For those with slow 1.8" PATA drives wanting SATA...

What microsata-to-ZIF adapters exist?

Update 07-04-12 sata(LIF)-to-ZIF adapter is now available as shown making it possible to install a microSATA or mSATA SSD in a 1.8" ZIF bay.

Update 01-16-12 Our friends over at 51bn.cn have succeeded in adapting a microSATA drive using a microsata-to-ZIF adapter to work in a ZIF-equipped HP 2710P tablet. See snippet + full links.

Though with the prices of ZIF SSDs being lower than ever before and microSATA being phased out in favor of 7mm SATA or mSATA, I'd not recommend it. Instead consider a $90/$140 32GB/64GB Runcore ProIV (Indilinx BF + sata-to-pata) or a $75/$125 30GB/60GB SuperTalent ZT2 (EWS720) ZIF SSD instead. See http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...orage/531052-1-8-zif-pata-ssds-available.html for links/reviews of these products.

Update 09-17-11 Tried the polotek ZIF-to-microSATA adapter finding a microSATA SSD is wider than a ZIF drive as shown below. This means it would not fit in the 2510P cavity. If looking to use this adapter then suggest using a mSATA SSD instead which, with the adapter, could be made to fit into the ZIF drive cavity.



Update 12-04-10 ebay US$15 microsata-to-ZIF as described here exists. Has been used to successfully convert a 1.8" Samsung SSD to ZIF as shown here. X18M G2/G3 is now a real possibility!!

Update 11-11-10 A microsata-to-ZIF adapter exists. [email protected] wrote me (click spoiler):

Spoiler

RE: zif to microsata adapter

This is the new item, no photo is available now. The sata-to-pata chip used is JMicron JM20330. The dimensions are about 60L*30W*6.0H(mm). This adapter is not suitable for use in a laptop computer for its limited space. It is just for outside usage.

We are not the reseller but the manufacturer . The price for this unit is US$6 (FOB Hongkong, Industrial packing) MOQ 100pcs. Delivery time will be about 15 business days after receiving 30% TT wire transfer advanced payment. Balance before delivery.

Q: Can it be made smaller for internal usage and have the Marvell sata-to-pata chip instead?

Some of our adapters use the JM20330, they all compliant with Win7, the Marvell SATA-to-PATA chip is available also, but this adapter with JM20330 is our general product.

The thinner and smaller adapter is possible if necessary, but i'm not sure if it can be used IN the laptop computer even so.

I just checked with the engineer, no matter how we adjust the dimension of the adapter, the size of the HDD space must be 85*54*8 (mm) at least because the fixed 1.8" HDD/SSD size, for most universal solution.

polotek do have a photo of their IDE to microsata adapter.

Current 1.8" ZIF SSD and their performance

1.8" ZIF PATA SSDs available includes some native SATA SSDs using sata-to-pata bridge: mtron, samsung and intel. SATAII is 300MB/S. Intel ICH5/6/7/8 PATA interface is UDMA-5/ATA-100 with a maximum of 100MB/s, but practically delivers 91MB/s as shown here and here
______________________________________________________________________________________

We then find it desirable to make a SATA to ZIF bridge adapter to provide SATA harddisk or SSD upgrade options Users of Macbook Air, Thinkpad U110, HP Mini 1000, Dell D420/D430/X1, HP 2510P/2710P, ASUS U1E, Acer Aspire One SSD, or any other machine using the slow 1.8" PATA drives with ZIF connectors (or with a free ZIF connector) may wish this as well.

A Dell ZIF to SATA adapter exists: 1.8" ZIF to 2.5" SATA caddy . It's a ZIF-to-SATA adapter on ebay as used in Dell D620 ATG systems to convert a ZIF drive for use on a 2.5" SATA interface. It uses a Silicon Image sata-to-pata bridge, reknown for quality products that deliver high performance. Question is, is this device bi-directional? If so, we see there's a 3.3V voltage regulator that can be bypassed if using a 1.8" SATA drive. We see too that it is a bit wider than a 1.8" drive, probably to accomodate the affixing screwholes. An adapted solution *probably* can cut the board to the width of a 1.8" ZIF. The SATA end can run individual wires directly to the 1.8" SATA SSD like shown on the right. Right top: Dell zif-to-sata adapter (bidirectional??) Right bottom: 4 SATA I/O lines plus 3.3V and GND attached to a Samsung SSD, a working setup, as found in the macbook air forum.

