*HP 2510p Owners Lounge*

kryptex,

thanks for your hints.
i do not have the JM20330 in my 2510p, i have it bought as a single pata to sata converter. so no confusion for me with any caddys.
but as you posted so much links and wrote TRIM is working for you i searched (as it was not working here for my bridge) and found out that my ssd has SLC (yeah, it is also MIL-STD-810F ) and therefore I need not lose any other mind on TRIM.

>>>Cyber

 

Hi guys,

I am pleased to say I am new to the 2510p club and not as technically minded.
Reading through the thread its pretty confusing as I cannot tell if most of the items are referring to the 1.8inch bay or the optical.

I am basically looking to keep the obtical drive as it is and place a hdd in the 1.8inch bay. (as the 2510p is due to arrive without a hdd)

Is there a way of fitting a sata drive in the 1.8inch bay through some means of conversion? I havent quite decided if im going down the ssd or mecanical route, but will be on a budget and looking to get at least 80gb or would i just be better off with a slow 4200 drive?

Any help would be much appreciated

 

Hi,

I've been having the same questions as you do, but now I'm definitely inclined toward an SSD in the 1.8" bay. Huge difference compared to any mechanical drive !

Speaking of costs, you have the following solutions at the moment:

1. If you buy a 80 GB Toshiba ZIF HDD for the 1.8" bay, it will cost you around 40 euros. It WILL be very slow. I don't recommend it.

2. You can buy an mSATA to ZIF adapter (for 3.3V mSATA SSDs), like this one:
50mm New 1 8" CE ZIF PATA SSD Convert Adapter for PCI E mSATA SSD 3 3V | eBay

and a Samsung PM810 64GB mSATA SSD (make sure the firmware is at least AXM18x1Q), as this one:
Samsung Dell 64GB SSD mSATA PCI E SSD Hard Drive MZMPA064HMDR 000D1 | eBay

or a Toshiba 64 GB mSATA SSD (which is quite a bit slower than the Samsung):
Toshiba 64GB PCI E mSATA SSD Solid State Hard Drive THNSNB064GMCJ | eBay

This mSATA solution will cost about 65 euros. If you want a 128 GB mSATA, it will cost almost double (about 115 euros).
In any case, stick to mSATA drives from Samsung, Toshiba or *maybe* to SandForce-based (Renice X3, OCZ Nocti) or *maybe* Marvell-based Crucial M4 mSATA.

Do not buy the Intel 310 or KingSpec (cheap chinese brand) or Indilinx-based mSATA SSDs. You will have problems due to incompatibilities with the JM20330 chipset on the mSATA-ZIF adapter.

3. Buy a 9.5mm SATA to PATA optical bay caddy (make sure to be Marvell-based, and not Sunplus) and put a regular 2.5" SSD in it. For a 120-128 GB SSD, this solution will cost around 65 euros.
If you still want to use the removed DVD drive, buy an external USB caddy for it (10 euros).

Hope this helps.
PS: I went with solution #2 (Samsung 64GB mSATA SSD) and the 2510p is rock solid for the past 10 days or so in both Win XP and 7 (TRIM enabled). If I need more storage capacity, I have 3 choices:
a) connect external USB 2.0 HDD (30/20 MB/s read/writes)
b) connect external eSATA HDD via a PCMCIA eSATA adapter (80/20 MB/s read/writes for SiI3112/SiI3512 chipset)
c) swap the DVD drive with a 9.5mm caddy + up to 1 TB 2.5" SATA HDD (the caddy needs to be set to Slave, a hardware mod is necessary for a Marvell-based caddy)

 

I recommend a ZIF SSD.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...87-hp-2510p-owners-lounge-99.html#post8773545
I have posted there screenshots of two different ZIF SSDs, in comparison with KrypteX's values the 64GB SSD is not much slower (the 64GB variant of KingSpec should also have compareable values as the 64GB Renice SSD) but cheaper and no need for tinkering - it's plug and play.

>>>Cyber

 

There are a lot of reliability issues with KingSpec, I don't recommend it.
The 4K writes of the ZIF SSDs are abysmal. 0.5-2 MB/s is equivalent to the 4K performance of a 2.5 HDD. Also, the price of the 64 GB KingSpec is excessive (>65 euros). So no, thanks.

