M14x Removal of Optical drives and replaced with.......

it looks like tray loading

 

FWIW - NewModeUS told me to buy this caddy based on the photos I posted earlier in this thread:

Optical Bay HDD Caddy to replace Slot-Loading Optical,9.5,SATA [OBHD9-SATA-SATA-NF] - $42.00 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

Leaning towards a 128GB Crucial m4...I'll just toss the 500GB WD Black 7.2k in the optical bay for game storage.

 

Manufacturer: Panasonic
Part Number: UJ232A
Type: Tray Loading

From listing at

Panasonic UJ232A 9.5mm Ultra Slim Blu-ray Burner Reader used, new for sale - Tech and Deal Blog

 

Does the caddy match the rest of the laptop in both color (black) and fit (snug / loose ) ?

 

just a quick thought , i've heard people talking about "raid-0" i think it was called that anyway, where you combine the speed of 2 hard drives to go twice as fast... so my thought is this, could you have 2x Seagate momentus xt hard drives on "raid-0"?

This should make it boot up faster than a normal ssd because at the moment the hybrid is only slightly slower

possible ?

And also this means you could have a total memory of 1TB

 

According to this Chinese replica of ebay site

ÌØÂôÔ­×°ËÉÏÂUJ232A BDB1-B ³¬±¡9.5mmÀ¶¹â¿Ì¼»úSATAÍÐÅÌ - ÌÔ±¦Íø

it looks 100% tray load. unless it is a fake.

 

Also because you can only have a 9.5mm hard drive in the opticle drive could you have a 1TB hard drive for the main hard drive and have a ssd in the optical drive spot, could you set it up so windows boots up on the ssd in the optical drive and would it be as quick in the optical drive ?

Sry many questions :S

 

if only i can find out what optical blu ray burner the m18x is using. then again that beast is probably using a 12.7 over the 9.5

 

The optical in the m18x will certainly be a 12.7mm model. I think the issue is that no manufacturers are making 9.5mm slot load models yet. There are a few 9.5mm tray load versions out there though... so maybe they are coming.

 

What size hard drive do you you need for the main hard drive compartment ?

I know the optical drive hard drive needs to be 9.5mm so its to small to put a 1TB in. But could i put a 1TB hard drive in the main hard drive spot and a ssd in the optical bay ? and could i get windows to boot up from the ssd in the optical bay at the normal ssd speed ?

 

Both bays are 9.5mm. You might be able to fit a 1TB model in a-la M17x, but it probably wouldn't fit the way it's supposed to.

 

Ok i am thinking of buying this hard drive, can anyone advise me on anything before i purchase it ?

OCZ Vertex 3 Series SATA III 2.5-inch Solid State Drive 120GB: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

OCZ Vertex 3 Series SATA III 2.5-inch Solid State Drive 120GB

What i intend to do is put the Vertex 3 120GB SSD as the main hard drive and then put the 500GB hard drive that i got with my laptop in the optical bay.

I will use the SSD to run my video converter/ripper software on and i will place the games that i am playing at the current time on there, and of course i will boot up windows on the SSD. i think 120GB will be plenty for that, all other games i have installed but not played for a while will go on the 500GB hard drive.

Can you just confirm that the main hard drive bay is SATA 3 and it will make use of all the speed Vertex 3 SSD has to offer ?

 

Yes, the M14x is SATA III. It will make use of all of the OCZ Vertex 3 speed. However, caveat emptor...read the Anandtech review of the 120GB Vertex 3. I personally would also worry about OCZ's reliability. I think you can do better for the price...but that's just me.

 

am i right to think that the OCZ vertex 3 240GB is the fastest ssd on the market ?

 

Does the caddy match the rest of the laptop in both color (black) and fit (snug / loose ) ?

 

you dont see the caddy from the outside because its hidden behind the outer casing

 

Ah, thank you. Just got my M14x last night and haven't had a chance to play with it. Also forgot that they have slot loading optical drives

 

Will this caddy work ? its UK one so easier to get my hands on it

2nd Hard Drive Bay Caddy 9.5mm SATA to SATA for Laptops | eBay UK

and will it all be internal and not able to be seen from the outside ?

 

Looks like a yes, on both counts.

 

Ok i have purchased the ocz vertex 3 120 GB SSD, this will go into the main HDD spot and then i will put the 500 GB 7200 rpm hard drive into the optical bay with a caddy i purchased on eBay.

Let me know if you guys want a review on the ocz vertex 3 and bench marks ( if you want bench marks you will have to talk me through it lol because i haven't got a clue )

 

Hey Paddon,

I was curious what caddie you purchased to fit the HD in the optics drive. Also once you have done it would you mind posting a few pics and such to give me an idea of the feelign and fit afterwards cause I am thinking of following in your footsteps with my new M14x, which is all goes right, I should have in the next 2 weeks.