Otherwise this is too thick and long. Sony adapter exists too but can scratch that off since it's a proprietory connector on the ZIF side. Systems using ICH5M or newer I/O chipset might also be able to enable the SATA controller and tap off SATA I/O lines in the systemboard as described here.

Otherwise, if none of these are suitable, there's the DIY option:

DIY Option (redundant info due to Polotek's microsata-to-ZIF adapter)

There exists a a SATA to 3.5" IDE, SATA to 2.5" IDE and SATA to 1.8" IDE bridging adapter so a combo below can make a SATA to ZIF (PATA) adapter.

Difference in height between 1.8" SSD and HDD

The ebay "Samsung Slim SSD" is 3.48mm tall, and a 1.8" HDD (mine is the 80GB MK8009GAH) is 8mm tall. So there is 4.52mm of clearance. The Intel X18-M is 5mm thick, providing 3mm of additional clearance. This is plenty! So this solution would be ideal to accomodate a thin SSD in place of the slow ZIF HDD.

DIY Solution #1: Using a SATA TO 40-PIN 3.5" IDE ADAPTER


1: DIY board with instructions
2,3: the boards to combine
3,4: 4 SATA I/O lines plus 3.3V and GND attached to a Samsung SSD, a working setup, as found in the macbook air forum. OR (right) solder onto microsata connector with solder tabs.

*Important: check power from the ZIF to the SATA board.. the ZIF drive I have runs 3.3V, so that is what the motherboard supplies. If the bridge chip uses 3.3V as well, just run a wire across and remove all those big square voltage regulator chips. ZIF->IDE adapter pinout tells us ZIF pin 38 and 39 are 3.3V, with GND being pin 4. Hack off as much of the two boards as possible to make it low profile: LEDs, SATA connector, voltage regulators & hardwire jumpers in required position. I would glue the boards together, solder wire on the top layer IDE pins as it is already thicker due to the chips, and solder ZIF ribbon wire on the bottom layer to make it as thin as possible. That way the resultant board would have some rigidity at the interconnect point. Run some very thin insulation tape over the soldered wires to prevent shorting.

From one of these engineered board, run the 6 wires necessary for SATA: RX+, RX-, TX+, TX-, GND, 3.3V to this microsata connector attached to your 1.8" SSD/HDD. In my case, there is no room, so the wires will attach at right angles and run over the drive to the engineered board sitting on top of the drive. Can bare the wires on readymade microSATA cable instead if you have room. Microsata pinouts are here.

Size of 1.8" ZIF harddisk: 2.13x2.79 in

Size of SATA to 3.5" IDE adapter: 2.13 in x 1.81 (size as given for 2-port version)
Size of 3.5" IDE to ZIF adapter: 3.54 in x 1.30
Total: 3.54 in x 3.112
Size (shrunk) estimate: 2.13 in x 2.33

Estimate assuming boards soldered together, removing IDE40 (2x~0.39), molex and trimming boards down. This is just a tad shorter than the 1.8" harddisk, with equivalent width. Here is a top view of the 3.5" IDE to ZIF adapter and SATA to IDE adapaters, so can see how much it could be shrunk, as well as the pitch involved for soldering. These would be the two boards I would use for this solution, both from era-ele.

microsatacables on ebay has just the microsata connector or these have the a ready made cable which could have it's end bared.

Sources of parts:

SATA to 40PIN IDE Drive Adapter Card, choose one of:
Serial-ATA HDD To 3.5 IDE Adapter [10097] - $6.95 : era-ele <- smallest, single-side board. Best one for low profile.
DealExtreme: $5.33 SATA to IDE Converter Host (single port, but looks like big cap on there)
DealExtreme: $7.24 2-Port SATA HDD to 40-Pin IDE Master/Slave with Power Adapter Cable (2X port version has chips on both sides.. too big)
(*) www.span.com - UK Data Storage specialists - English - ATA-to-SATA Adapters - ATA-to-SATA Adapters - ATA-to-SATA Adapters, Internal Adapters, ATA to SATA internal adapter, Acard internal adapters, ATA to SATA Bridgeboard, ATA to SATA converter describes the different bridge chips available: Jmicron, Marvell, Sunplus. These do all the work converting SATA to PATA.