At one point I had an older Samsung PM800 64 GB 1.8 microSATA in a Toshiba A200, directly on SATA and it could do < 5 MB/s 4K writes. I can tell you I felt a big difference in multitasking when swapped it with a more recent SandForce 2281-based SSD (50-100 MB/s 4K writes).

I think we should pay attention to get an SSD with 4K reads/writes above 10 MB/s, if possible. And you won't get that kind of performance in a ZIF SSD for an attractive price.

There is no "tinkering" with the mSATA-ZIF adapter. Just fit the mSATA SSD in the slot, fix it down with 2 screws to the adapter, and then connect the adapter to the HP2510p's ZIF connector. I also added some sponge sheet (3mm thick) above and below the adapter+SSD to keep it fixed in the 1.8" bay. It is secure. That's all.
The only downside is that you have to wait about 2-3 weeks for the adapter and mSATA SSD to arrive from China...

 

That is some amazing advice guys.
Think im going to go down the msata route.

Do you think this one would work with the connector?
Renice X3 mSATA 120GB Sandforce 1.8 inch SSD (NEW) 0609728783853 | eBay

if not then i'll order the order the samsung one.

 

my kingspec is running flawless since month now ... but you are right a better 4k write would be great

 

mobid,

The Renice X3 is SandForce SF1222-based, the same as the one on OCZ Vertex 2. The Vertex 2 drives had relatively high number of issues (BSOD, dissappearing etc) until the firmware was tweaked later on...
Now, Renice provides a firmware update for X3 here:
Renice Technology | Solid State Drive SSD

You can read nando's review here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...1-renice-x3-sf1222-msata-ssd-user-review.html
The Renice X3 has very strong performance. It will saturate the ZIF interface, for sure.

I've checked to see if SF1222 and JM20330 play along well, unfortunately haven't found any info. So you might be the first trying a JM20330 with a SandForce-based SSD. It is entirely your choice. Depends on the final price after all. Remember that you can buy a 128 GB Marvell-based Crucial M4 mSATA for about 100 euros. Or Samsung PM810 128 GB for a bit more.

At the moment I have no detailed info on the following controllers in combination with JM20330:
SandForce SF1222 (Renice X3)
SandForce SF2181 (OCZ Nocti)
Marvell (Crucial M4, LiteOn, Plextor)
Phison (Kingston sm100)
Samsung PM830 mSATA

It's up to you guys to test them out

PS: I almost forgot ! NEVER EVER try to update the firmware of an SSD through the mSATA-ZIF bridge. On the thinkpad forums someone broke the JM20330 bridge chip by doing so.
Firmwares should be updated with the mSATA connected directly to an mSATA port in a machine which has such a thing, or by using an mSATA to SATA 2.5" adapter and connect on a native SATA port.

 

OCZ has had a long history of quality issues , irrespective of the controller

 

True, but the issues where much more prevalent with the 2nd gen drives (Vertex 2). The 3rd gen Vertex 3 are quite OK since they sorted out the firmware problems sometimes at the end of last year. At this point, firmware 2.22 and 2.25 for these drives (including OCZ Nocti, which is a 3rd gen SSD) work fairly well, without major issues.
I'm not pro-OCZ, I just wanted to point out that the long history of quality issues does not translate to present times anymore.

 

I've just ordered a 120 GB OCZ Nocti mSATA SSD to replace the 64 GB Samsung PM810 in the mSATA-ZIF adapter.
I'll post some benchmarks as soon as it arrives. The 4K performance of the Nocti should double over the Samsung, since it's the new generation SandForce SF2181 controller.

Also, I'm planning to update the firmware to the latest 2.25 (the same as the firmware for Vertex 3), which solves lots of BSOD and recognition problems.

I just have to find an mSATA to SATA adapter or a machine with native mSATA connector. Desktops with mSATA are quite rare and laptops even more so.... oh well...

 

I'd like to use the 2510p overclocking toolkit, but I can't access the mediafire link provided in this thread.

Anyone who has this file, please give me a link to download:
2510P-OC-Toolkit-1c.exe

Thanks !

 

I want this link too
Performance Kit! ^^

I flashed the F.10 (268) Bios and tried SetFSB but it jsut reverts back ;-(

if i haven't done anything else how can i unlock the pll for overclocking? the bios mod seems to be not enought right?

