Found part number for the RAID component in Z-series

I found the part number for the raid component in the Z-series. You just need two low-profile SSD, and you should be able to do RAID in the Z-series laptop without paying for RAID config from Sony.
Part number is A-1553-769-A
You can go here to purchase the part
http://www.sparepartswarehouse.com/searchresults.aspx?pn=A-1553-769-A
You may be able to use this in the TT as well, but I'm not so sure about that.

I await some of you guys' result on this one, as I'm looking into the Z-series
Also, don't forget to rep if you find this info helpful.

 

Cool. Thanks for the info. Appreciate it.

 

Thanks for the info, but this is not the only part you need to install RAID. The bracket holding 2 SSDs is also different.

 

Does BIOS natively support RAID even with non-RAID Z?
Will be RAID enabled when using RAID cable?

 

You mean this?
http://www.sparepartswarehouse.com/Sony,Laptop,Part,410914801.aspx

 

Yes, most probably. I cannot be 100% sure because there is not picture at the link.

 

BIOS is the same (latest is R3052M3, embedded controller 1280K). I believe connecting two drives is all you need. To be absolutely sure I would need to have another Z available, without RAID. At the moment I only have one (with RAID).

 

That means that you can probably open the laptop up and check to see if the part numbers are accurate. Although I'm pretty sure you don't want to do that with your $2000+ laptop.

 

How do you squeeze two drives in such a thin notebook like Z?

 

Thanks zephir, greaat!
These are slim ssd 's , there 1,8 inch

 

May I ask you how did you find the part number? Do you have some picture of Z with parts numbers? Maybe I would like to buy some another parts in future...

 

Here's the website:
http://www.sparepartswarehouse.com/Sony,Vaio,VGN-Z590,Laptop,Parts.aspx

They have other specific Z-series and TT-series models too, apparently. However, I'm pretty sure they all share the same parts.

 

Ah OK, thanks....I was hoping for some pictures like this, which we have for the TX series...

 

Do you see the POST showing RAID information?
I have non-RAID Z and it does not show anything about RAID enabled BIOS.
Is it possibility for the cable turn on RAID feature?

 

Maybe it's a dipswitch on the mobo; of course I we could get our hands on a service manual....

 

You mean this one...?

 

No, that's the disassembly manual. I mean the service manual with part numbers and drawings.

 

Ah yep....that would be great...and some reliable source for the parts, not like nexttronics...

 

Note that OCZ sells RAID0 SSDs which are two SSDs sandwiched together in a standard 2.5" form factor with a controller on the drive side.

Is it worth it, though? Probably not.
What really hurts with cheap SSDs is random write performance, and striping two drives won't help that at all. You'll still have the stuttering that you won't see with a HD or high priced SSD. What really will be improved is sustained read/write speed, but that's not the bottleneck.
You'll get double the capacity, though, which might be important.

IMO the best SSD solution today is a single Intel X-25. If that's too expensive, get a 500 GB Scorpio Black and short-stroke it to 80 GB -- it'll probably outperform pretty much every cheap SSD on the market for real world use (and you can use the rest of the drive for backups and video which doesn't require speed).

 

eehm..I've tried the OCZ ..and did you check the OCZ forums..seems the new Vertex firmware causes data failure ...
And, I owned a previous OCZ core..and was rubbish.
I agree stick to sammy or Intel or stay away from ssd .

 

Although a cool mod, i really don't see any reason to convert to the dual 1.8" raid in the Z.

Performance of 1.8" SSDs is usually very poor, and more than likely, the performance of this raid will be below that of the Intel X25-M or equivalent SSDs. The cost/benefit ratio makes this mod unfeasible imo.

 

I have 1.8" and 2.5" SLC Samsung SSDs and they perform exactly the same (+/- margin of statistical error in measurement)

There is nothing in the construction itself that would render 1.8" SSDs slower or inferior to 2.5" SSDs - in fact, in case of big suppliers it is most likely they'll be exactly the same - just with more tightly packed PCB.

Btw, there are 1.8" X18-Ms, too - two X18-Ms are going to be faster than X25-M, although it is quite questionable if that kind of performance if needed at all for notebook use (even for a standard desktop use)

By the way - My Vaio Z has seen Samsung SLC, Samsung MLC and X25-E drives... Currently I'm settled with X25-E & Samsung MLC inside... honestly, there is absolutely no difference in windows boot time and application load times between Samsung SLC and X25-E.

The only diff is that large-file copy is faster - but whether that is worth >3x price premium - I leave to others to judge. But - unless you have two slow RAID SSDs, I don't see any benefit in wasting money for two fast SSDs and RAID-0-ing them.