40PIN IDE to ZIF (1.8"), choose one of:
ZIF/LIF CE 1.8 HDD to ATA 3.5 IDE HDD Adapter [10113] - $5.95 : era-ele
DealExtreme: $4.41 ZIF to 3.5-inch Bilateral IDE Hard Drive Converter

DIY solution #2: Using a SATA TO 3.5" IDE ADAPTER and soldering ribbon cable

<tbody

Microsata cable would be as per solution 1. I would be soldering the ribbon cable using both sides of the bridge board, and covering the pins I don't need on alternate sides. That is the only way I could see such work could be done with home equipment by a novice. This person soldered ZIF cable onto an IDE connector, so it can be done. There is an even smaller board to begin with in sources below, that doesn't need to be cut, even starting with a SATA-2.5 IDE adapter (smaller 2.0mm track pitch though and has chips on both sides). This one was used as an example as it has easier to access SATA pads.

If needing to join two ZIF ribbons, I believe the connector off the any of the cheap dealextreme ZIF adapter boards can accomodate two ribbons, and thus act as a clamp to extend the ZIF. Ref last page of this for ZIF<->IDE pinout table needed here, it has IDE44, but IDE40 as used here is the same, minus the last 4 pins. Jutting out crystal could be relocated. This would be the closest thing to the smallest ZIF->SATA adapter available.

Sources of parts:

DealExtreme: $4.45 SATA to IDE Hard Disk Mini Vertical Bridge Adapter Card <- pictured. discusses performance of SATA on PATA
DealExtreme: $4.20 SATA to IDE Converter Driver <- smallest board, but appears double-sided!!

DIY solution #3: Using a SATA TO 1.8" IDE ADAPTER

If there is clearance, this is a plug and play solution.

Pieces required:
2.32x2.05x0.28" DealExtreme: $7.79 SATA to 1.8" IDE Hard Drive Adapter Card <-- too thick!
1.30x0.98x0.16" DealExtreme: $2.30 CE ZIF to 1.8" IDE Hard Disk Drive Adapter Card

In this case, I would solder the first board and second board together via the pins. Ie: remove the pins on the second board, align the first board up using the black plastic adapter.. and solder the pins directly on. Once that is done, it may be possible to remove some of the plastic surround around the pins on the first board.

If there is not enough clearance then ditch the second board above. Buy this instead. Remove the CF socket, leave the pads. CUT the circuit at the CF point., align with first circuit above and solder the two together. This is tricky.. and this is where I get stuck. Ideally should have some 1.27mm pitch ribbon cable to join the two boards together.. ie: solder the ribbon on one end.. and then do it on the other. The ribbon would line up perfectly against the pads and it could even be soldered at home (if you know how!). Problem is finding the solderable 1.27mm pitch cable.

A useful extra if using parts from solution 1 and solution 2
2.5" IDE to 3.5" IDE
DealExtreme: $1.63 3.5" to 2.5" HDD Converter
http://www.tiger111hk.com/product_info.php?products_id=968 <- 3.5" IDE is at a right angle.. good if wanting to use 3.5" cable to reroute through to the SATA<->IDE bridge in another location.

**********************************************************************
* If anyone tries this, please post your unique creation for others to be able to replicate. *
**********************************************************************

 

whats the point? its not the interface that is slow, its the drives themselves.

 

Point is to replace say the crappy 1.8" PATA 4200rpm drive with a 1.8" SATA drive with something faster without breaking the bank.

There are plenty of fast 1.8" SSDs.. X18-M, Samsung Slim SSD on EBAY. Without an SATA to ZIF adapter some of us are limited to PATA offerings which are expensive and far slower. The PATA interface can do 133MB/s.

The above is provided to those who realise they have a serious bottleneck in their systems with limited scope to fix it. Now there is an avenue to fix it.

 

Nizzy115 is saying that even if you build a SATA to PATA/ZIF host adapter, the entire system will be capped by the 133MB/s limit of the PATA portion of the system. Seeing how small many of these PATA/ZIF machines are, I'm skeptical that anyone could fit an amalgamation of all three of the aforementioned parts in the desired space. Having opened a Dell XT, I'd say that short of a humongous mod-job (like cutting into the chassis kind of mod job, which I wouldn't be inclined to do), there's room for the HDD and only the HDD.