 

The clock generator in SetFSB for HP 2510p must be set to:
ICS 9LPRS355BGLF PLL

Before doing software overclocking be aware of (text copied over here from nando4's explanations) :

"1. You need to jumper pin1+2 in the debug port to prevent the PLL freezing after a resume from standby/hiberate.

2. A warm reboot partially resets the PLL where it sets the pci/pci-e bus to operate at 40/120Mhz. The wifi card does not like to operate at that speed so often will not register on the pci-e bus then. You'd need to cold boot to get the PLL back to stock 33/100Mhz where wifi works fine.

The above hiccups do not occur if you simply do a hardware mod to overclock the PLL from 133Mhz to 166Mhz (166Mhz_bclk). Every single U7600 2510P I've worked with could operate at 166Mhz without any problems. A U7700 has an extra multiplier with the last one I tested being able to only go up to 160Mhz. Please also flash your RAM module's 266Mhz SPDTable entry to be CAS=5 (5-4-4-12) using SPDTool or Thaiphoon Burner to ensure RAM is stable if doing any software or hardware overclocking from 133 to 166Mhz (or more)."

-------------- What I did to OC the HP 2510p is this:
Jumpered/connected pin1+2 in the debug port to prevent the PLL freezing when resuming from standby (this is not mandatory)
Set clock generator in SetFSB to ICS 9LPRS355BGLF PLL
In SetFSB click on Get FSB. Then set FSB to 160 MHz in SetFSB. I use only the first slider.
In ThrottleStop set Multiplier to 10.
You'll get stable 1.6 GHz.

Of course, the OC tookit would simplify things a lot !

 

Right I have ended up ordering the Crucial M4 msata 128GB for £70

Currently awaiting delivery for both the msata to ZIF adaptor and the Crucial drive
I hope it Works! I shall keep you guys posted when they arrive.

PS. would I need to update the motherboard firmware for it to work well?

 

Nice !
We will soon be able to check the compatibility of a SandForce (me) and a Marvell-based SSD (you) with the JM20330 SATA-PATA bridge

Yes, update the motherboard to the modded BIOS F.10 from nando4, found here:
http://www.freefilehosting.net/2510p-f10-sp52914-slic21-nowhitelist-dualida-fan40pct
Do NOT update to the F.20 or F.30 BIOS found on the HP site. You will not be able to go back to previous versions and you will lose whitelist/dual-ida/40%fan capabilities modded in F.10

I first installed the mSATA-ZIF adapter the wrong way. It should be connected to the ZIF connector as follows:
Turn the laptop upside down. Remove the mains and battery. Remove the 1.8" HDD.The adapter should be positioned with the flat side on the black plastic at the bottom of the laptop. The mSATA SSD connects on top; it is visible, facing towards you. So when you open up the 1.8" bay cover, you should see the SSD.

After installing the mSATA-ZIF adapter + mSATA SSD load BIOS defaults and save the changes in BIOS.
Then install your OS (the partitions should be 4K aligned).

In case you want to update the mSATA SSD firmware, do not do it through the JM20330 bridge.

Also, for the Crucial M4 mSATA, DO NOT install any version newer than 000F. You might have serious problems with the 010G and especially with the 01MG firmware, as documented here for 010G:
http://thessdreview.com/Forums/crucial/2830.htm
and for 01MG here:
Crucial M4 MSata 01MG Firmware - ISSUES - Crucial Community
here
m4 mSATA - cannot downgrade 01MG to 000F - Crucial Community
and here
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Serie...test-firmware-update-in-your-x220t/m-p/918061

I hope you will not receive a 01MG firmware. Ideal would be to get the 000F or 010G, which seemingly can be flashed back to 000F. Anyway, if 01MG, there's no going back to 000F.

PS: Might I ask where did you buy the Crucial 128 for 70 GBP ? Including shipping? It's quite cheap. The OCZ Nocti 120 GB I ordered did cost 80 euros, shipping included, but it is only 120 GB and SATA II. The Crucial is faster, has SATA III... not that it counts in the 2510p...

 

Hello everyone,

I am new to this forum but have been reading through most of the more recent pages in this thread.

