SATA SSD in a CF-18D

Wanting to put an SSD into my CF-18D. As the PATA drives are getting hard to find I'm wondering if anyone has had any luck with a sata drive with an adapter? If so which one worked?? And what about either a SATA, SATA II, or SATA III?


Thanks,
Steve

 

Tried to but less room in the caddy than the 29 caddy and that was tight.

 

Wait a few months. This week Intel announced a line of SSD's that are half the size of current ones (Model SSD 310). Currently all production going to OEM's - Lenovo using them in their laptops. Capacity and price about the same as current ones.

 

Thanks Kardan,

I'll keep my eyes open

 

These are an mSATA drive; they have a SATA 3.0 interface and a mini-PCIE interface (possibly proprietary or newt-generation); but they are designed as a drive-on-a-board, so will need to be extra padded (oh, dear, what a shame) to fit in the space of a 2.5" HDD.

If you can get together with a few of your very closest friends, they ARE SHIPPING NOW in Qty 1000 at $99/40GB & $149/80GB.

Intel Touts Tiny 310 SSD's Capabilities at Storage Visions - Data Storage - News & Reviews - eWeek.com

mnem
*Not so keen on his own personal non-moving parts*

 

I've got the sata working in the 18's and 29's.

Here's a pics of the modified connector I built:

Picasa Web Albums - RUGGED SOLUTIONS - Custom work a...

You need to remove the foam from the front and back of caddy no other
modification to the caddy is needed. It's a tight fit but works perfect, got a 120Gb OCZ Vertex2 running in one of my demo 18's and it's fast and reliable.

 

The SATA adapter that you have modified is the one I discussed with liamao at toughbook talk.com a year ago. We ask one suplier to change the orientation of the IDE connector but so far nothing. With that orientation you can gain a bit space on the caddy not just like the regular one that on sale everywhere.

ohlip

 

I like your's much better. I found that the cooldrive one , you had to handle the 29 carefully. It looks like yours will fit much better.

http://www.toughbooktalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=334

 

How the heck did you do that, I can't figure it out
You can't just remove the pins from one side and place them on the opposite side as the pinouts will be all wrong

 

Its the SATA connector that he move around from the other side but its a pain in the as... on doing it and also the position of the Sata drive when you installed it on the caddy will be upside down but its no matter.

ohlip

 

Yes it's a pain in the A$$ but it does work. The SATA connecter gets moved that wont change the pin orientation just puts the HD/SSD upside down. I've done about 12 of these so now I know it works well.

Anyone interested I can start selling then or send me the caddy and SSD of your choice and I can do the mod and testing then send it back.

I contacted the makers of the adapter also and they will change the location of the SATA connector but for a run of 5000 parts... Thats alot of SATA Toughbooks

 

I'll buy one. 4,999 to go...

mnem
We'll get to it...

 

I'll buy at least 5, maybe 20 if not too expensive ...

 

I did up 2 adapter mods yesterday and kept track of my time.

The cost per piece will be 145.00 for just the adapter and 155.00 for the adapter and caddy modded.

The best situation would be to have the complete caddy and drive so I can do the complete job. Can also do an exchange I have plenty of caddy's in stock for the 18's. Also have the OCZ Vertex2 SSD's in stock in 80 and 120Gb sizes.

Let me know if these prices fall into the budget. Doing them cheaper is not possible because of the time involved.

 

Could use a 1.8" sata SSD + adapter instead

With a $15 1.8" sata to 2.5" IDE adapter. See http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...1361-1-8-sata-ssds-available.html#post6978065 . Nice and neat.

How to make the suitable 2.5" sata to 2.5" IDE adapter

Cooldrives charge US$20 for the base 2.5" sata to 2.5" IDE adapter. The adapter mod simply moves the sata connector from one side to the other. Just imagine the sata connector below flipped over to the other side. You can see the connections are still maintained as previously. This cannot be done with the PATA connector since it has two rows of pins.



That's pretty easy to do if you have some copper braid and can undo the sata connector and relocate, or ask a local mobile phone repair agent to do it for you. The end cost being far less than $145.

 

@nando4,
I'm guessing that you have missed the part where this discussion is about squeezing all of this into a heated, shock absorbing hard drive caddy which has no room for the cooldrives adapter.
CAP

 

The 1.8" microsata to 2.5" IDE solution I posted in my last post gives lots of room to play. Even a novice could do it.

Just looking at the 2.5" sata to 2.5" IDE adapter for the CF-18D, it looks like the cooldrives adapter simply had the SATA connector reversed with some caddy mods done to accomodate a 2.5" sata drive. Correct me if I'm wrong. Seems like a lot of money to pay for what is a simplistic mod.

 

Yes, that option has been addressed in another thread, we sometimes do things here just to see if we can.
CAP

 

The 1.8" microsata to 2.5" IDE solution I posted in my last post gives lots of room to play. Even a novice could do it.