EDIT: Furthermore, while they aren't the fastest things on the market, there are PATA/ZIF devices out there like the 1.8" Mtron 3000/3500 drives that will be much faster than a typical 1.8" HDD without the need of extra hardware. Possibly, eventually someone will come up a PATA/ZIF device that can make full use of the 133MB/s transfer rate.

 

I believe the three parts can be integrated to fit by those who are electrically minded.

The problem with PATA drives is new offerings cater to a small market, so a premium is charged for them. Why pay $$$ for a small Mtron when there are faster cheaper and more abundant SATA offerings available? The bits above can be acquired for next to nothing, with only skill and creativity being the ostacle to a solution.

 

The Mtron is only 32GB and compared to some SSD drives it is has a quite high power cosumption level.
The Samsung SATA SSD drives on ebay are pretty decently priced. They seem cheaper than the zif SSD 1.8 drives that you can get.
The Sasmung zif drives only come in 32GB and 64GB and some people want more storage.
My niece owns a P7230 and that takes a 1.8 IDE drive. I would like to get her a Micro SATA 1.8 drive because they are cheaper and you get drives that are 80GB and over.
I have a Samsung SLC drive in my Sony TX and it is not the fastest SSD drive out there but the drive feels very fast to me and it is a massive boost over the standard 1.8 PATA drive that it came with. The computer boots up and shuts down very fast. Applications load very quickly also. For me the drive was the best combination between performance and power consumption.


That adapter probably would be too big to fit into a lot of ultraportables.

 

I've had a look at the space on a 2510P and believe the three parts, combined correctly, could fit in the drive space without too much of a problem. So others who may wish to do the same may try it as well.

Oh.. and the 2510P may be cursed with a slow PCMCIA (Ricoh chip).. so potentially the 2xSATA to IDE adapter could be tapped off to provide an ESATA port. That or else USB2.0...

In the original thread relating to a 2510P there is also an investigation of enabling the ICH8-M onboard SATA ports that may not be wired up.

 

Ιt would be great if any of those companies that fabricate adapters in asia could come up with a product to help people with older IDE notebooks to fit a cheap sata ssd solution....

Combining 2-3 items to make the converter work is fine, but an all-in-one product, with respect to drive space and tight fitting would be a relief....

 

I absolutely agree.. but it doesn't exist as yet. The above is the best I can come with while still maintaining a low profile solution, without resorting to custom fab work and keeping it cheap. I've re-written some of the instructions as perhaps the important part of solding the two boards into one wasn't clear.

All that is really needed is the ZIF connector <-> bridge chip <-> SATA connector. It could seriously fit on the most tiniest SMT board as the bridge chip does most of the work.

 

Like this one? He posted in his first post.

 

That info was included if someone else wanted to try and use the SATA to 2.5" Adapter board to create a SATA to ZIF solution.

I cannot see how I could piece those bits together, so went back to using the SATA to 3.5" Adapter. The smaller SATA connector suits me better, as does it's ability to line up with a ZIF to 3.5" IDE converter so the two boards' IDE lines can be soldered butted up against each other. In this way the whole thing extends out a bit, but keeps it very low profile. The 1.8" drive bay I am working with has very little extra space to work with.

 

Huh? I don't understand what you're replying to in my post really? I was only replying to his post about using a SATA hard drive on an old laptop which has PATA-connection. And i though that one should do it.

 

Thanx Michel...Ι saw the adaptor you mentioned, but i think the combo of the adaptor & the drive cannot fit bay, due to height...I am not sure, but when i have some free time i think i'll just order one of these and try it out...

By the way, i like your signature's icons...

 

I installed my 120GB Toshiba 1.8" Ziff from my TZ in a 1.8" USB enclosure and getting speeds of 28MB/s, faster than what I get than when it is in the TZ..

Also speed size Ziff drives are pretty speedy when used in windows 7, the 60GB that ships with the mininote 1000 is pretty good with windows 7...

 

What a great thread! Will be following it closely. I came up with a similar idea to use a new 1.8" SATA SSD in my Dell Latitude X1 (with 1.8" micro-ATA connector). At the moment there is a 1.8" disk with zif connector is connected there via the zif cable and zif-to-ide 1.9" adaptor. The construction hardly fits under the keyboard, but it does.

