Samsung Chronos SSD size beware!

Hey everyone,

Tried fitting my Vertex3 SSD in today and everything clips together except of the left bottom edge where the SSD is.......

Looks like the size of the SSD is important - becareful not to get one that's too tall... I've compared the vertex3 to the built in Hitachi drive - it's obvious that the Hitachi is slimmer.

Just a warning for potential SSD buyers!

EDIT: OKAY so I was just freaking out... I opened the bottom again and this time clipped that corner FIRST and somehow everything went back together nicely. Might do the trick for some of you installing SSD....maybe? lololol

EDIT2: Oh no! It popped back out!!!! *freaks out*

 

2.5" SSDs come in 7mm and 9.5mm thickness. I would expect Samsung to use 7mm thickness in the Chronos series but I think the Vertex 3 is 9.5mm thick. This thread discusses drives compatible with the Lenovo X220 which also uses 7mm thick drives (as does my Lenovo T420s). Search through that thread (the list in the first post is not completely up-to-date - the new Samsung 830 SSDs are 7mm thick) and you will probably find out how to make your Vertex fit (eg remove the cover).

John

 

Thank you very much for your reply John +rep

After screwing the case back together... there is a barely noticeable bulge where the SSD is, and pressing on it causes a slight creak... however everything is running okay at this stage.

I don't have the cash to buy a new SSD so I'm sticking with the Vertex3 and Windows 8 preview.

Thanks again!

 

7mm thickness is not the thickness for Samsung Series 7. It can take in 9.5mm drives. The Hitachi 7K750 750GB used is 9.5mm

However, the Vertex 2 and Vertex 3 from OCZ are slightly lower in height at 9.3mm. Perhaps the alignment of the Series 7 is a little off?

 

Thank you for this clarification.

John

 

Hmm so I wonder why my SSD doesn't fit properly? There's a slight bulge above the SD card now to the left.

 

Alignment issue. My Vertex 2 does fit, but after 2 tries. Perhaps you may want to refit again because sometimes the SSD may be placed slightly slanted at a small degree that would cause a bulge.

 

Ahhh I tried all afternoon to no avail. I realised the ssd was slightly too fat for the bracket and ended up bending it outwards a bit. Could be the reason.

For now I've found a temporary fix.... I double sided taped the rubber feet (x4) under the hdd slot and Viola! Vertex3 stuck on without needing a bracket at all. The case went back together nicely too...

Sent from my Sensation using Tapatalk

 

So you were using the bracket? No wonder. SSDs do not need to be secured with the brackets as they have no moving parts. Just the SATA port holding them has worked fine for me. No tape required too.

 

I just replaced my drive with a m4 ssd and had the same issue.

My fix was to peel off the thin rubber strip on the inside of the hard drive bracket. The extra 3/64" let new drive fit perfectly. I figure an ssd doesn't need the vibration damper to operate silently.


(It didn't peel off very well...the rubber is very soft/tearable and the adhesive is fairly strong. I used a utility knife to trim the remaining bits)

 

To those that added swapped there HDD with an SSD, are you still using the 'express cache' does it make a difference?

 

I did a clean Windows install to a Crucial M4 SSD and I didn't have the ExpressCache software to install. I haven't tried to find an installer as I can't see how it would gain me anything - caching 8GB of data on what is probably a slower SSD doesn't seem to make much sense.

I've left the ExpressCache SSD alone so that if I put the original hard drive back in future it can use ExpressCache without any problem.

 

I formatted the express cache and using it as an extra 8gb hard drive storage lol

Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using Tapatalk

 

Chronos 700ZA US4.
I replaced the HHD w/ 512SSD curical M4........... great! However, I am having issues with the switchable GPU. The catalyst select ability is faulty.(looking for a fix) The touch pad is annoying and the space bar is becoming a problem on the right side.( I'm not a left thumb) Samsung needs a fix or this will blow a very good opportunity for a very good product.

 

Chronos 700ZA US4.

I also installed an 8GB ram card to maxout the memory @ 12GB. Unfortunately, the other card is fixed to the mother board.

 

i also have an s04 us model, i was under the impression that the motherboard was locked to a maximum of 8gb of ram, so you removed the 2gb chip and replaced with an 8 for a total of 12, does the system recognize all 12 gb of ram?

 

The Intel chipset can handle the 8GB modules. However, 12GB is the physical limit on this model because 4GB is soldered onto the board.

John

 

The answer is yes. I was told that second generation core i will accept up to 8gb per slot. All said, remember that these mods will void warranty. The system reports all the ram volume.

 

I have a NP700Z5C and upgrading SSD gave me exactly these problems in this post. My Sandisk Extreme 240GB is 9.91mm, not 9.5mm, so awkward, Sandisk fail.... so, any ideas how to fix the slight "bulge" problem.

um... Does this mean you installed your drive with no drive screws??

Exactly what I did! The thick layer came off in one piece really well, the rest didn't. I cleaned the rest with ZEISS wipes and compressed air and left it in its whole shape... BUT unfortunately, my SSD is a Sandisk Extreme 240GB, which is 9.91mm, not 9.5mm standard, what the hell was sandisk thinking...? so it helped the slight bulge from a 0.9mm to now like a 0.4mm. Still kind of annoying but I can live with it now. I didn't want to swap in a 7mm drive since it would leave 2-3mm space in between and the flimsy casing can bulge inward.... with the palm resting right above where the drive goes.

I had to buy a whole pack of new casing screws which are M2 6mm screws since mine easily stripped during the upgrade process.....

Sandisk Utility now reads both the 8GB Sandisk iSSD and the 240GB SSD as Sandisk supported drives now... 8GB flash drive on my mboard, better than using it as the express cache.... which didn't yield much improvement for me........ and do note on Sandisk's website it states the 8GB iSSD will last UNDER 3 years on normal daily use due to NAND wearing out on such a small size drive as a heavily written cache drive... 5TBW (terabytes-written) for the 8GB model to drive failure..... About 4GB written a day for 3 years and the iSSD will fail and that's usually on the BETTER end......

 

I first got the 9.5mm Crucial M4 and found I couldn't close the case, so I exchanged it for the 7mm version. It was annoying having to pay shipping twice, but worth it considering I got the drive on sale to begin with.