Samsung NP930X5J / NP940X5J ATIV Book 9 (2014) 15.6" Haswell announced Jan 6, 2014

Thank you for that clarification. Indeed I wasn't completely sure if yours was a Microsoft Signature model or not. Some members have reported theirs didn't have SRS, even when bought outside Microsoft Store. Maybe there are refurbished units floating around.

If you are able boot Recovery with F4 (meaning you have SRS) and if your model came with Win8.x (meaning you have SRS6, not SRS5) then definitely that Bootable Factory Image backup is a useful tool, both as a precaution and as a means of imaging a new SSD.

I never liked those automatic driver update utilities that vendors provide, but I have to say SW Update can be quite useful --when it works right:

1) When performing a clean install, it picks the right drivers for your model, and automatically installs them in the right order and with minimal rebooting required, making new installations a snap. You can still check/uncheck which drivers and utilities to install, so as to avoid bloatware.

2) Drivers and utilities can be "exported" to local storage and installed manually -- now or later. This is important with BIOS updates, which have been known to fail (sometimes fatally) when performed automatically inside SW Update.

3) You can look up and download drivers from other models using the Find Model feature. Since Samsung has a bad habit of ceasing to publish newer versions of important drivers for older models, hunting for them in other (newer) models is generally how you do it. This is particularly true for Settings/Easy Settings.

4) SW Update's annoying habit of nagging about updates can usually be avoided by disabling the sAgent Scheduled Task and its Taskbar Tray Icon. Still, even with those disabled it will still load a service and hog the system for a while during Windows startup.

 

OK, found the answer to my question, but it's weird! Here's the question ...

Answer - when the windows Control Panel / Power Options setting for 'Turn off the Display' was set to 15 minutes, then after 15 minutes, the display went off (as expected), but at the same time, the CPU was throttled big time and my 4 hour job took 10+ hours! I set 'turn off display' to 'never' and my job ran in the expected 4 hours and the fans were blazing all that time. So I can't argue with the facts, but it makes NO SENSE to me that turning off display would invoke CPU throttling ... weird! I'll be doing a bunch more 'rips' shortly so I'll see if I can get the display to go off without throttling performance.

 

Hi

I was wondering if someone can help me i have installed windows 7 but i made a copy of the windows 8 image from the windows restore not through the samsung backup file before installing 7 then i installed windows 7 removed all partitions to save space. Then i was thinking if i need to send it in for waranty etc perhaps i need to reset windows i tried to put the win 8 back but didnt work it says partition missing etc. i was wondering if someone has the windows 8 partition file who can help me out and perhaps send it to me somehow or knows where i can download it would appreciate it alot
thanx.

 

If you did not backup your Recovery with a so-called Bootable Factory Image Backup, there really is no way to get it back to factory state. See this post for more explanation.

There is a bit more to it in your case, since you downgraded from Win8.1 to Win7. For others who might see this, the post linked below covers necessary steps to backup and prepare for such a downgrade (DO follow the links in that post):

Considerations and steps for downgrading to Win7

If the image you created contains the two Samsung Recovery partitions (SAMSUNG_REC and SAMSUNG_REC2) there MAY be a way, using the AdminTool ISOs shared by member dosibox in this post and the file and folder contents of the SAMSUNG_REC2 partition extracted from your image. It's a lot of work. The post linked below has more details:

Backing up and re-creating Samsung Recovery Solution

All of this assumes your laptop contained Samsung Recovery Solution in the first place. Models from Microsoft Store usually have SRS stripped and replaced with Windows Recovery Tools. If that is what you have, I would assume your Recovery image should be sufficient -- but I am afraid I don't know the details.

 

ok i see but do i still have my warranty left even if my windows 8 is gone ? or is that one required for the waranty to be valid ?

 

It should not prevent warranty service, although I seem to recall a few reports of stubborn Samsung representatives. Samsung do not warn or nag to backup the Recovery (and thus the factory Win8 installation). And while SRS does indeed have the tools, they are a bit error prone. So several arguments can be made, if needed, that they should honor the warranty regardless.

Again, if your model is a Microsoft Signature one, you didn't have SRS in the first place. So there would be no basis for denying warranty.

 

I've updated the BIOS to PO7AED without any issues, except that I had to re-do the Power Plan.