I recently bought the following off eBay:

- 4 GB of RAM: 4GB RAM Memory for HP-Compaq Business Notebook 2510p (DDR2-5300) | eBay
- Toshiba 2.5" 1TB disk: BRAND NEW TOSHIBA MQ01ABD100 1TB 2.5" SATA II 5400RPM 8MB CACHE 9.5mm High HDD | eBay
- Serial ATA (SATA?) caddy: New Slim 9.5mm SATA 2nd HDD Hard Drive Caddy for HP Compaq MultiBay 2510p nc2400 | eBay

Whether the caddy has a Marvell chip I have no idea. Where is the chip located?

The problem I have is that my 2510p does not recognize any of the disks (1.8" nor 2.5") when I have the caddy installed. When going into F10 System Configuration the "HDD" option is greyed out.

When I boot, I get the following error message:

Initializing and establish link...
PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable.
PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel Boot Agent

"Non-System disk or disk error
replace and strike any key when ready"

The only way I can get to the 1.8" disk is by booting using an external USB CD-ROM drive, a Windows 7 disk, go into Repair, Command Line and then I can see the 1.8" disk - but never the 2.5".

I really had been looking forward to an easy 1TB upgrade, but I just can't get it to work.

Any ideas? I hope I can get it to work without soldering and modifications...

Thanks!
Lars

 

Hello and welcome to the Lounge !

First of all, the Toshiba HDD and the memory are quite good, but they were a bit expensive, I think.
Anyway, I'll simplify things for you (I hope):

Regarding the 2 drives not being recognized... It's because the 2510p accepts either a single Master drive, or 2 drives with one being Master and the other Slave.
The initial setup is a Toshiba ZIF drive in the 1.8" bay, set as Master + a Slave optical drive.
The issue is that the HDD caddies you buy off ebay are set as Master by default (doesn't matter if it's a Sunplus or Marvell chip inside).
A Master ZIF drive + a Master caddy will NOT work. You need to set one of them to Slave. Or simply remove the 1.8" ZIF drive and leave only the caddy with the Toshiba 1TB drive. It should work.

If you want both drives, you have 2 solutions:
1. Set the 1.8" ZIF drive to Slave by connecting Pin 1 and 2, as you can read here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...887-hp-2510p-owners-lounge-6.html#post4704922

2. Set the optical bay caddy to Slave. Only works on Marvell-based caddies, by doing a bit of soldering, see here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...87-hp-2510p-owners-lounge-93.html#post8702076

You have a Sunplus-based caddy, as far as I can tell. You can't set it to Slave. Here I took some pictures of the disassembled Sunplus caddy:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...7-hp-2510p-owners-lounge-102.html#post8858453
Read here my previous post regarding the different caddies out there:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...7-hp-2510p-owners-lounge-103.html#post8861992

I would buy the following one. It's a Marvell caddy. You will need to do the soldering to set it to Slave:
New SATA 2nd HDD Caddy for 9 5mm Acer BenQ HP Dell Asus | eBay

Finally, I believe you would like to run your OS from the Toshiba 1 TB drive ? Then the easiest way is to set the 1.8" ZIF drive to Slave, or to remove it entirely. After all... it's only a small 80 GB, slow drive...

Tell us how it went.

 

KrypteX - you are a legend!!
I shall let you know what happens when the drive and connector arrives.

The Drive I bought was from a site called WAE+ - never ordered from there before - hope it turns up ok.
CRUCIAL MSATA M4 - Solid State Drive - 128 GB - WAE+

 

I have just received the OCZ Nocti 120 GB mSATA SSD for my 2510p (firmware 2.15). It's amazing how a powerful SandForce controller can fit along with 4 NAND chips on this small PCB :thumbsup:

I will not update to firmware 2.22 or 2.25, the OCZ forum is full of reports of BSOD and freezes for these newer firmwares... I'll probably wait for 2.27.
I'm installing XP_x32 and 7_x64 now and do some benches. I'll post results soon !

 

I've done some tests under XP and Win7. The OCZ Nocti works flawlessly with the JM20330 mSATA-ZIF bridge. TRIM and Secure Erase work without any problems.

Here are the benchmarks for the OCZ Nocti mSATA SSD 120 GB (FW 2.15), under Win7Ultimate_SP1_x64, stock settings (BIOS F.10, 1.2 GHz, no overclocking, chipset drivers 9.3.0.1026)



I was hoping for better 4K and sequential read performance from such a drive, compared to the relatively old 64 GB Samsung PM810... Maybe it's time for a new firmware ?

