Thanks Bladerunner

You keep refering to the Toshiba mounting hardware for the Hitachi. Has anyone found a source for this?

Thanks

Well you can buy it all from Sony (nextronics) or search on eBay. I have a few from TR’s I’ve broken for parts, but being UK based, unless you are too exchange rates may make it to costly when also factoring in shipping…..

I’ll take some images later of both sets of HDD mounting hardware..

*EDIT*

(I’ve re read you post and I’m now unsure of your question.)

If I’ve been unclear I’ll try to clarify now.

Most if not all early TR series (TR1mp and TR1 versions for other regions came with the Hitachi drive that has a pins in side connection and two brackets that fix to the HDD with four screws. Most later TR’s especially those with 40gb and above came with Toshiba Drive that has an end socket. The drive cage holds the HDD in place and it is located by four rubber corners, see my previous images in this thread for more details. (at least this is my experience so far with UK spec TR’s)

Any TR will take either drive but you need the connector, and assuming you want it mounted correctly the cradle for the specific drive.

If you want to fit a Samsung SSD hdd then you need the Toshiba connector and mounting hardware, (assuming you don’t want it loose)

you can check the bios or windows to see which drive type you have

Bladerunner

Thanks

My unit is a TR3 but it did come with a Hitachi drive. I guess I’ll just have to open it up… <sigh>

What does the bios say about your drive, (it should show a model number) press F2 when booting.

So far I’ve only come across a 40gb Hitachi in a TR1mp, and a 60gb in with some parts, all other Hitachi drives have been 30gb (40gb would have been fitted later), all later TR’s have had Toshibia drives mostly 40gb a few 60gb

Of course I’m not Sony so I don’t really know why they used different makes, just cost and availability which may differ in region.. is yours a TR3, TR3a TR3ap ??

If you have a Hitachi you will need the Toshiba connector, cradle and 4 rubber mounts to fit the Samsung…. afaik Hitachi only make the side pin design drive

here’s some pictures because they are always worth a thousand words

Toshiba left, Hitachi Right

BladeRunner - 02 October 2007 09:57 AM

What does the bios say about your drive, (it should show a model number) press F2 when booting.

So far I’ve only come across a 40gb Hitachi in a TR1mp, and a 60gb in with some parts, all other Hitachi drives have been 30gb (40gb would have been fitted later), all later TR’s have had Toshibia drives mostly 40gb a few 60gb

Of course I’m not Sony so I don’t really know why they used different makes, just cost and availability which may differ in region.. is yours a TR3, TR3a TR3ap ??

If you have a Hitachi you will need the Toshiba connector, cradle and 4 rubber mounts to fit the Samsung…. afaik Hitachi only make the side pin design drive

I have a TR3AP, purchased new in US, and it has a Hitachi DK13FA-40 drive.

Interesting… My TR3A from Amazon had a Toshiba MK4004GAH, bought when I was in California in 2004.

M.

timeshifting - 04 October 2007 05:58 PM

Interesting… My TR3A from Amazon had a Toshiba MK4004GAH, bought when I was in California in 2004.

M.

Luck of the draw I’d presume. Looks like Sony used what they could get.

BladeRunner - by chance did you measure your drive before you installed it? I am having a difficult time trying to find a picture that shows the 32GB having a “fatter” casing or part on it. I also don’t know how much “playing room” there is in our TR casing for some extra sizing of a drive.

Here is what I found on Ebay:

# Depth: 2.8”
# Height: 0.2”

http://cgi.ebay.com/SAMSUNG-32GB-Solid-State-Disk-SSD-1-8-inch-PATA_W0QQitemZ320152474166QQcmdZViewItem

Here is what I found on Samsung:

1.8” ZIF Type (54 x 71 x 5mm) : 8/16/32/48/64GB

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/products/flash/Products_StandardType_18inch.html

I am very close to plopping the money down for one of these

It makes me die.. Samsung are forging ahead with this tech they are basically the only big name offering this tech in a 1.8” format but even their site is devoid of clear detailed info and what is there seems to be inaccurate.

If I were the main launching company of this tech I’d not only be screaming about it everywhere but I’d also make sure my web site had clear detailed info about it.

Can’t see any mention of the 50 pin (which is what you want) just the ZIF version, (which incidentally I’ve not see for sale anywhere yet). Samsung sort your life out!!