 

The ideas in this thread are great and I'm also interested in a solution to upgrade older PATA 1.8" HDD's.

What adapter do you use? I searched for such an adapater in the past, but haven't found anything useful. My sister has a Vaio TX2 which uses a 1.8" IDE HDD, without ZIF. Sadly, if at all, newer 1.8" non SATA drives only have a ZIF connector.

 

I was using this one CE ZIF to 1.8" IDE Hard Disk Drive Adapter Card
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.20294
It is a little bit tricky and should be done very carefully, but it works (for Latitutde X1).

 

I assume you wish to go to a 1.8" SATA harddisk. So here's how that is possible when starting with a 1.8" IDE (Toshiba PATA) interface:

SATA to 1.8" IDE adapter
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.19736

I'd be checking voltage from the 1.8" IDE interface off the systemboard. If it's 3.3V, I'd be pulling off the large voltage regulator chips to the right, look like tridents, off this board (assuming the onboard chip operate off the 3.3V rail). The SATA connector would go, leaving the SATA pads to solder on. If the crystal is adding too much thickness, I'd relocate it where there space with just two wires. Also could lob off some of the board on the SATA end to shrink it.

If mating male-to-male 1.8" then the plastic adapter off this may be needed as well:
http://store.era-ele.com/zif-to-toshiba-18-adapter-p-44.html
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.20294

The alternative is to use this 1.8" to 3.5" IDE. http://store.era-ele.com/toshiba-18-to-35-ide-adapter-p-38.html in place of the board pictured to the right of solution #1. Then just glue and solder the two 3.5" sides together as explained. This will produce a a SATA to 1.8" IDE adapter as well with somewhat more effort.

 

Samsung 64GB 1.8" 100/80 SLC SSD for $175US! Cheaper and faster than the ebay 90/70 Samsung Slim SSD

SAMSUNG MCCOE64G8MPP-0VA00 1.8" 64GB SATA II SLC Internal Solid state disk (SSD) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147056&CMP=AFC-C8Junction

Unfortunately not purchasable by international customers.

Good one to try the DIY microSATA to ZIF adapter on.

 

I was originally going to go with a zif to CF solution but I really want a real ssd.

Instead of using zif to ide then ide to sata I was thinking about using a zif to cf then cf to sata.

These are the two parts im looking at:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.8466

The two arms by the cf connectors can be removed shortening the adapter.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11814

The majority of the this adapter can be removed as well

The length is not a problem and the height should only be about 5 mm.

Basically you just need a cable to connect the two CF connectors and also a way to connect the sata connector to the sata ssd.

Thoughts?





EDIT:

I just saw this link in the first post and these should work very well

http://www.satacables.com/micro-sata-cables.html

Now all that is needed is a CF cable. Anyone know where to get one or how the CF ends can be connected?

 

I did think about this and wrote some notes in the "Solution #3: Using a SATA TO 1.8" IDE ADAPTER" on page 1 of this thread. I can see why you have considered this. There would be be no need to check/trace the 3.3V and GND lines between the two boards, so almost a plug and play.

My concern was the overall thickness of these. I wanted a daughterboard to sit on top of SSD, with the total thickness being the same as that of the original HDD (given SSD is some 4.52-3mm thinner). The only way I could see accomplishing that was with a SATA-3.5" IDE adapter soldered to a 3.5" IDE-ZIF adapter, bits hacked off, which would be just slightly shorter than the length of the original HDD. The 1.8" drive bays are tiny!!

Having said that, I haven't touched any of these boards yet. If you do get a working solution, please post as I'd be most curious to see the real-life thickness of these CF boards. Dealextreme pics are about the best I can go on with some of the items having dimension information.

An alternative if you did want real SSD rather than CF as noted and best value for money ZIF option at the moment is the runcore 1.8" 80/63 SSD, using jmicron B controller. Up to 128GB in size. 100/100 Mtron 32GB SLC is available for as low as $170US delivered on ebay.

 

Nice to see your still interested! Maybe we can work together on getting this working. Im out of town but will probably order the parts after I get home and measure the side of my notebooks hard drive bay. The only thing im worried about is the CF to CF connection. Do you think I could just wire them together and secure it with electrical tape? I cant seem to find any cables for CF to CF.

I know I could just buy a zif ssd but my upgrade paths will be limited later and I plan on keeping my notebook for awhile. With that in mind I think its worth the effort to get the sata working.