It seems that the JM20330 bridge is the bottleneck here. Also, the Nocti uses the SF-2181 controller (3.0 Gbps, 4 channels ?), compared to a Vertex 3, which uses SF-2281 (6.0 Gbps, 8 channels).
Anyhow, I'm looking forward to see some Crucial M4 mSATA benchmarks... It's a 6.0 Gbps drive and probably 8 channels.... it should be faster than the Nocti.

 

Is the Marvell chipped caddy better than the Sunplus chipped? If so, why? How do you know which is which?

Keep up the good work KrypteX!

 

Please read these posts:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...e-using-optical-bay-caddy-47.html#post7912442
and
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...87-hp-2510p-owners-lounge-32.html#post5610170
and
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...87-hp-2510p-owners-lounge-17.html#post5100530
and
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...887-hp-2510p-owners-lounge-3.html#post4550480
and
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...887-hp-2510p-owners-lounge-6.html#post4706023
and
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...7-hp-2510p-owners-lounge-102.html#post8858453

The newmodeus caddy you've read in some of these posts is a modified Sunplus caddy. It has jumpers for Slave, etc, but it is quite expensive.

I tried to make a list of the optical caddies out there, please read my previous post here (you'll understand which is which):
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...7-hp-2510p-owners-lounge-103.html#post8861992
I am sure that type 1 is Sunplus. Type 2 and 4 are Marvell based, most probably. Type 3 it's the older(?) Marvell based... not sure about this, though.

The Marvell is better than Sunplus because:
1. faster
2. can be modded to Slave
3. passes TRIM command if you put an SSD inside
4. allegedly gives no BSOD on sleep/standby
5. has a drive activity LED
6. no 30 sec hangs (?)

Hope this answers your questions.

 

Hello KrypteX,

Fantastic - and very helpful information!

Since I wish to keep both drives (to be able to back up between the two), and it looks like I will need a Marvell caddy, I have now contacted the eBay seller you suggested. However, he doesn't ship to the UK where I am based. But after having contacted him, we worked it out anyway, and the caddy is now on its way.

I will let you know how I get on. Thanks again!

On a different note, have any of you tried the 2510p with Windows 8? What has your experience been? And if so, did you upgrade or do a clean install from Windows 7?

Thanks,
Lars

 

Lars,

Could you please disassemble the caddy as soon as you receive it (you only need to take off 5 screws) and take a few close-ups and put them here ? Just to show people a real recent SATA-PATA Marvell chipset (I strongly hope it WILL be a Marvell !) You should also see a LED connected to the PCB via wires.

If you want to use both drives, I suppose you are are planning to set the 1.8" ZIF drive to slave (connecting pin 1+2), am I right ?

 

I am also interested in this!

 

Which version of setFSB can be used to overclock?
I tried it several times, and yes i do have the modbios...

is there anything to be set in the PLL registers? i still remember beeing able to overclock some time ago but i have deleted the files ;-(

 

The official setFSB site is this:
SetFSB_HomePage
and you will need the latest *freeware* version 2.2.134.98 from here
www13.plala.or.jp/setfsb/download/ver22/setfsb_2_2_134_98.zip

In setFSB you will need to change to PLL Clock Generator ICS9LPRS355BGLF, then GetFSB and SetFSB to maximum 160/320/100/33 MHz (you only need to move the upper slider from 133 to 160 MHz).

Also, do the hardware mod (connect pin 1 and 2 in the debug port found in the 1.8" bay) in order to not have resume problems.

The multiplier can also be set from 9 to 10 with Throttlestop.

 

Will do! - my plan was to run the 1.8" ZIF drive as master, at least initially, since I have the OS and everything installed there. But then afterwards/later change so it become slave...

Wrt my other question, do any of you have experience with Windows 8 on the 2510p?

Thanks,
Lars

 

Nope, won't go there !

 

Have to report oc does not work :-(
It always reverts back to the old values even with the mod bios...

Are there different revisions of the mainboard?

 

Run setFSB as Administrator if you are using Windows 7 (right click on the program and run as administrator)

setFSB should be started the first thing after entering Windows.Don't forget to set the PLL to the correct one (read the readme file in setFSB and search for the PLL corresponding to 2510p)

For example, if I start Windows, then VLC to watch a movie and only then setFSB, it doesn't keep the OC'ed values.