 

I got mine from the UK this is the link.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=200595602045

I am yet to receive it as i only ordered it yesterday

I should have everything by the 12th-13th and i will post many picture for you when i do it, i havent got a clue how to do it yet but live and learn i guess lol

 

If you could review dude that would be awesome!

get my unit tonight! woot

 

i dont get mine until the 13th :C but i think it might come a few days early

but i will post a review once i get it

 

So I installed my caddy today. It's just a "test run" since I haven't received my replacement M14x or my SSD, yet. But it will give you guys an idea of how it looks.

This is continued from my first post on this (which has many more pictures) - located here.

I bought this caddy and it is perfect so far. Perfect fit. Good quality. Although it is a tad expensive. They had great customer service so I can't complain too much.

[click to enlarge any of the pictures]

Comparison of both drives - identical in dimension:


Side by side view:


After the install - perfectly flush. Nothing shows from the outside (obviously):

 

Oh wow. I didn't know that caddy existed. That's brilliant. You can have an SSD in your laptop and not have to worry about disk space! So one question, how much data is used when you first get the laptop? I want to get an SSD that fits that plus a little head room, clone it before I boot it up for the first time, and then install all my games and programs on the hard drive.

 

I do not recall the original size - perhaps someone else can chime in.

However, I do recommend getting an SSD large enough to fit your OS AND your applications/programs. Then use the HDD for your game installs. That way you won't be accessing both your SSD and HDD simultaneously that much (drains battery quicker and more heat).

If you look at the pics you can see that the two drives are stacked on top of eachother. I would be nervous if the drive in my optical bay was constantly being accessed (i.e. as part of the OS or commonly used applications).

When the drive is not in use, it will go to sleep. So basically, if you're not playing a game or accessing your stored files...you can save some juice/heat.

Just my .02. Especially since SSDs in the 80GB-160GB range are not terribly expensive.

 

The HDD caddy you are using, is it the same thing as the OptiBay for the MBP? I'm currently stocking up on upgrades before I get my new machine, because I'm sure not buying them grossly overpriced from Dell.. (and they don't ship the M14x with a HDD caddy anyway right?)

I'm planning on going with a 256GB Crucial m4 as the primary drive (it actually outperforms the Vertex 3 in some areas and is cheaper: Crucial m4 256GB SSD (C400) Review - Office / Games Maintenance) and a 1TB 5,400rpm drive for storage (+ 8GB of 1600MHz DDR3 for half the price of what Dell is charging for an upgrade from 4GB). With that setup I think I'll almost be able to keep the same laptop for several months

 

It's like the Optibay for MBPs. But they do not quite fit. I tried using my OWC Data Doubler (aka Optibay) from my 2011 15" MBP and it did not fit in the M14x. Had to get a 9.5mm cage that looks exactly like the optical drive. That's because Dell ships the drive in a cage. That cage doesn't fit on the OWC Data Doubler/Optibay.

Yeah, I went with an Intel 510 series 128GB SSD and I'm going to put my 750GB WD Scorpio Black drive in my optibay. 8GB of HyperX 1866 coming too. I'll still probably upgrade again in a few months...heh.

 

OK, thanks for the clarification. Nice choice on the 510 series. It's similar to the Crucial m4 with a marvell controller, only better, since it uses 34nm NAND instead of "next-gen" and less robust 25nm NAND. Unfortunately it's also more expensive.

So, 1866 memory can be fully utilized by the M14x? Never thought of that.

 

Any difference with the weight of the laptop?

 

Yes, it can actually. Even with my 2630qm I have my stock RAM at 1600. The nice thing about the newest Kingston HyperX (released April '11) is that it has "plug and play" XMP profiles for Sandy Bridge - so you can just pop in the HyperX 1866 and your memory will auto-clock to that. No visit to the BIOS even needed. It was $45 more than the 1600 so I figured what the heck. Won't gain me much but this is a gaming laptop so it's fun.

Nope. Was a tank before, still a tank! Nothing noticeable at all, actually...but I haven't gamed, yet. Waiting to get my replacement laptop and all my gear in it before that. The only worry I have is that your drives are stocked right on top of eachother. So you definitely want to have one drive be your boot/apps drive and then the other one storage/games - that way both drives are not being used at the same time that often.

 

Am I right to say that any optical Bay HDD Caddy to replace "Slot-Loading Optical",9.5mm, SATA is good to go on the M14x?

As long as it's 9.5mm, should be alright? I don't live in the states, was searching through amazon and was blown away by the choice available..