This site is the only one that has accurate dimensions, (at least they match my Toshiba 40gb and the SSD 16gb Samsung was virtually exactly the same (yes I didn’t measure it but I’m an engineer so I would have noticed if it were significantly bigger) see this image

http://www.computergate.com/products/item.cfm?prodcd=GHDS32PA

Unfortunately we still do not really know if the 16gb is any different in size to the 32gb again no detailed info anywhere.

I can’t see it not fitting however, it can’t be thicker than the Hitachi (9.25mm + ribbon connector) so go for it… there is at least room for 12mm thick in TR

An interesting comment on the newegg feedback for 32gb Samsung SSD hdd:-

An incredibly fast 32GB disk that works in my ancient NEC Versa LitePad tablet. I have been trying to upgrade the original 20GB Toshiba 1.8” drive since I bought the tablet new in 2003: unfortunately there is a BIOS problem in recognizing any disk with more than 2 heads. Since the geometry of the SSD is a single platter drive, I thought this would solve the problem. And it DID! Not only does the table work with the new SSD, and work FAST, the performance improvement has eliminated my preceived lack of memory (512MB max installed) as an application performance issue. Apparently I/O request queuing was killing my performance - this has eliminated the performance lag that has frustrated me for the past 4 years! (BTW, this is truly and “apples-to-apples” comparison: I dd copied my old disk to the new, so everything was EXACTLY what the hard drive had before the exchange. All performance gains are directly attributable to the new disk.)

mirrors my experiance so far with 16gb SSD in TR

Samurai®¥© - 12 October 2007 09:43 AM

BladeRunner - by chance did you measure your drive before you installed it? I am having a difficult time trying to find a picture that shows the 32GB having a “fatter” casing or part on it. I also don’t know how much “playing room” there is in our TR casing for some extra sizing of a drive.

The 32GB unit is very slightly thicker than a 60GB toshiba, however it fits into the TR housing fine.  I have one of these in my TR3A, btw.

M.

Hi everyone,

I see that the interest for SSD upgrade is picking up. I am glad to help.

I have a tr1mp with 30GB Hitachi. I decided to upgrade it for many reasons. Heat (Toshiba drives get even hotter than Hitachi), lack of speed, reliability and noise (clicking sound is normal but anoying). So i ordered a Samsung 1.8 32GB SSD with the help of a friend in the US (Newegg won’t chip to Holland). I also ordered a HDD cable to match the pin requirement of the SSD (same as Toshiba drives) about $70. I expect to receive the drive in the next to or three weeks.

So if some of you are not shure of the upgrade works, you can avoid some risks by waiting a bit I will post the size of the drive en the results of the attempt.

I am still asking myself if the upgrade of the Sony for $500 (drive, cable, shipping costs) is a good idea. But i just don’t have the $3000 needed for a laptop with SSD. I hope the drive will speed things up

Is it possible to overclock the tr1mp? anyone

Should have posted here about the Toshiba ribbon I could have done it cheaper, (you’ll also ideally need the Toshiba cradle and rubber isolators if you’ve not sourced them yet). I went for a 16gb because 32gb was just too expensive at the time and Newegg (about the only “cheap” store) wont ship it outside USA..

You’ll not change what TR is by overclocking… a compact mobile PC… because it is ultimately CPU & bus limited, no real way around it. I have Tr1mp, Tr2mp & TR5mp. There is very little real world difference in performance. However my TR1mp has the 16gb SSD and like I posted earlier in this topic it really has transformed the TR1mp. You should have 1gb of ram of course, that really helps too.

I wont repeat it all again save to say CPU intensive apps will still drag TR down with SSD, but apps open and close so much quicker and smoother it seems like a much faster PC with SSD. I haven’t tried Vista with SSD yet but before it was a no no.. Realistically, yes you can run it, but it’s just too slow even on TR5mp with 1gb of ram. (maybe 2gb of ram and SSD will help in future)

With SSD the TR1mp blitz’s the standard TR2mp & Tr5mp in everyday use as an office / internet mobile PC.. (all have 1gb of ram)

Thank you for your reply BladeRunner,

You make a point about the overclocking issue. Portability en battery time are indeed the main reasons for choosing the tr1. I didn’t buy the cradle and rubber insulators :-(. I did upgrade memory with 512MB so i have a total of 768MB of memory did help a lot (started with 256MB). I don’t know if a extra 256 is going to help much. Sadly enough I have only discovered this thread after ordering the drive.