 

Hi Guys,

Right...so i have got both the drive and the adaptor.

But I have issues...

The drive Crucial M4 mSATA came with the 01MG firmware - so not a great start.
The firmware is old F.0 on the laptop.

Inserted the drive with the SSD facing up as advised.
Set BIOS to default

However upon first boot - the drive was not recognised on windows setup.
Incase I hadnt inserted the ribbon cable correctly I pushed this in a little further a couple of times and the drive did show up eventually on setup however I had to push the cable in with a little pressure - (if i let go it would not be recognised).

So initial thoughts are that the ribbon is faulty or I have not inserted correctly.
So double checked -
lifted black flap - inserted ribbon firmly - pressed flap back down

but the drive is not recognised at all now

So not sure where to go from here

I guess the easiest thing to do is order another ribbon cable connector from ebay and try again.

Any thoughts?

 

mobid,

I forgot to tell you about the black flap and how to insert the cable.
First, make sure to take off the ZIF brown connector from the motherboard (unscrew those 2 screws).
Then, make sure that its end is clean and it's not damaged in any way (use a magnifier glass to check the connector lines).
Flip up the black plastic on the mSATA-ZIF adapter you reveived. Check not to have any dirt below or inside that very thin female connector.

Insert the brown ZIF connector (correctly) in the adapter. It should enter fairly easily. The white line drawn on the bottom of the brown ZIF cable should align (almost) with the edge of the mSATA-ZIF adapter.
By keeping the cable firmly secured, flip the black plastic down. You can use a flat screwdriver for that. Be careful not to scratch the surface/wires, etc.

Insert the mSATA SSD in the mSATA-ZIF adapter.

Take the whole thing and connect onto the motherboard + firmly put back the 2 screws.

Put some electric isolation (such as plastic or sponge) below and above this whole adapter+SSD. Be careful not to shortcircuit something, check twice. There are plenty of possibilities to have a short somewhere.

Hope this helps.
Regards.

 

Also,

It might be the 01MG firmware which doesn't allow BIOS recognition.
In the links I sent you before, it seems that the SSD with this firmware is not recognized sometimes.

Start the computer. Wait 10-20 minute in BIOS. Then save BIOS and let the windows installation begin. The SSD might need time to be recognized (yes, I know, very very strange. It is a 01MG firmware problem).

If not recognized, just be calm and patient. Start the computer and press Pause on the keyboard. Wait 10-20 minutes. Maybe it will be recognized.

Also, read all those threads on Crucial M4 with 01MG. People are experiencing serious problems...

 

mobid, you can also write me a Private Message. I would try to help you, if I can. I'll check this thread very often.

You can also read this thread in order to find a solution:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2275790

 

04MH firmware is coming in mid December for the Crucial M4 mSATA:
Crucial m4 SSD 040H/04MH firmware update coming so... - Crucial Community

 

Hi!

A week ago I got a 2510p for free from my company, because they did not need it anymore. I mainly using desktop pc for demanding applications, but for surfing the net, this is enough for me.
My question is also about SSD upgrade. I don't want to be seen as a lazy guy, so I've read back some pages here.
Still, I'm bit confused, and I hope you can help.
If I understand correctly, I have two options for upgrade:
- use zif ssd drive in the place of the 1.8" hdd
- remove dvd and use a caddy

I"d like to remove the hdd completely, and use the SSD only, if this is possible.
However, I'm not sure which type of caddy is recommended (as I ready, several times one with a marvin chipset was mentioned). Can you give a link to the specific type?
Also, if I have this caddy, can I use any type of sata ssd, or there is also a recommendation?

And finally, is could you give me an estimation in speed improvement? (eg boot up time) Obviously, my fresh desktop pc has a huge improvement with ssd, but I am not so sure about this notebook.

Thanks!
dudee

 

If you want to get rid of the 1.8" hdd completely and you don't need an optical drive, then you have a simple solution:

1. Buy a Marvell-based 9.5 mm thick SATA to PATA caddy, such as this one:
New SATA 2nd HDD Caddy for 9 5mm Acer BenQ HP Dell Asus | eBay

The Marvell chipset in this caddy passes TRIM correctly for SSDs, as oposed to Sunplus chipset caddies.

