My CF-18 Upgrade: SSD

I replaced my stock CF-18 hard drive with a 64GB SSD. Here is it the drive I used:

http://ec.transcendusa.com/product/ItemDetail.asp?ItemID=TS64GSSD25-M

It is a Transcend TS64GSSD25-M 2.5" 64GB PATA MLC drive. I bought it at Newegg.com for much less than that.

I think I assembled the shock mount case the way it needs to be. This drive is a little less deep than the the stock. I didn't try to account for that when assembling the case. It still fit relatively snug but would be interested in opinions on this (should I increase padding or in some way give the drive a taller profile).

I have no idea what the grid and that electronic component do that wrap around the drive. I did replace it but it does not have the same "snug" fit as the stock drive.

I went straight Linux (a swap partition and the rest one big root partition).

 

You have to ask yourself since it's a SSD do you really need more padding? If you can here it bouncing around in there i would just stuff some sort of heat resistant filler in there. Otherwise leave it be

If it ain't broke, Upgrade it!!


Dan

 

good idea

How does it perform?

Been thinking of doing thesame to my CF-18

 

The grid is the electronic drive heater. It is designed to warm up a hard drive to operating temperature.

I believe the highest Toughbook use on record is 7150m (camp 3 everest) and temperatures there are vary from -10 deg. C to -30 deg. C. I believe Rex Pemberton was able to use the Toughbook on the high side of those temperatures, so the HD heater was necessary to keep his Toughbook running.

Having a good solid connection between the grid and the hard drive would allow proper functioning of HD heater capability. The sign of a "good mod" so to speak. You could leave it out but that makes me feel a bit like you've emasculate the toughbook a bit

 

The drive heater is necessary in a traditional HDD to get the bearings up to operating temperature before spinning the drive up. An SSD doesn't have this problem, so the heater is not necessary.

However, on power up, if the BIOS decides that it is too cold, it will run the heater to bring the drive to operating temperature before continuing to boot. (I put my 29 in the deep-freeze (-10F) to see what it would do. that's what it does)(don't try this at home. if you do, be sure to remove the battery first, you can do permanent damage to it at those temperatures)

I'm not sure what would happen if the heater was removed. It may be that the system would simply refuse to boot if the temperature was too low. When I installed the SSD in my 18, I left the heater in place.

nine

 

No issues to report. Performance is good and battery life may be better (I do not have the numbers to back that impression)

 

Thanks to those that provided info on the hard drive heater.

I left it in but the SSD is smaller than the stock unit so it was relatively unsatisfying the way I left it. Also to everyone that does this: take a picture before hand of how the stock drive fit into the heater (and in general how it goes together). I didn't do that and it would have helped.

 

Buy a one sided foam tape 3M(not to adv....) with a corresponding thickness coz 3M has a different sizes and thickness of their product and then cut eight pieces around 1cm x 1.5cm and place it at the corner of the Hdd(four side to be exact). Top and buttom parts of the drive but make sure the drive heater be in place as still necessary to use in extreme cold condition. Then now place it into the caddy and your set. Hope it helps.


ohlip

 

I think the tutorial for the CF-29 hard drive still has pics around here... It shows, in detail, how everything goes....

 

Let me bring the topic back.
So you guys managed to make your cf-18's working with SSD drives ? I am just thinking of it. But isn't that true that cf-18 has IDE connectors while SSD are SATA ? Shouldn't there be any SATA-IDE interface in between ?
Please forgive me if I seem naiive...

 

The original poster used an IDE PATA SSD check his link. They exist but not as common as the SATA drives.

 

Yes, and they seem to be getting harder to find, too.

Under XP, it really improved my performance, and when I saw how much it improved XP, I decided to try Windows 7 on my CF-18 mk1, and I haven't gone back. I would also note that I maxed out the RAM....

 

As was mentioned above he used a PATA SSD which has an IDE connection. About a week ago I posted my results using a SATA SSD with a Cooldrive adapter, which unfortunately was not successful. Cooldrive adapters work with SATA HDD but not SATA SSD apparently.

Also the original poster used a MLC SSD, which is OK for non-Window's systems (Linux in this case), but for Windows I believe SLC SSD's are preferred. They are also faster and more reliable as well, but are about 4x more expensive.

 

Newegg is sold out of PATA SSDs and Tiger Direct does not even list them anymore.

I have the 32 GB version of the drive that the OP is using and I have no complaints, just take the time to properly align the drive if you are using XP or earlier and you will be amazed at the difference.

 

Geek Sheet: A Tweaker's Guide to Solid State Drives (SSDs) and Linux

 

The drive he is using is an IDE interface, I have used the 32GB version of that drive for about 2.5 years and have had no problems.

I use the Paragon Alignment Tool to properly align the partition and it works from within windows, its not cheap but I have used it on all of my computers with all types of drives and have been very pleased with it.

 

I too wonder this...

 

Check this thread if you want to go with a Sata SSD in your CF-18

http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/547710-cf-18cf-29-ide-sata-conversion.html

 

I am about to to the same to my CF-18. Did you have to have any kind of adapter or does it just install with the original cable?