if you have Toshiba drive because it is exactly the same as SSD, and as said only a case of getting hold of Toshiba mounting hardware if you have an Hitachi, they are fully interchangeable. I think on TR launch Hitachi was the drive so the side pin design may be talked of as OEM standard..

Only other thing if you look at buyer comments on newegg of the 32gb one some are having trouble with thickness. I didn’t measure my 16gb but it appeared near as damn it the same as the Toshiba. I doubt it will be an issue in TR because there is bags of room for HDD, but in the newer TZ range it might be a problem. When someone gets a 32gb Samsung post exact dimensions, (in mm not inches) and I’ll compare with my 16gb

You are THE MAN BladeRunner! That is EXACTLY what I needed to know. So since I have a Toshiba drive, it will be perfect!  You have been really helpful!

Yes, I did see that person having an issue with the size of the 32GB, so before I buy it, I will contact New Egg and get the dimensions. Then you can compare them and let us all know!

I am crying, the SSD is so beautiful! lol