 

anyone know a slim computer bag that suits this laptop preferably with a handle and leather ?

 

Has the community determined whether a PCIe style M.2 SSD will work in the NP940X5J?

I saw Steerpike58's posts and it seems he wasn't successful getting his Plextor PX-G512M6e working as for whatever reason, his BIOS wouldn't recognize the drive.

I searched and I don't think I saw any other evidence of someone getting a PCIe device to work.

Samsung announced the new SM951 boasting sequential speeds up to 2.15GB/s read and 1.55GB/s write. It got me wondering whether (1) it would even work in our favorite laptop and (2) whether the disk interface would be limited to SATA3 max speeds no matter what.

 

I have the Sony IT VAIO Casual Topload Case - Black (VGP-AMT1C15/B) and it is perfect. Also has pockets for mouse, power supply, cellphone etc.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00535CNQG/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

See this thread. Even if the M.2 slot supports PCIe (which I doubt), unless Samsung have got the controller power aspect under control with the SM951 you will hit thermal problems.

Much of the SSD performance benefit comes from the near-zero access times. I never noticed the performance difference between SATA 2 and SATA 3 SSDs. The extra speed isn't likely to give much noticeable benefit unless your workload involves moving reading large files which don't require much processing. The Achilles heel of most SSDs is the queued multiple writes (eg the CrystalDiskMark 4kQD32 test) which is well below the sequential speeds and is more typical of most workloads.

I would be more interested by a 1TB M.2 2280 so there is plenty of space for some over-provisioning but I think think anyone has got these into large scale production, yet. Samsung could do it by rearranging their 1TB mSATA SSD but they haven't.

John

 

Thanks for posting this information about upgrading the SSD drive to a larger one.

I purchased my NP940X5J-S01US from a retailer on ebay. I'm in Toronto, Canada and I couldn't find it anywhere at a decent price.

I also ordered the ZTC from Amazon (was a little cheaper for me to order from Amazon.com instead of Amazon.ca, including the shipping).
ZTC Thunder Enclosure NGFF M.2 SSD to USB 3.0. Aluminum Shell, 5 Sizes Adapter and High Speed 6GB/s. Model ZTC-EN004: Amazon.ca: Electronics

I also orderd a VGA dongle from AliExpress for $18USD.
Samsung AA-AV2N12B/US Black VGA Dongle MINI VGA TO VGA adapter cable

I purchased an ADATA "premier pro sp900" M.2 drive, 256GB, because it was a decent price ($140CDN) at CanadaComputers.com and it was in stock when I needed it.

I used FarStone to clone the current live drive/ssd card from the laptop to the USB attached ADATA drive (via ZTC enclosure). Took about 30 minutes.

I found the drive under the metal plate as you described, right below the fans. I also found that rectangular padding below the M.2 card as a spacer, so I carefully removed that in order to make room for the double-sided chips on the ADATA M.2 card. Thanks for that tip.

All seems to be running well with the new 256GB drive.
If anyone needs me to run any specific tests just let me know.


I've owned HP laptops for many years so it's taking me a little while to get use to the Samsung keyboard and track pad, but so far so good.

- I LOVE the battery life and the light weight of this machine.
- I hate the glossy screen.
- I'm a little concerned about the dongle needed for a physical Ethernet connection. Ethernet cables have a tendency of always getting pulled somehow, and and the dongle wire seems to be getting bent a little here and there. We'll see how it holds up.

 

By the way, this is how the partitions are showing up on my new 256 GB SSD drive with Windows 8.1 installed, plus a few applications I recently installed (eg: office, vmware, acrobat).

-no volume label, recovery partition, 499 MB
-no volume label, EFI system partition, 300 MB
-no volume label, recovery partition, 8.0 GB
-C drive, boot, page file, crash dump, primary partition, 229.57 GB (185GB free)

The 3 non-labeled partitions look odd since they are 100% free, but I haven't had a chance to look into that yet. I hope my recovery partition still works

 

Appears to be the standard partition layout. You can try hitting F4 while booting up, but it is likely that the clone has broken the link. It doesn't really matter as long as you keep the original drive in a safe place for warranty purposes. Had it been me, I would have done a clean windows install and used the built-in windows backup utilities, but to each his own. If F4 is broken, you don't really need the 8GB partition, but I'm not sure you can delete it and add on to C in windows. You could use gparted to move it to the end, but it might hose windows.

