Does the NP700Z5A-A01DX have ExpressCache?

I can't find information about which models have the 8 gigs Express Cache memory, and which do not. Does anyone know if this model (A01DX) in particular has it?

 

According to this Ad it should have
http://www.exacteditions.com/exact/displayPage.do?issue=30046&page=21&term=&size=3

If not then bring them to court

 

I got this model now, no ExpressCache menu appearing in Easy Settings...
The advertised HDD works at 7200 RPM, however my laptop has "SAMSUNG HN-M750MBB" which appears to work at 5400 RPM.
Kinda misleading with those ads...

 

Are you sure it does not have EC? I check the support page and find out that this model does have driver for EC. Better go to Disk Management or Device to look up the iSSD. Also, only version that has 500GB or 750GB can be 7200 RPM, the one with 1TB would have only 5400 RPM.

 

The A01DX model has a 750GB hard drive.
SAMSUNG HN-M750MBB is the name appearing in the device manager. A quick google search shows a few online stores that sell this hard drive, and they all state it works at 5400RPM.

In the Disk Drives tab this hard drive is the only device shown. Also in Disk Management i can only see this drive and the DVD device.

Easy Software Manager does not show Express Cache driver at all.

I have sent an email from the Samsung support web page, asking to confirm if this model has these features, however it will probably take weeks for them to respond (if they ever do).
I'm starting to question my purchase now... Is it worth installing an OCZ Agility 3 SSD on this laptop (I have this drive on my desktop computer and i'm pretty happy with it)?

 

Get an 128GB SSD and put it on. You won't regret about that. Without the EC, everything is much easy because you don't have to mess with that. However, there is a tradeoff. With only 128, you will need some tweaks to have most space available. Some guides suggest that turn off pagefile, but also there is a tradeoff for that. Some applications could fail because of that, so having EC is not really bad at all as you can use EC as pagefile drive. If you have more than 128, that won't be an issue at all. I just installed mine m4 and speed is incredible.

 

I would have doubts whether the A01DX has the ExpressCache, given it's pricing.

John

 

Samsung downloads lists expresscache driver so it should have it installed - NP700Z5AI

Are there any options under BIOS settings regarding Expresscache?
What model number is on back side of the notebook?

 

The model on the back is exactly as I posted it here NP700Z5A-A01DX.
I can't see any options for expresscache in BIOS.
I took a few pictures so you can have a look if you want:

image1
image2
image3
image4
image5

In Samsung's website the ExpressCache driver is listed, however when you hover the mouse over the little blue question mark underneath, it says this driver may not be appropriate depending on the notebook model. I still cannot find a table of some sort comparing the features of all the series 7 models...

As for what spincel said, I am not worried about space at all. I will use my laptop for work/study so it will have more than enough space to hold the software i need. At home I use my desktop PC which has bigger hard drives for storage. I can also put the HDD I take out in a case and use it as an external one...

I am just not sure if doing all of this is worth it, as this would increase the final price of my laptop with about £100.

 

You can wait for SSD price to drop, but since there is at $1/GB, I doubt that it would be lower like 0.7$/GB, but it could happen when holiday shopping. Puting SSD is more reliable than HDD and you have the fast incredible boot and application startup. I'm really happy that I put mine despite that I only have left 80GB on that . It's up to you to decide, but I think SSD now become more and more standard for notebook.

About the SSD, did you try to install the driver from the support? If you not sure that would help, I guess wait for Samsung reply is more appropriate.

 

The pictures are all the same, correct links.

I have found out that for model NP700Z5A-A01UK(about £100 higher price) with 1TB HDD ( http://docs.xenex.co.uk/Samsung/samds30002_np700z5a-a01uk.pdf) the expresscache is mentioned too but again it could be "false marketing". It seems that only more expensive models are fitted with it. Way to go Samsung.

At first I was interested but seems I will choose another model then if it is true.

 

Woops!
I fixed the image links now.
...that happens when I try copy-pasting to save time

image1
image2
image3
image4
image5

 

Yep, nothing in BIOS either. Do not know if it should show there.
Open it up and let's see the guts

 

Nope. EC won't have anything to do with Bios as it is just a disk that currently hidden from the rest. The way to see it is go check on Device Manager. If it is not there, then the laptop does not have it. Without EC, it is too slow to boot and run application. You better off to SSD if you want performance.

 

This is a reply from PCworld for even more confusion:

Can you contact Samsung from "Easy Support" application and ask directly?

 

The way I see it is if there is a driver of EC listed in Samsung support page, that model would support EC. However, I am not sure about this case unless Samsung reply with an answer. Also, I am not sure about the mechanism of EC, as it is just a hard drive and mostly Windows will recognize almost every hard drive, not just mSSD, iSSD, or normal SSD. So maybe they left the EC SDK so that Windows cannot identify that. Try to install the SDK to see if the iSSD pop up or not.

 

This is getting too weird..
I tried installing the ExpressCache driver earlier, but at the end of the install it said it can't find an SSD.
Tried reinstalling easy settings, reboot, install again, EC tab didn't show up.
Easy Software Manager doesn't show anything about EC either.
Still no reply from Samsung...

Btw, i purchased my laptop from PCWorld, should i contact them?

EDIT:
I don't remember if i installed the SDK last time i tried installing the EC driver so...
I decided to give it another try. I installed the SDK, then the driver, this time it didn't say anything about it not finding a SSD drive, just wanted me to restart my computer. I did that...
Nothing shows up in Device Manager / Disk Management / Easy Setting (which i reinstalled again, just in case)
... and i can't contact anyone in the support center until Monday 9AM.

 

One suggestion: Can you take a photo of the hardware list on the box label and post it here?

That might encourage someone who has a model which does have ExpressCache to check what is says on the label. If their label lists the EC and yours does not then we have the answer (but if their label doesn't list the EC then we are none the wiser).

John

 

I'm not really sure if this is what you asked me to take a photo of

 

Yes, thanks. Now we have to wait for someone who definitely has the EC to check the label on their box to see if the EC is mentioned. I would have thought so, since it is a factory hardware option.

John

 

Nope there is no mention of EC on the box. Mine is S0A. Guess we need to talk to Samsung after all .

 

But what really means this "factory option"? Shouldn't it be model based rather a factory wise? Some kind of lottery or what...

 

Right, Samsung replied to my email today.
Apparently, it's the NP700Z5A-S01UK that has ExpressCache and a faster hard drive. My one doesn't.

 

Hmm, and interesting what about NP700Z5A-A01UK? It has 1TB drive and backlit keyboard so should have expresscache too.