In response to the thickness, the sata to zif adapter is only .2 inches thick. thats about 5.06mm. ( In comparison the sata to ide 1.8 is almost .3 inches!) If its too tall, from this picture it looks like you can chip off a little of the plastic from the sata and cf connectors. Surely its possible to chip off .05 to .1 cm from the adapters. That would bring it down to the desired height.



The other adapter should only be .2 inches thick as well if we assume the zif adapter is the highest point on the adapter. Again the plastic can be cut off a bit if its too high.

Since we can remove alot of board from each adapter we shouldnt need to worry about the length or width.

Im really stumped on the CF to CF though

EDIT: Deal Extreme takes weeks to ship out items it seems so I looked on ebay and found most of the parts. I asked the sellers for the exact dimensions of the two parts I mentioned. Hopefully the sata to cf adapter is the same one on dealextreme. Here is the link to the one on ebay :

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Compact-Flash-CF-Type-to-SATA-HDD-Converter-Adapter_W0QQitemZ300296468654QQcmdZViewItemQQptZPCA_Cables_Adapters?hash=item300296468654&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

It looks exactly the same hope it is. Shipping from CA should be much faster than from HK for me at least.

 

Unfortunately the sata to cf is not the same one as on deal extreme so I will have to order that part from them.

I think Im going to try to make my own CF cable from two old compact flash cards. Im going to try what this guy did except make it female on both ends.

http://homepage.eircom.net/~podge001/CF Extender.html

He took two ide cables and connected them to the cf female connector.

Think this would work?

 

Hi! I appreciate all the ingenuity that's being demonstrated here. I just bought a laptop without realizing that it had a 1.8" ZIF HDD, so I'm in the same boat.

Ozarka, that CF to CF bridge looks promising. However, is the CF to SATA connector bilateral? The SATA to IDE connector on the first page apparently is, but it didn't say anything about the CF to SATA connector on the Deal Extreme page.

Also, if you're just trying to do a male-to-male connection of the CF parts, wouldn't it be easier to just solder IDE cable directly onto the boards themselves, rather than first soldering it to the CF cards? It sounds like that's what the guy did with the PCMCIA end of his adapter in the link you posted. I was just thinking that this might save you some space.

Best of luck! I'll be interested to hear how this all turns out.

 

I was thinking the same thing but I think having female connectors would make the whole adapter more robust.

Im also concerned about the CF to Sata adapter, Im hoping it will work but with my luck it probably wont...Im not really knowledgeable when it comes to circuitry so if someone wants to comment it would be most welcome.

 

Michel,

who sells the adapter in this picture?
I've been looking all over for something like that.
I have a 1.8" 60gb IDE laptop, I just bought a 1.8" 320gb SATA II drive... the space is crammed, please help.
Thanks

 

If you bought a 1.8" SATA drive, that's probably NOT the adapter you want -- you can Google the drive model in the pic; it's a 2.5" drive, so presumably the adapter pictured is for 2.5" drives. 1.8" SATA drives typically use a Micro-SATA connection, and I'm not sure if I've seen adapters for them anywhere, just cables. You might need to Frankenstein your own solution.

 

Another thing -- has anybody noticed the new Vaio P? If you buy the SSD model, it ships with a Micro-SATA drive, although the computer uses a proprietary ZIF connection. The computer ships with a cable that converts the drive's SATA connection into a ZIF connection. I was wondering if it'd be possible to get that cable and somehow alter it slightly so that it'd work with standard ZIF interfaces. Thoughts? Knowing Sony, it'd probably cost as much as the SSD. Hah.

 

Thanks for the info, jwhite326.

Someone, somewhere need to make this adapter and sell it to me, hehe.

 

Image is of the 2.5" SATA to 2.5" IDE adapter from http://www.cooldrives.com/2sahadrtoide.html .
I think you are referring to 2.5" drives, as 320GB does not exist in the 1.8" format.

If not, this thread start off with info on how you could make a 1.8" SATA to 1.8" IDE (ZIF) to fit in the crammed space occupied by 1.8" drives together with a 1.8" HDD or SSD (more likely thinner SSD).