2. Buy a standard 2.5" SATA SSD to add in the caddy. The speed will be great, you will see real SSD speeds (in booting, starting programs, etc), similarly to your desktop machine using an SSD. You will be limited by the processor speed (1.2 GHz), but you can overclock easily to 1.6 GHz.
Keep in mind that it's the 4K read/write performance that counts in a SSD. Regarding sequential speeds, you will be limited at approximately 80/65 MB/s read/writes by the Marvell SATA-PATA bridge found in the caddy.

I recommend one of the following SSDs (120-256 GB range):
SanDisk Extreme
Corsair Force GS or GT
Intel 330 or 335 or 520 or X25-M G2 (not 320, it has serious problems with 8 MB bricking)
Kingston HyperX
Crucial M4 (with firmware 000F or older, but NOT firmware 010G)
Samsung 830 (not 840, which has issues)
Samsung 470 (or PM810)
OCZ Vertex 3 (I don't really recommend this ... you may experience BSODs)
OCZ Vertex 4
OCZ Vector (if you can find one and if you are kinda rich )

My personal favourite, after testing tens of different SSDs is Corsair Force GS.
If you care about power consumption, then definintely go with Intel 335 or the Samsung 830/470. Note that Crucial M4 has the highest power consumption when idle.

Keep us posted and best of luck

PS: Don't forget to update the SSD firmware if needed (NOT in the caddy, but directly in your desktop computer connected to a native SATA port) and the 2510p BIOS (version F.10, you'll see a link a few posts back. Don't update to BIOS F.20 or F.30 from the official HP site).

 

Thank you KrypteX for the detailed answer! It helped a lot.
About power consumption: how high/low an SDD's power consumption (lets pick an average one) compared to the 1.8" hdd? I'd assume it is lower because of the motor in hdd, but I am not so sure.

Thanks again!
Gabor

 

You seem to be quite well informed in SSDs. Do you have also recommendation for lower capacity ones?
I'd install linux on it, that is 1.5-2GB with a quite complete install, and I would mainly use the notebook for simple stuffs, and for surfing.
So I suppose I would be happy with a 60GB, or maybe stg in between 60 and 120.

Thanks!

 

The power consumption of an SSD is about 0.5 W when idle for SandForce-based ones and lower (about 0.1 W) for Samsung SSDs. The active power consumption is around 1-3 W (depending on the max speed, etc).
A HDD consumes about 1-2 W in average (even when idling). So yes, SSDs consume less. About half.

Regarding lower capacity drives (60-90 GB), I would recommend:
Intel X25-M G2 80 GB - this would suit you very well, fast and reliable.
Samsung 830 64GB - very low idle power consumption. Fast drive. Reliable.
Samsung 470 64GB (or PM810 64GB) - fast, reliable, low power consumption.
Crucial M4 64GB - fast drive, but a bit high idle power consumption.
Vertex 3 or Vertex 2 60GB - SandForce based, a bit slow compared to the rest. Might get BSODs...

If you go the Intel X25-M route (I had the 80 GB and 160 GB versions of this drive once, good ones), be careful not to buy the G1 version. It doesn't support TRIM. G2 is OK.
Also, don't buy Intel 320.

There is, however in issue here. The price of a 60-80 GB SSD is almost on par with that for a 120-128 GB one, but quite a bit slower. You might be able to find a good deal on ebay, for example, for a 120-128 drive, around $70 = 55 euros.
A 60-64 GB drive is around $50 = 40 euros...

If you find something worthwhile and hesitate to pull the trigger, just drop a line and ask. I'll be glad to help out.

 

Thank you! I will take a look around, and see what I find.
At my workplace I'm using 2540p every day, and it is very nice piece of equipment, and even though the 2510p is retired now, I think it is equally well built-up. I think it is worth to spend some money on it.

 

And of course, I've found a quite good deal for the Samsung 840
Do you know more about this 'issue'? I've read stg about bad pre-production firmware, but the new ones are shipped with an update.

 

The issue with 840 is that several of them died without notice. And the new firmware has a bug, doesn't count NAND writes correctly. It gets stuck at 2 TB. If it's a *very* good deal, then you can go with it. It's as fast as Samsung 830...