Anyone can verify whether is this possible
http://www.amazon.com/SATA-caddy-9-5mm-Universal-DVD-ROM/dp/B004Y8SGXW

 

yeah that looks ok to me, but some have like detachable plastic ends which would replace the outer casing of the laptop... this doesn't apply to us because of the slot load drive.. so my only concern with that one is it might have the plastic on the end that stops it from fitting inside.. the one i got clearly showed that it had a detachable plastic end so i knew it would fit inside..

hope this helps

 

Should be fine, Insidious. Really, all you're paying for is something to stop the drive knocking around. You can chop it to bits to get it to fit (no-one's ever going to see it, so who cares?) as long as you don't wreck the SATA connections you're fine.

 

^ Looks good, Insidious. You can always contact them pre-purchase and get it solidified. That's what I did with newmodeus.com. Granted, I paid ~$45 for probably the same thing you're getting for $15...but their service was excellent and it was a sure thing.

I think there's a TON out there because they just mass-manufacture them in China and sell them for dirt cheap in bulk. If they can make $10-$15 on each sale they are probably banking. I bet then pay less than $3 each from China. And like Serephucus said - as long as it doesn't knock around, you're good. Not much to worry about. Plus buying through Amazon protects you with their A-Z bs.

 

I have put my ssd in and my caddy but theres a problem .... the metal frame that attaches to the caddy i cant screw in... i have only got 1 out of the 4 screw to actually screw in the others are just spinning and wont thread.

Dont know what to do now, get some thread lock maybe or try bigger screws.

And how delicate is that strip we have to peel of the optical drive... i hated peeling it back i felt like i was damaging it.

 

Yeap, always trusted amazon. However, if you take a closer look at the ends, there's a layer of black plastic surrounding the caddy. Not sure whether it will eventually get a nice fit.

But what gives! Since it stated it's for SATA 2nd HDD caddy for 9.5mm....

 

This is precisely why I splurged and paid the money for the exact right part.

Hack it...superglue...ducttape...nail it...

 

wow is that so, I still might get an ssd, to replace the DVD drive. Drives me nuts when it vibrates on my hand while it's spinning..

Does the SSD heat up faster than the HDD? or the other way around?

 

If you worry about heat, just put an aluminum foil between the SDD and the palm rest and put another foil between sdd and the HD (optical HD caddy) and it will be super cool!

 

Yeah, why not? Especially when you can get an ASUS external DVD-RW for like $25.

I do not know much about the heat, but my guess would be the HDD would be warmer due to the moving parts.

I currently have two HDD and there is no heat problem for me. But I use my main drive (500GB) for OS/Apps and the secondary drive (750GB) is just empty right now.

 

can anyone help me here please ?

So i have installed the SSD into main disk space and put the old hard drive in optical bay.. but windows is still booting of the old hdd in the optical bay and in my computer i cant see the SSD

However i can see the ssd in the bios.. Its written in black though for some reason and not blue

how to i install windows on this ssd and remove it from the other ???????

thanks

 

you would probably have to switch the jumpers... (I don't know if jumpers are used in mobile hard drives lol)

have you installed windows on the SSD yet?

ok... i didn't read your post completely... here is what you can do...

Install windows on the SSD without the 2nd hard drive in the laptop. See if the the computer boots from the SSD by itself with windows. That will also take care of the windows on the SSD

 

would f12 boot sequence work?

or set the boot priority in the Bios for your SSD instead..

 

If you plan to reinstall W7 from a disc or usb you need to boot, use f12 at startup, with that disk/usb. From there you can format (delete partion and do a quick format) the old drive and the SSD. After you format the 2 you want to select the SSD as the primary drive for windows to install to.


The jumpers shouldnt matter since they should be set to CS (cable Select). I cannot remember the last time I had to physical change a jumper on a HD.... maybe Windows 98??


Edit:

Oh if you wnat to clone the drive then you need to boot up on the old drive download or install whatever cloning software you want to do so. In order to get the SSD to show up in windows you can goto:
Start > right click, computer > Manage > Disk management. You should see a none partioned drive listed, this should be your SSD. If you need more help you can check this video on farmating from inside W7

 

Any of you guys have steam ? i am in real need of help lol

I tried installing windows by pressing f-12 but my external dvd drive wont work unless its on windows.... i have tried formatting the ssd and its just disappeared now from the disk manager

tried running windows set-up while on windows and it wont detect the ssd drive. help please ! lol

 

PM me your steam or add me,

Steam: Stevakis

 

This is what you should do : pull the secondary drive out and put the original ODD in with the SSD and boot in the windows installation by pressing F12 after you install windows put the second HDD in place

 

OK, I've stocked up on a 256GB Crucial m4 while waiting for my M14x. Way cheaper than the Dell SSD I might add, which I think is a Samsung with similar specs(?)

For those who have a dual HDD or SSD setup up and running: this is probably a little far fetched, but there's no option in the BIOS or Intel matrix driver to set up a RAID 0 array?

In that case I better save up for another 256GB m4