Asus UX31A SSD Replacement drive

I was wondering if anyone knows where to buy the ADATA XM11, 128GB mSATA replacement SSD drive for the Asus UX31A-R5102F laptop? It's the ultrabook that Asus offers and from what I've read, it's basically a mSATA connector that's proprietary to Asus. I looked up eBay for a replacement drive but there seems to be 2 sellers selling it for $250! It's pretty damn expensive for a 128GB SSD, since you can get those for around $100 now.

I called up Asus tech support to get a price but they basically told me to send it in. I had another unrelated issue with my laptop, so I figured that I would just send it in at the same time and request the technician to notify me for the price of the SSD drive. I got the laptop fixed but never got a quote via email or phone with a price. It seems like a lot of hassle to go to Asus and they could not even get a price for it.

Does anyone know where to buy The Adata XM11 or Sandisk U100 drive from? I bought the laptop originally without the hard drive, thinking it wasn't going to be that hard to find but it seems basically impossible. If I pay $250 for the drive on eBay, I might as well buy a new one for $600, that's the cost of the new one.

I tried looking for both but no luck on finding it.

 

I would suggest to re-sell the notebook as-is and look for better/current solutions.

Both the ADATA and the U100 are nowhere close to 2013 standards for SSD's. As you're forced to buy one or the other with this model, (because of proprietary connector), this seems like a huge waste of time and money to me.

But it is because of that proprietary connector that they can ask as much as they are for it. $250 for 128GB nominal capacity; for performance that is just above HDD levels? NO. $600 for the same performance??? Why not just buy another (brand new) system for that kind of money (and a standard mSATA or SATA SSD with the sale of the UX31...)?


If you can find a drive (used) that fits - ~$50-$75 is what would be reasonable for this first gen ultrabook. But even then a new system would be much preferable in every way.


Proprietary components are (usually) best not upgraded. At least not if you want to spend a reasonable amount doing so.


Good luck.

 

At this stage I would agree with Tiller, the ASUS Zenbooks have notorious proprietary SSD connectors minus Apple's marketshare. This means ridiculous upgrade and replacement prices. You are already halfway to a decent Haswell Ultrabook for the $600 price of that new SSD.

 

The UX31 uses a non standard connector for the SSD.
You can purchase an adapter to a standard M.2 SATA SSD from eBay for $20. The product is manufactured by SINTECH.
PA5112 SATA HDD card as sandisk sd5se2/SDSA5JK ADATA XM11 for Asus UX31 UX21
View attachment 119033

I have used the Crucial M550 512GB SATA M.2 Type 2280 Internal Solid State Drive (CT512M550SSD4) successfully.
Most M.2 drives are compatible with the Sintech adapter if you prefer to use a different manufacture or need a different drive capacity.
Be sure to purchase a SATA compatible SSD. The PCIe interface is not compatible.
View attachment 119034

 

Hello my fellow ASUS UX31A owners. If anyone is interested. Today I replaced ADATA MX11 256gb with 512GB (I had to use adapter). Everything is described here: Upgrading to 512GB SSD on Asus Zenbook UX31A – Jure's blogish site