Do i have options for SSD?

I've been Eyeing installing an SSD into my CF-18 MK4 but it takes a pata drive and i can't find a pata ssd that isn't a million dollars.

So are there any actual options for me to go to a ssd or should i just find a larger pata drive?

 

What do you have now?

 

60 GB pata, 5400 rpm i believe.

 

well, the $3USD sata adapter from ebay and a corsair f120 ssd works fine for me. but if you dont want to mod try finding a HM160HC harddrive. i think that's the fastest right now.

on second thought, your cf-18 might not have enough room for the adapter.

 

have a link for the sata adapter?

What do you actually have to mod to make it work?

 

That sounds right
I have not had any luck with pata ssd's ,and I don't recommend using an adapter and a sata type , although there are a few members here that are using that combination

Hitachi Travelstar 7K100 HTS721080G9AT00 80 GB,Internal,7200 RPM,2.5

Is the drive I would recommend , ebay is where to purchase as these are discontinued

I have several of the same in 60GB and they will be much faster than your stock drive

The 160gb Samsung that I was recomending for the last 3 years is even higher performance ,and I have installed dozens of them in Toughbooks over the years

But there is a serious problem with them that has shown up in the latest batches and they are not recomended now

 

You will never get it to fit , those adapters may work in the larger caddy on the cf-29 , but for a cf-18 I don't think it will work

 

Thanks for the heads-up...

and just in case everyone isn't aware, because the flooding in Taiwan has halted manufacturing of hard-drive controllers for the time being hard drives (among other electronics) are about to get much more expensive.

So if you need a hard drive soon, now is the time to buy.

 

There is a member here that customized an sata adapter
The cost was close to $100 ,but it will fit
Someone here might find the posts , it was early last spring

But if you add up all the costs to put into a cf-18 , I don't see a benefit , you might as well buy a cf-19

 

yeah, i dont think its worth it performance wise. just go with a quick hard drive. the sata adapter bottlenecks the ssd anyway. it'll only be marginally faster.

only reason i used an ssd is because i had a spare one. i would've never bought one to use in such an old toughbook.

 

@ares93

The caddy on the tablets is quite small in comparison to the cf-29's
I would not attempt using an adapter

I bought a pata ssd for my cf-18 , and through it in the garbage after I saw how bad it performed-true story

 

I meant the modded adapter one of our members made, not the stock 3$ version.

May i ask what kind of ssd it was? just so i can avoid it. cause i'm looking at a 32gb pata ssd for my cf-28 atm. while speed isnt really cruicial, i dont want to buy a rubbish.

 

Do a google search on the controler used in whatever drive you are looking at
I think mine was a KingSpec ,the brand does not matter ,is the junk controler that causes stuttering

 

I was the one that modded the $3 adapter to fit the CF-18 caddy. Check in my posts to find it. Ordered 100 adapters to mod about 8 months ago but they never came in the mail. Was out my cash and parts. I am willing to do the mod for members here for $55 that includes shipping worldwide. You send me the adapter and I will mod and test it and send it back.

Click my webalbum I have pics of this mod there

 

Here you go https://picasaweb.google.com/105915621967826856477/CustomWorkAndMods##

 

Have a look for a used Mtron Mobi 3000. It's a 2.5" form factor Pata SLC, an easy swop.

I say used, because it looks like production ended around october 2009. The IOPS are one of the best ever produced in a Pata SSD, the 32GB is rare, some of the authorised resellers had proto-type 64GB models that never went into production but they were considered to be "the best thing since sliced bread" at the time.

If you come across one & your not interested, send me a PM.

I'm hoping ares93 adds some additional information to his current SSD thread, I would check that one out before going the adapter/sata route, there are known issues.

No offence intended towards RuggedSolutions, if his "mod" works then it works.

o.g.

 

I have used the mtron 3500 series ,its a slc sata type, and they were fine

I would concider any SLC type pata type the best performance option for the older Toughbooks as they don't have the horrible controller chip

Except the prices are very high

 

^ it doesnt really matter what kind of ssd you use. The prices are still high...

 

No offense taken. I build them for 2 reasons, durability and battery efficiency. If I want to go for speed I grab my 31 i5. The apps my customers do on there
18's is very minimal and speed is not an issue. Reliability is the most important
thing and the SSD is the best way to go for that.

 

@RuggedSolutions,

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I'm having a quick tea break then it's back to watching the boxing. Forum member ares93 has posted a thread regarding his Corsair F120 in a CF-29. I'll be posting some questions later based on unresolved issues from other threads relating to the use of an adapter.

Feel free to join in, if the response concludes that your method is the way to go, it could be worth your time.

o.g.

 

No problem and yes I will join in. I have noticed that since the SSD most only
look at the speed improvements. This is definitely the case with the SSD, they are faster then the conventional HD's. However when you place an SSD in older equipment one should not expect a huge speed increase. You are still running with slower cpu,ram, chipset and in the case of the IDE to SATA adapter a bottleneck at the controller.

The main reasons for me to add a SSD to my "older" non sata machines is
data safety, standard HD's do break and that's not what you want when out
on the ocean or in the desert. The second is battery consumption, SSD's use far less power so you will see an increase in battery life. The third the speed increase, which is noticeably faster in my CF-18 mk-5. I do go through and "tweak" windows XP for the SSD. If one is willing to spend the time getting Win7 running on the 18 that would be even better for the SSD.