From what I have found the 2.5 drives outperform the 1.8 drives. The 2.5's are also cheaper and more readily available. The 1.8 uses 3.3v while the 2.5 runs on 5v. Did not check to see if there is a 3.3v lead on the toughbook cable as I chose for the 2.5 drives.

Just looking at the 2.5" sata to 2.5" IDE adapter for the CF-18D, it looks like the cooldrives adapter simply had the SATA connector reversed with some caddy mods done to accomodate a 2.5" sata drive. Correct me if I'm wrong. Seems like a lot of money to pay for what is a simplistic mod.

It is abit of money but it's also alot of work and a custom modification. For those with a 18 or 29 or for that mater any toughbook with IDE intertface it's far cheaper then upgrading the whole toughbook to say a 19 or 30. Also this mod does not modify the original caddy so if you get a different toughbook you can use the adapter again. So it's a one time investment.

I have done 7 of these mods to 18's for customers and all have been very happy with the upgrade.

That's pretty easy to do if you have some copper braid and can undo the sata connector and relocate, or ask a local mobile phone repair agent to do it for you. The end cost being far less than $145.

On the adapters I do I move the SATA connector to the same side as the IDE pins. If someone can make them for cheaper let me know and I'll buy them from you

 

The $15 1.8" sata to 2.5" IDE adapter has the 5V->3.3V voltage regulator on it's reverse.

I've found that the latest 1.8" sata SSDs are neither more expensive or slower than their 2.5" counterparts. The pick of the bunch being the Intel X18M G2, Crucial C300 and Renice X3 (SF1200).

1.8" sata SSDs will however be smaller in capacity due to physical constraints in housing the NAND flash. The same small physical size making it a workable solution replacing 2.5" PATA HDDs.

 

A few weeks ago I picked up a WD Blue 250 Gig at Best Buy for a fairly reasonable price. There wasnt many PATA choices, but they were there. Just FYI.

 

Yes ,while I am sure this is fair to compensate for the time to mod , this would be an interesting one of a kind type ,but it's not cost effective

We are not to the stage where 2.5" ide drives are unavailable

For $150 I can purchase a 2.5" 32GB IDE SSD , or for $55 to $100 I can purchase a new 80GB 7200rpm hitachi, or 160GB Samsung or 250GB WD

In benchmark testing I have found the adapters limit throughput
We tested IDE drives in the following thread

http://forum.notebookreview.com/pan...using-ide-sata-adapter-vs-samsunghm160hc.html

 

wound up there myself and picked up 5 320GB wd3200beve's for 54 bucks each, which I thought was a deal. went back 2 days later they were 99 each. will still watch them and check prices as sometimes you get lucky. this time I did............Driller

 

Wow. Yea you did. I think $65 or $75 for my 250. Nice find.

 

Check your receipt; I wouldn't be surprised to see they rang up as 160GB drives. It's happened to me before.

mnem
...now touch these wires to your tongue!

 

I agree that it's alot of cash to lay down for a adapter. The people I do these for are after the best in ruggedness and data-safety so they don't
cut corners.

I had read up on the throughput of the adapter but in real life I compared 2 18's side by side ( same specs ) one had a 120 OCZ Vertex2 the other a WD Scorpio 80Gb. The one with the SSD ( via adapter ) is noticeably faster.

My main goal was not to gain major speed improvements but to take out the weak part, the Hard-Drive. The IDE SSD's are quit abit more costly then their SATA counterparts the same goes for the IDE HD's compared to the SATA HD's. These adapters just make it easier for me to offer my people a
better toughbook.

The 1.8" option is definitely an possibility, but the capacity restraints pose a problem. Most of what I do is at a minimum 80Gb but mainly 120Gb-320Gb.

Just did one for a Xplore C3 tablet, it's in my album ( link below ) used the same adapter I use for the CF-18's and the OCZ Vertex 2 120Gb SSD. I really have had good results with the OCZ stuff. The price/performance is great, I buy them in quantity so it saves abit compared to the store price.

 

It might be cost effective then ,when you are needing larger drives
The few available larger IDE SSD's are quite expensive
I just recieved a 16GB SSD IDE that I will be testing in a cf-73 ,the small space is not an issue for the software load
Agree the SSD is a good option ,I have been using them for three years in the sata variety in the newer Toughbooks

I like your adapter
It's superior to any that I have seen

I have had a couple of new sata hard drives fail on me the last few years
They don't seem to be making them like they used to

 

Thanks Tomcat.

I to have had my share of disks going bad. Now everything in the desktop is mirrored and all my hardware has a SSD in it.

They sure don't make them like they used to. I've got some old hardware with the big 5.25 full size SCSI drives that crack and moan but they are still going. Massive capacity of 1.2Gb, what more do you need, when they start up it sounds similar to say an airplane...