I'll copy-paste from a newegg customer:

"Pros: Probably one of best performance SSD in the market with some exception.

Cons: 1. Performance drop is big if you fill up data a lot. This problem can be mitigate if you have Trim, but there are some people who cannot do Trim (Raid, or not window 7, or guy who don't know setup AHCI mode ) or someone who don't want to rely on Trim too much.
2. Other Thoughts: Anandtech reports their 840 pro was prematurely dead; they got replacement, and dead again.

Also, in the forum, they mention there are someone who gets 4 premature dead non-pro 840 in HardOCP as well.

With this level of reliability, I simply cannot recommend 840/840 pro.

Personally, I believe reliability > performance in SSD market

Too bad I was tempted by AC III code, and already used Assasin's creed III promo-code; I cannot return it.

Before Samsung mention/fix the problem, don't buy this. I don't think it will be a wise decision."

Just go with something else, even if it's $5-10 more expensive.
I would personally go with a cheap Samsung 470 or 830. Or Intel X25-M G2 80 GB (can't you find one of these on eBay very cheaply ?). Or even an Intel 330 or Vertex 2/3. I'd stay away from Crucial if low power consumption is important. Otherwise, Crucial is reliable and fast (C300 or M4 models).

I'll keep this for last: My personal favorite: Corsair Force GS (SandForce + Toggle NAND). But only for 120 GB or higher capacities

 

Is it confirmed that this caddy is using the Marvell chip?
New SATA 2nd HDD Caddy for 9 5mm Acer BenQ HP Dell Asus | eBay

 

I know someone who bought it about 1 month ago, it was Marvell. Don't know if it stays the same though... These chinese ebay sellers can change things without notice...

 

long time lurker here. I bought the newmodus pata-sata caddy and also an ebay one (marvell). I could not get the ebay one to work at all, even tried the solder trick. The newmodus one would only work if there was a master drive connected to the zif. In the end i got a zif-msata adapter and am using it with a liteon 256gb m3m msata ssd. All works fine. I also got a msata-ide adapter from microsatacables.com and use it in my nc4200 with a toshiba 128gb msata ssd. It too has the jmicron bridge chip. One thing to note, make sure to turn off "power down hdd" in the power options. My nc4200 crashed and said no disk found. Since turning the power saving off for hdd, it seems more stable.

 

FarQ, I have a few questions, if you don't mind:

1. Can you point us toward the eBay link from which you bought the Marvell-based caddy, please ?

2. Did you try the ebay caddy alone (master), without any drive in the 1.8" bay ? What BIOS version do you have ?

3. When you used the ZIF-MSATA adapter in the 1.8", what drive did you put in the optical bay ? Which one was set to master ?

4. Are you using the LiteOn M3M 256 GB mSATA SSD with TRIM enabled under Win 7 ?
You can check if you have TRIM enabled with the following command in cmd (Run as administrator):
fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify
If the return is 0, TRIM is enabled. If it's 1, TRIM is disabled.
Did you try to delete large files with TRIM enabled in Win 7 ? (about 1 GB in size) Do you get any freezes ?

5. What is your LiteOn firmware version ?

Thanks a lot !

 

As you already know, I have had success with an OCZ Nocti 120 GB mSATA SSD (firmware 2.15) + mSATA-ZIF adapter, both under Win XP and Win 7, with TRIM functioning correctly.

And then, I made a terrible mistake. I've updated the SSD Firmware from 2.15 to 2.25. Now, after deleting a file under Win7, the whole system freezes and have to power cycle/cold boot. With this new firmware 2.25, Win XP works fine and Win 7 only works if I disable TRIM with the following command in a command prompt:
fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 1

I'm very disappointed with OCZ. Hopefully, a new firmware will be released soon (it seems mid-December).

It seems that the JM20330 SATA-PATA bridge doesn't pass TRIM for any SSD brand and/or firmware. It seems not to work with the Intel microSATA (1.8") drives and neither with firmware 2.25 on Vertex 3/Agility 3/Nocti drives.
However, it seems to pass TRIM correctly with Samsung, Toshiba and firmware 2.15 SandForce drives.

Other news I deem important to share: Crucial released its latest firmware for the M4 2.5 and mSATA drives: 040H and 04MH.
The latter looks good for those with a Crucial M4 mSATA + mSATA-ZIF adapter !