If you have two SSD slots, you might consider running both drives (OS+data). But I would recommend making the 16GB USB thumbdrive backup.

 

Do we have info on the exact model numbers or pictures of what one with two SSD slots looks like?

 

See this photo borrowed from notebookcheck. The second slot, if it exists, is to the right of the RAM (it's actually marked "2nd SSD" in the photo).



The less expensive models just have the place where the slot would be soldered.

John

 

is the Wolfson DAC chip built into every model? in the notebookcheck review they dont mention it..

 

I'm now finally doing this myself on my ATIV Book 9 2014 15.6. I bought the same Transcend MTS800 512GB stick. I first used F4 / Recovery to make a factory image of my drive on a 32 Gig USB2 flash drive (generic PNY from Best Buy, avoiding SanDisk per advice here) (plugged into the USB 2 slot, in case it mattered). I then changed BIOS settings to turn off fast boot and secure boot, and chose 'UEFI' as the OS Mode, and did an F10 boot with the USB plugged in (to the USB2 slot, in case it mattered), to verify I could indeed boot the USB stick if needed in the future. Once I saw it boot, I abandoned that recovery session and rebooted again into F4/Recovery mode, and this time chose 'Copy' option. Note, I have not yet 'undone' my BIOS changes (fast boot off, etc). I need to remember to do that before finally booting up to the new drive.

I am taking photos of the process as I do it and will share some of them here when I'm done (assuming there is no way to do 'screen shots' of bios screens!).

One really annoying thing happened when in the 'Recovery' mode - the screen was almost too dark to read - as if the 'auto brightness' was thinking I was in a totally dark room. I couldn't even read the screen to make choices. I finally used a magnifying glass and saw the buttons, but this was really annoying! Same thing happened when I booted into BIOS to make the boot changes - almost too dark to read. But when I booted back into recovery the last time, to do the 'copy', the brightness was back to normal / readable. Is there a known issue that causes the auto-brightness feature to get totally messed up?

I now recall, when I first bought the laptop, this happened during the very first 'one time setup' process - I could hardly read the options on the screen to get through the setup process, and almost re-boxed the laptop and sent it back right then! Only seems to be an issue in bios/setup (non-windows) modes.

Anyway - disk copy is predicted at 1hr 49m total so I'll post back when it is done.

 

Woah ... very odd result! Help please!

First of all, the 'disk copy' completed successfully, and I swapped out the old for the new SSD, and the system booted just fine - Woo HOO!

But I noticed that instead of having a new C: drive that was 512 Gig, I have a new D: drive that is 256 Gig, and a C: drive that is also 256 Gig. I assumed the original C: drive would have been expanded. Was there a setting I missed along the way to make this happen? I really don't want to have a second drive, I want one big C: drive. Here's a screen shot of the new partition structure:



Also - somewhat minor but led to a bit of an issue - after the copy completed, the only option was 'restart'. Restarting when both drives are attached is always a bit risky. I hit restart, and then immediately hit the power button, but I missed the window of opportunity and windows started booting. So - when can you safely remove the external drive, and can you just press/hold power to shut down the machine rather than restarting?

I've re-inserted my original drive for now, pending resolution of the above 'two drive' issue; if necessary I can simply re-do the process.

Thanks

 

I decided to risk it and simply put back in the new 512 GB drive, and used 'diskmgmt.msc' (windows disk management) to delete the 256 GB 'D:' drive, and then to 'expand' the C: drive. Worked like a charm! So if there is a better way to handle this, I'd love to know.

Here are some screen shots from the overall process, just to give others a warm and fuzzy.

Disk copy utility, Here's where I may have gone wrong, by the way - I see now that there is a scroll-bar at the right; did I miss an option to 'expand' the current 'C:' drive to fill the new drive, 'off screen'?


"Setting up partitions" - this screen appeared for a good few minutes, making me worry that something was wrong. But eventually finished:


"Disk copy in progress"- predicted about 1h 53m, took about that.




Final partition structure, after deleting the new D and expanding the C:


Inside the laptop, showing where the SSD sits (this is with the 'plate' removed):


So all in all, an easy and fast process. Questions / observations that remain:
1) not sure when one should unplug the new drive after the copy, and/or, when to shut down, since all the BIOS / Recovery screens seem to only offer 'restart'
2) got hit by weird screen darkening when in the bios / recovery screens, making screens hardly readable.