 

Wow very good find. Where did you read that its proprietary? I was reading this thread and it seems like they can use normal zif hard drives in their notebooks.(Sony P)

http://forum.pocketables.net/showthread.php?t=1928&page=2

If this is the case the cable should work right out of the box right? There will undoubtedly be a hefty premium on the cable but in the end it will probably be worth it.

Ill go ahead and call sony parts right now

edit: sony seems to be closed ill call first thing on monday =)

 

picture of adapter

 

WOW! What a find!! That would do the trick nicely. Big question is how much will it cost? It certainly looks thin enough. More pictures of the Sony SATA to ZIF adapter. Looks like a proprietory connector that plugs into the systemboard.. which makes it a pain, because need an adapter for that to ZIF. Sony part number 1-878-429-11.

Sony Vaio P microsata-to-ZIF adapter



Also there are benchmarks on the above link: Samsung 64GB SLC SSD in an X301 versus a P-series Sony with SATA-to-PATA adapter.. there is a performance drop off on the Sony. 94MB/s versus 68MB/s. Works at 60-70% of it's original SATA speed when using the adapter.

MTRON 3000 ZIF 100/100 benchmarks at 81/34 as seen here. Runcore ZIF PATA does 63/63 as seen here.

I am requesting a price from Sony parts <[email protected]> but they need a model number other than Sony Vaio P series??

 

So I finally just bit the bullet and bought a 64GB ZIF SSD off of ebay. It's made by a Chinese company (KingSpec) and looks to have decent read/write speeds.

It was $285, but ebay/Live is offering 14% cashback on all buy-it-now purchases, so it came out to about $245. I'll let everybody know my experiences once I get the drive installed.

If I post in a different (more appropriate thread), I'll provide the link.

 

NOTE: About power consumption of SATA-to-PATA bridge chips

I've measured a newmodeus.com optical bay caddy with such a chip on it to consume 0.8W of power, regardless of if the HDD attached to it is spun up or not. While I cannot say what the chip on their caddy is as it's blacked out and would not disclose that information. Might be a SunPlus SPIF223A or Jmicron JM20330 based on chip placement. This may be a dealbreaker for some.

I do not know if the design of the chip allows it to go into a low power standby and it's just being run in a less than efficient way? Also, there are other bridge chips: Marvell 88SA8040, the other noted JMicron JM20330/ Sunplus SPIF223A, Acard which may be more efficient. Marvel 88SA8040 ultrabay adapter found to add 1W of overhead here.

More details here and summarised here if interested.

 

Any luck in tracking down that part from the VAIO P? As for the model number, you can just list any of the models that come with SSD.

 

I contacted the US Sony Parts Center by phone just now, and came back with this info. I gave them a VAIO P 128GB SSD version model number to make sure I get the correct part. According to them, the VAIO P adapter part we need is 185721811, price $35.98. The description of this part number on the site is "PWB, FPC-163 FLEXIBLE PRINT". It's currently on backorder, and will take 2-3 weeks to ship. I ordered it, so I hope it's really the correct cable! I'd better not get another ZIF adapter in the mail...

 

I assume you wish to use this adapter in a non-Sony unit. How do you intent to adapt the Sony specific connector on the ZIF side? It's some sort of proprietory connector. $35US is otherwise a good price, and presumably uses top-notch bridge chip to minimize power consumption.

 

Forgot to mention that I am indeed using it my VAIO P Series unit. I would say this cable couldn't be used in any other machine since it's custom-designed for the Sony.

 

anyone here has a working solution for converting that proprietary connector to zif?

 

is that possible to combine those P sata adaptor and zif cable together to be a microsata to zif adaptor?

 

Hello everyone,

I'm having a problem with my Dell Latitude Xt and such an adapter. The contacts on the zif cable are on the wrong side. Has anyone an idea? Does anyone know, where if there is an replacement cable with the contacts on both sides?

 

I guess you mean this adapter here (image from a previous post) :




As you can see, there are 2 cables. That's because there are 2 different types of zif connection for hdd's, the one that toshiba uses and the one used by hitachi. The difference is just the orientation of end-to-end connections, the one needs to be upside down, while the other is normal (both connections from one side of the cable on both ends).

You obviously need the other type of what you've got. I guess that you can easily find a pair of cables (both types) on ebay, if you're lucky enough and can identify which type you've got and which type you need maybe you can find one cable on it's own for less than 2€....

 

Can anyone comment on this adapter below?