Greetz

 

Well I just tested the small 16GB SSD
KINGSPEC 2.5" 16GB PATA IDE SSD Drive 66MB/S were the specs from the seller (China)
I paid $71 including shipping , the larger 32GB is available for as low as $95 with shipping and 64GB for $165 btw

It tested out @ 74.4MB/s with a very quick .189 ms access time
Beats the regular Samsung that I have been impressed with
Looks like an option if you can live with small capacity
It looks cheap in comparison to my mtron and samsung ssd's but they were expensive

I am running just a few programs on XP so 16GB works for me , for W7 the 64GB would be a better option

 

Nice work. Prices are not that bad.

I pay about $170 for the OCZ Vertex2 80Gb SSD's and $220 for the 120Gb.
The specs as to read/write speeds for the OCZ are:

* Max Read: up to 285MB/s
* Max Write: up to 275MB/s
* Sustained Write: up to 250MB/s
* Random Write 4KB (Aligned): 50,000 IOPS

But the going though the IDE to SATA adapter speed is lost. When I have time I will do some benchmarking but am just to busy to do that now.

Tomcat you have PM

 

My sata 250GB 7200rpm drive in the cf-30 runs at 71MB/s , very close to the ide ssd tested , but the ide interface limits performance drastically

The stock 40gb 4200rpm drive transfers @ low 20's mb/s for comparison

If you read Teo's comment in the benchmarking thread he states the sata /ide adapter would be quite usable if the connections were on the same side to reduce space , and reduce the chance for damage from being crammed into the caddy

This has been the main issue with using the adapters
Many problems with fit, and no one wants to butcher the padding in the caddy

I am not sure on using the adapters with ssd drives , there were comments that the drive is not detected properly when restoring windows
Will the drive work when restoring windows,or do you have to clone the drive?

If the adapters could be mass produced and available for a reasonable cost ,and the throughput improved from what Blair saw in the benchmarking thread ( I would like to see 50MB/s slightly less than the samsungs 52.9) Blair tested 39.1 MB/s Average transfer rate for his 7200 rpm sata drive
That was not too much higher than my test on an old Hitachi 60gb 5400 rpm that had 32.6 MB/s Average transfer rate

 

The foam I remove is the front and back pieces and the bottom 4 pads are cut to half thickness. When the drive is in the caddy it is upside down due to the SATA connector so there is more space on the open side of the caddy. I cut a piece of foam to fit. I will add some pics later today as I have 2 caddies here
that are finished.

The BIOS shows the drives and I did the install with Recovery Disks with no problems at all. After the standard recovery I went in and made the proper tweaks for the SSD.

Tomcat, I can send you an adapter to benchmark if you are interested. I just don't have the time in the next few weeks to do it. To many things going on.

 

Can get an idea of performance of sata-to-pata bridged sata SSDs by reviewing the results at http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...-1-8-zif-pata-ssds-available.html#post6861746 . The Indilinx Barefoot SSDs delivering the fastest 4KB reads in the bridged solutions.

 

I saw your chart, nicely done. With the better SSD's installed via the mod I am doing the speed is noticeably faster then the SATA hard-drives.

Like I stated before the main reason for me to do this mod was to take out the weakest part in the toughbook. I was then pleasantly surprised by how fast it also became. The thing to remember is that no matter what drive you go with it is still on the IDE interface no matter what is in between to get the SATA.

Other options PCMCIA to eSATA then to the caddy......USB3.0 PCMCIA to caddy..... Plenty of options to try to gain speed. But If I want speed I grab my 19 or 31. If I want to get down and dirty and throw my toughbook around with no worries I grab one that has an SSD. That way I keep my newer books looking good.

Pics added to my web-album of the complete caddy with adapter and SSD in place. Link below.

 

Just put one up on Ebay: ULTIMATE Toughbook CF-18 CF-29 IDE to SATA Upgrade kit - eBay (item 250757008914 end time Jan-20-11 13:32:03 PST)

I'll see how it goes, can build them for $50 each.

 

where i can get these adapters? i might need 1 or 3 for my brothers

 

eBay Feedback Profile for surplusseller2010

Use the above link and click on Contact member . Ask him if he has more to sell

 

Today Intel announced a new line of SSD's aimed at guys like us.

"Fudzilla reports that a pair of new drives will be launched next month, and this page on Intel’s Website confirms that the new 510 series is designed for the “enthusiast consumer client PC.” Read speeds on the new drives will leap to 450MB/s (from the X25-M’s 250MB/s) and write speeds will accelerate to 300MB/s (compared to the X25-M’s 100MB/s).

As is usually the case with SSDs, costs for the 510 series will not be cheap on a per-gigabyte basis. A 120GB drive will cost $279, while a 250GB version will set you back $579. Nonetheless, enthusiasts with deep pockets will be happy to spend the scratch for that kind of performance."

The announcement is on ZDnet at:
Intel readying new 510 series of SSD drives for February release | ZDNet

 

Just an update on these adapters. Things are a bit busy here in Toughbook
land. I will have a bunch of these adapters ready by the end of march. Will update here and put them up on eBay. The guy I sold the first one to was very pleased and it woks great.