 

@Steerpike58: You did good there!

I don't know if there is a way to prevent that D partition, but deleting it the way you did and expanding C into the empty space is fine. Your partition list looks good. There is actually one more partition hidden by Windows Disc Management (a small Microsoft Reserved Partition in front of the Windows partition).

1) After the Disk Copy has completed, I suppose you can let it Restart and boot Windows (on the original SSD) then Shutdown from there (ideally with Fast Startup disabled so it doesn't just hibernate the machine state). Then swap the SSDs. I seem to recall Recovery also has a close window button (X) that shuts down, but I could be wrong.

2) I have not heard about that brightness issue before. Did you try if the Fn-keys worked to change brightness while in BIOS? If so, I would guess that brightness setting should remain in Recovery as well.

Again, good job there.

 

i need to know this before i buy a 2nd hand version. the dac is the main reason i want to swap my rig.
anyone got an info on this please?

 

Yes, per the Samsung spec sheet, this is one of the important features!

 

With the new forum, how do I subscribe to the thread?

 

Click the Watch Thread link above the message list. Same with Watch Forum. Existing subscriptions do not carry over from vBulletin (although my Tapatalk subscriptions are still intact).

 

I just stumbled across a variation on the model that is the subject of this thread ... Model NP930X5J-S01US. It looks identical, other than having no touch screen and (presumably as a result) weighing only 3.92lbs. You'd think it would be cheaper but everywhere I look, it's around $2,000. Anyone have the scoop on this machine ?

 

NP930 is non-touch, NP940 is touch.

The notebook was launched nearly a year ago but Samsung have seen no need to bring the price down, partly because there is no real competition in this size / weight segment of the market. One attraction of the -S01US is that it has a second M.2 slot so you can increase the storage capacity. The less expensive members of this family have an empty space on the board.

I would have bought this notebook but Samsung decided to stop selling notebooks in Europe. I had to settle for a Dell E7440 (which left a lot of money in my pocket ).

 

But the NP940 - which I have - cost me about $1,900 when I bought it last June, but is now available for about $200 less. I understand the overall appeal and uniqueness of this 'family' (15.6", lightweight), but I'm wondering if the NP930 specifically is just a rare beast that hardly anyone carries and thus isn't seeing any price movement. I'd seriously consider snapping this one up due to the lack of touchscreen but I'm not going to pay $2000+. My plan would be to pass on the 940 to a colleague who would appreciate the touchscreen.

Isn't the Dell XPS 15 line a much closer match to the Samsung NP940/930 line?

 

The E7440 is only a 14" panel but I have the FHD version which is good. The weight is1.70kg / 3.75 lbs and travel weight: 2.02kg / 4.45 lbs with the 65W PSU (I tried a 40W PSU but the computer is severel throttled). While the NP930X5J itself is heavier (1.80kg) it uses the lighter 40W PSU so the travel weight is about the same as the E7440. The XPS15 / M3800 has the same size display as the NP930, and I looked very carefully but was put off by various factors including (i) the more power hungry CPUs; (ii) the glossy screen; and (iii) the travel weight (~2.45kg) due to the 130W PSU. While the E7440 battery capacity is less than I'd like it is external and easy to carry a spare (and the new E7450 battery looks to be compatible and has about 20% more capacity).

Anyway, I must reprimand myself for going off-topic but it's Samsung's loss. The NP930 reached some European countries and the UK version must have been about to enter production when someone decreed no more Samsung notebooks to be sold in Europe.

John

 

Hey everyone,

Joining the club with my new 940X5J! Got lucky and found the i7/256gb on sale for under $1600, never been happier with a laptop purchase so far!

Quick question though - what are you guys using for laptop sleeves/cases? I'm looking for a padded case/sleeve so I can put this in a backpack, but I don't want to get a generic 15.6" sleeve since those are made for thicker laptops and mine will be pretty loose inside.

I'm looking at getting a macbook 15 case, since those are a dime a dozen and the NP940 has pretty similar dimensions to the mac 15 (the NP940 is a little thinner but longer). Anyone have experience with this?

Thanks!

 

I don't think you're going to find a perfect fit but this works ok.

 

So I am coming into this thread after 57 pages and a year behind.