""
2.5" SATA Hard Drive to IDE 44 Pin Adapter For Laptop Drives
http://www.cooldrives.com/2sahadrtoide.html
""

I have a Dell M140 and was really hoping to get a SATA SSD for this laptop.



F.

 

HDD concentric answer here. There are two performance benchmarks showing SATA SSD's performance using sata-to-pata bridge chips:

• Samsung 90/70 MLC and 100/80 SLC SSD using Sony sata-to-pata adapter
• SATA Mtron SLC 3500 100/100 SSD using a Marvell based SATA-to-PATA adapter (Lenovo Ultrabay)

Note: 1W overhead by sata-to-pata bridge chip used in Ultrabay adapter in above test as shown here. newmodeus' sata-to-pata bridge chip consumes 0.8W as shown here.

From the above it would seem the Sony sata-to-pata adapter is a lower performer than the newmodeus or Marvell based sata-to-pata bridge chips. I do not know what the newmodeus chip is as it's blacked out and they won't disclose that information. Based on it's chip placement resembling the dealextreme adapters, it's likely to be a Jmicron or Sunplus sata-to-pata chip.

Summary: Yes, the sata-to-pata bridge chips with a matched Samsung 90/70 or 100/80 or even the Mtron mobi 120/80 would work comparably well, offering similar performance to native PATA (ZIF) offerings here.

 

Any updates, maybe?

 

1.8" ZIF SSD products

• Comparison of current 1.8" ZIF SSDs' performance <- includes popular SATA SSDs using a sata-to-pata bridge
  
• Benchmarks of a competitor to the Mtron Mobi: The Indilinx-equipped 1.8" Photofast G-Monster V3 ZIF

Photofast V3 is using much of the bandwidth provided by the PATA interface. Great performer. 14kb/s 4KB writes. First link above shows likely performance if you did create a DIY sata-to-pata adapter and used it with a Intel/Samsung 1.8" SSD.

New!! A Dell ZIF to SATA adapter Updated first post of this thread incorporating pics/info about it.

 

Hi,

I need to work on DIY for micro sata to zif converter which may fit into 1.8 ZIF toshiba HDD. (SONY UX280P)

As you can see from 1st photo, Samsung 128 micro SATA 1.8 " thin SSD is 5mm longer than toshiba 1.8 HDD.

Is it OK to cut off micro SATA male portion of 2nd photo so that Samsung SSD may fit into space worked for 1.8" toshiba HDD? (I will solder directly like 2nd photo)



Worrying about ruinning Samsung thin SSD by cutting off some portion of PCB

 

You do realize that your pic of your Samsung SSD has a detachable microsata plug in it that extends it further?

Firstly - great if you got a DIY solution. Can you post a pic of the resultant DIY microsata-to-ZIF adapter? Also, have you plumbed it together in a makeshift way to see if it works *before* fitting it in the chassis? A shame the 1.8" Samsung SSD is *slightly* longer than 1.8" ZIF HDD requiring circumcising the male tip to make it fit into your snug chassis. These boards tend to be multilayers sandwiched on top of each other. Only real way to know if your proposed cutting would damage it would be:

1/ Ask Samsung if it's OK
2/ Do it and hope for the best. Likely not using that part of the circuit for anything other than perhaps an outer ground track and the lines running to the microsata connector.

If you decice to cut it I *hope* you are using equipment that doesn't tear, bend, shear or crack the circuitboard to damage it AND you put insulating tape/cellophone over the exposed cut layer to prevent shorting.

 

Samsung mini pci-e SSD (with onboard SATA controller) just announced

64B Samsung mini-pci-e SSD with onboard SATA controller (200MB/s read, 100MB/s write)



This is not like the netbook mini pci-e SSDs. This one has an onboard SATA controller so can plug it into the mini pci-e slot on a normal notebook. Means can keep the 1.8" ZIF HDD and optical drive intact, and put that unused mini pci-e card to good use. Claims you to give 3.0GBps SATA SSD performance, even though mini pci-e is rated at 2.5gbps (250MB/s). Any which way you look at it, it's better than ATA100/UDMA5 ~87MB/s.

It uses a Samsung RB controller so likely to have similar performance to 64GB 2.5" equivalent with same controller shown here. A lifeline too for 1.8"-only ZIF systems.. Question is when and how much? They say testing is to be finalised Q3 2009.