Several C90S Upgrade Questions

I've already snagged memory (OCZ 2GB SO-DIMM DDR2 667) and a larger hard drive (Fujitsu 320GB 5400 RPM 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s) but I was wondering about other possibilities.

Would it be possible to use a SSD mini pcie drive in one or both of the available slots? I would love to boot and run games off a SSD such as this one SUPER TALENT FPM32GRSE 32GB Mini PCIe MLC Internal Solid state disk (SSD).

Has anyone seen a ATSC/Clear QAM mini pcie TV tuner? I've found a little bit on the forum linking to DVB-T ones at tech shows but there is very little info to be found. Is this the correct cable to allow me to connect CATV to the MCX connector for the analog TV tuner I have?
SMA female to MCX male

MXM Xperiment
Has anyone here successfully upgraded to a newer better MXM graphics card? Perhaps a Type III (I think) 8800M?

Does the laptop use a standard size for its optical drive? The drive in mine is broken and I don't want to buy the wrong one. I wouldn't mind picking up a bluray drive but I'm pretty sure they are still horribly expensive for laptops.

Any help you guys could provide would be much appreciated.

 

Possibly but the C90S runs Supertalent SSD's excellently, I have had a 120GB supertalent running a good year already.. RAM is also upgradeable to 4GB but the OS and chipset only recognise about 3GB however it will run dual channel. Stick with the exact same brand and model of memory you already have to avoid incompatibility issues.

People have indeed upgraded the 8600M GT to a 9600M GT 512 DDR3 card here is the link to the full guide carried out by nightwalker

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=316079

It is a mxm 2 card. Mxm3 cards will never work in the C90S unfortunately but there is a slightly better option in the form of the 9650M GT, no one has tried that one out but I shall be very soon. Gentechpc.com sell a blueray drive for the C90S but it costs around $240. I would wait for prices to drop another year or so, I think the drive is a standard slim optical drive bay so a generic drive could be bought but the bezel(front cover) would have to be swapped onto the new drive.(more hassle?)

Also the CPU is upgradeable as well to the newer penryn E7300 or E7500 CPU's, note the E7200/400/600 won't work as they run half multi's which the old motherboard in the C90 doesn't recognise. To do this upgrade you need to update the bios through this link http://www.gentechpc.com/Asus/C90S-Mod-BIOS.zip follow these instructions to install

Make sure your computer is at AC power before update the BIOS and do it at your own risk.
1: Download the ISO and burn into the CD.
2: Restart the computer with CD in the drive and press "ESC" once when you see the Asus logo.
3: Select boot from CD drive and press enter.
4: Computer will boot to A:\ prompt
5: Type UPDATE and press enter
6: BIOS flash will start and DON"T turn off or press any key or buttons on the laptop.
7: It'll go back to A: prompt when BIOS flash is finished.
8: restart the computer and press F2 to enter BIOS.
9: press F10 to save and exit BIOS.


I think this covers most things, hope this helps and welcome to NBR!

 

Thanks for the great information. I'm not sure if my nerd balls are quite large enough to attempt the 9600M GT upgrade but knowing it is possible is nice. I think I'll be happy with the 8600M GT. I will mostly be playing Warcraft III and Left 4 Dead.

On the SSD side of things are you using a SATA 2.5" form factor SSD or a Mini PCIe type? I'm betting the C90S won't boot off of a SSD installed in one of the Mini PCIe slots. The drive might be too long as well.

 

EDIT: Is this the SSD you are using SUPER TALENT FTM20GK25H 2.5" 120GB SATA II Internal Solid state disk?

EDIT: Epic edit fail

 

I am using a standard 2.5" form factor SSD. Being a year old however makes it ancient in the world of SSD's and it cost a bomb back then. Now it is a much better investment. I recommend the OCZ vertex line. Cheap and powerful.

edit: yes it is although that probs has a firmware update done to it so slightly faster write speeds, tbh installing things takes quite awhile like big games and it doesn't like too many big programs running simultaneously. But otherwise its quick. The newer ones like the OCZ are twice as quick at reading and 4 times quicker at writing and probs only cost half or what I spent ...620 bucks!

 

Do you think a Mini PCIe SSD drive would work in a C90S or are they strictly for netbooks? According to Super Talents website the dimensions of the Mini PCIe SSD drive I'm looking at is 69.5mm x 32.1mm

 

You can check it by taking the PCI filling out - push it in and it will pop out. Same size as a PCI card so can be measured. I have no experience with mini PCI cards whatsoever however let alone an SSD one. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will chip in here.