We are proud owners of a 13.3" Ativa book 9 ( from when they first came out) and we love this laptop.

We are now considering getting the 15.6" version for my spouse who uses my 13.3" a lot for watching movies and Netflix. We thought the larger screen would be better.

We went to Best Buy here in the States yesterday to try, feel and handle ( especially the weight) of the 15.6". Best Buy no longer has any machines in their store....online only.

My question. Is there a retail store that actually has a Ativa 15.6" on the floor or are they all being sold online only?

My alternative is to order one...but it might go back if it doesn't feel right to us. ( Again I am most concerned about weight)

Thanks.

 

Is your current 13.3" Book 9 one of the NP900X3* series or the touchscreen NP940X3G? There is a significant weight difference (2.5 lb to 3.05 lb, IIRC). The NP930X5J is just under 4 lb but is much larger (37% bigger display area). However, it is the lightest notebook in the 15.6" size range and one can just about hold it in one corner with the display open. If picked up by itself it will feel light but if you have a 13.3" notebook in the other hand it will feel heavy.

John

 

Thanks John....our 13.3 is touchscreen.

I just found the 15.6 touchscreen i7 256 brand new for $1399 on a one day sale....I think that is a fantastic buy.....I just need to convince my spouse to let me take the plunge.

 

At that price it's definitely excellent value.

John

 

Edit: Nice. Is that the B&H deal?

It's still going for around $1,800 on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Edition-15-6-Inch-Touchscreen-Mineral/dp/B00J49ZH56

Last I saw the 15.6" in-person was probably around 3 months ago at a local Microsoft Store.

Hopefully Samsung will release at least one version of a 15" Broadwell later this year. If they do, adding a QHD+ panel along with perhaps a quad processor would be ideal.

 

I would think the first two would be a real possibility, they might wait till W10 since the 15" is still new. But no chance they move away from ULV CPU. For that hopefully the Dell XPS15 gets a broadwell refresh and they fix some of the flaws.

 

I took the plunge buying the B & H one day sale. ( $1399 for the i7/256 config touchscreen) Arrives Wednesday.

 

If Samsung waits until W10 to update a 15"/15.6" (certainly possible), that will likely mean a W10 + Skylake integration which would be most ideal. Many OEM's are skipping Broadwell entirely for certain models due to its short lifecycle.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2865...els-skylake-chips-in-second-half-of-year.html

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2864...-broadwell-pcs-and-wait-for-skylake-cpus.html

 

BTW, Dell have tweaked the M3800 (Precision equivalent of the XPS15) with a 3840 x 2160 panel and a Thunderbolt port.

It all assumes that Intel won't procrastinate in order to get the maximum money out of the current chips. They didn't seem to be in much hurry to ship Broadwell while Haswell was still selling although getting good yields out of the 14nm process could have been the key constrain. However, if Skylake is produced in the fabs that are currently producing Broadwell then changing the type of chips being made shouldn't be too difficult.

Waiting for Windows 10 is another good reason for delaying new models. There could be a surge of new purchases if it is an OS worth having and people finally decide to upgrade their older notebooks having realised that tablets have their shortcomings.

John

 

Very interesting. If they have fixed the "coil whine" issue as well that could be the first PC laptop to be a legitimate high-performance desktop replacement. The quad core cpu, 16GB ram, 1-2TB SSD model will certainly fetch a high price tag. Tag on 2x 4K monitors and what a setup!

I agree, W10 appears to be the OS W8 should have been. But there's no reason for anyone to wait if they're satisfied with the hardware as it will be a free and hopefully painless upgrade. Though, who knows if Samsung's software will be compatible?!?

Kind of wish they hadn't changed the forum, I can't tell which threads I've read anymore.

 

I saw mine originally at the Microsoft store also (May 2014), but it was gone when I returned a few months later.

Just curious - you say you'd like them to add the QHD+ panel ... is your eyesight that good, or are you confident that the scaling support in windows 8.1 is good enough? I have the 15.6" with 'only' 1920 x resolution, and I find some menus in some apps are almost impossible to read. I've turned on just about every 'make things look bigger' option I can find, so it's basically usable but I can't imagine it being usable if the resolution were any higher. But I do confess - I'm an old geezer with less than 20/20 vision! Adobe Photoshop elements (ironically a bundled Samsung app!) has some menus that are barely readable.

 

I was just thinking aloud and since they're now using QHD+ panels in both 13.3" versions of their ATIV 9 and ATIV 9+, thus why can't they do something similiar for a 15.6" version? Of course an 1800p or 2160p panel could always be scaled down by the end-user depending on their vision.

And as others have stated, supposedly W10 will improve further on scaling as W8.1 did to an extent. However, the consumer is ultimately at the mercy of 3rd party application vendors to make their UI's more scaling-friendly.

 

My concern is that we now seem to be in a 'resolution war' similar to what happened with digital cameras a while back. Finally, with digital cameras, features such as low-light performance, noise elimination, HDR, video capabilities, and such have become the new 'buzzwords' and resolution has thankfully settled down. It 's not clear to me exactly what benefit there is to having a super-high resolution display on a laptop ... is it for the display of photographs? Downscaling is only an attractive option when it's done right; on my MacBook air, I've had to set the entire system to a lower resolution to make it usable, and this results in a screen that is 'fuzzy'. So it just seems like a bad idea to implement a high resolution display when the technology (software scaling) is not yet there to support it. I looked at the 13" version of the Samsungs and ruled them out simply because of their 'too high' resolution ... ironic in some ways!

I'm very hopeful that Windows 10 will deliver some much needed improvements in this area.

 

From what I've read in the M3800 forum, the current production with the 4812 CPU doesn't have any coil while issues.

Bold thread headings for the recent ones I haven't read is working OK for me (using the vB 3.1 skin (selector is in bottom left of screen).

I share your concerns. In theory the higher resolution results in better definition of both text and graphics but the impact reduces as the pixel density increases. As an example, the output of 150 dpi printers was a bit ragged, 300 dpi is better and 600 dpi is plenty although 1200 dpi is available I can't notice the improvement. However, each doubling of dots/ pixels per inch results in four times as many pixels to be processed. There are also some suggestions that Intel's pixel mapping does some funny things such that dropping the logical display resolution such that 4 hi-dpi pixels become 1 normal pixel doesn't give a result as sharp as on a normal resolution display.

Given that not everyone wants to have to buy the latest version of all their software packages because they are more scaling aware although the developers would thank the hardware manufacturers for pushing us in that direction, I am hoping that a feature of Windows 10 will be per-application scaling / logical display resolution so that users can set these parameters for each program they use in order to get the best results. However, nothing I've read about Windows 10 hints that Microsoft are working on this.

John

 

Yes, that's much better. Thanks.

You can disable scaling for any individual application in W8, but it won't be much help on 1440 and higher screens <15". Unfortunately, I use several apps that do not scale well and may never be updated. Heck, even MS' own apps like remote desktop, excel activex controls and control panel applets don't scale properly. Sometimes the only solution is to downgrade the resolution. But a 4K display should resize to 1080p nicely.

 

I want the facility to be able to define both scaling and display resolution for each application so I could tell Windows to run a particular program (probably on account of microscopic text) at, say 1280 x 768 but 100% scaling and it would sort out the graphics accordingly. At present changing the resolution affects all programs. I can't see what is difficult about providing this facility. Until that capability is provided I'll have to keep to a resolution no greater than FHD.

John

 

Am I a fool to send this back?

I bought a NP940 i7/256 for a great price of $1399. It arrives tomorrow.

I woke up this morning and thought..." Do we really need this?" We have a 13.3
i7 256 that we have had for a year now and love it. My spouse and I share it. ( along with a desktop in our office). I thought my spouse would want his own book 9....so I researched the 15.6 and took the plunge. Now he says we don't need two machines and he probably will not use it that much.

Is this deal so good that I should go through with it anyway.....

 

One of you will most likely appreciate the bigger screen and a keyboard with dedicated navigation keys (to name but two features). Unless you use the desktop for gaming I suspect that it will be the computer you decide is surplus to requirements.

John

 

i just picked up a used ativ book9 2014 with i5/128GB/8GB config for US$813 incl s&h&tax from amazon. seems like the going price for this is about the same on
ebay.

i plan to get a TS512GMTS800 to upgrade the disk, at which point this becomes an
expensive piece of hardware to bump.

is there a hardcase like this that fits this laptop? something like:

http://www.speckproducts.com/macbook-cases/macbook-air/seethru-for-macbook-air.html