 

The RAID option is quite interesting because of the new Samsung MMDPE56G8DXP-0VB00 256gb 1.8" - i.e. 512gb ssd in Vaio Z.

 

The Z doesn't use 1.8" SSD, they use two small profiles 2.5" SSD

 

That's not the point of the RAID cable. The point is that you can even RAID two Intel SSD's together.
I see that you're horribly mistaken about the RAID in OCZ SSD's. They use RAID on cheap drives to provide faster performance for cheaper price. At the end of the day, it's still like two crappy drives with external RAID, which mean that random read and write are still horrible.
I would love to get two 256GB Samsung SSD and RAID them in the Z using the cable. Unfortunately, my fund is not unlimited

 

It is not correct: Vaio Z with 256gb SSD has two Samsung 1.8" SSD MMCQE28GFMUP-MVA drives http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=4596266&postcount=10

 

No, TT flex cable is different see below, P/N for TT is 1-857-159-11 (FPC-167 vs. FPC-126 on Z)

This is Z flex cable



This is TT

 

wow ..

got several question

1. wouldn't a 500gb WD blue or black cause vibration noises ? because that is what stoped me from switching to a 500gb
2. a cheap ssd write/read speed is crap .. but if you can raid it wouldn't it double the speed? =/ where can i get my hand on a dual raid ssd anyways with the bracket and flex cable

3. according to the website 2 post above this one .. it seem to be a software raid aka intel matrix storage ? or is it a bios raid .

 

Since this hardware RAID (from the BIOS) which driver is needed? Im using XP Pro and Intel's SATA driver for ICH9. If I upgrade the single drive to a RAID configuration, Im expecting a blue screen upon botting without RAID drivers. is this correct?

 

It would be a little complicated but feasible if you want to save and restore your current configuration to a Raid setup but if you planned to start from scratch, that's really easy just plug the 2 SSD on the Raid cable and reboot. While in windows, you will have 2 separate disks, your current disk and the additionnal one not the Raid setup yet. You then flash your Bios to any available BIOS from Sony (or use the offset trick to force Raid), upon next reboot the Raid setup will be recognized. You can then reinstall, SATA drivers do indeed include Raid drivers. If you want to save and restore current config, you ghost it first, you do everything above, you restore. You will then get blue screen at startup but that's normal. You can then use an XP disk with the SATA drivers slipstreamed and choose repair and it should work if my memory serves me well as that's exactly what I did on mine.

 

Well, as far as XP goes I just need to know what slipstreamed RAID drivers I need. It is very easy to clone my current XP single drive using Acronis TrueImage Workstation w/Universal Restore. It will allow to image my current single drive configuration and restore it into the new RAID setup with slipstreamed RAID drivers.

I've cloned my XP install from 3 different laptops all with totally dissimilar hardware and HD controllers and it always works flawlessly every time without ever having to re-install the OS.

My Vaio already has the Advanced Options MENU enabled and I can see the IDE/SATA/RAID otpion available.

The only thing I need to know is which RAID drivers I need. From the Sony Support Page, they have slipstreamed SATA drivers available (the ones I am using now on my Z) but unless I'm wrong, those will not work for a RAID configuration.

 

Try those http://philch.free.fr/files/IATA88drivers.zip

 

Will try, thanks!

 

how did you get the raid option, i read about update the bios after connecting the second ssd, but for my vgn-z41wd i can't find a bios.

 

hey sorry for OT,

pardon my ignorance, what do you mean by short stroke it to 80gb? do you mean partitioning it to 80 gb only, speeds up the performance of a 500gb scorpio black?

TIA

 

The attachment pictures are some parts for swap DVD to 2.5" HDD. Who know the part number?

 

Can anybody tell me the part numbers of the 2,5'' Bracket (2 pieces) + 4 Rubberfeet for the SSD and the 2,5'' Solo SSD Cable for the Vaio Z?

I want to replace the 1,8'' Samsung with a 2,5'' X25-M.

Thanks in advance.

 

Why would you like to replace while X25-M is a loser in both capacity and overall performance? (excluding 320G)

 

Any other suggestions? Dual 1,8'' Raid? Can you recommend good ones?

 

Hi nexttronics are bad ? or ?

 

Heh, that post is so old I nearly forgot why I didn't like them. Now I remembered, I paid for their service to find some part and they never answered.

 

because i have ordered sata cable for aw series ... you know ..
they responding fortunately and am in england so its now two weeks from order and they said it was posted i have now customs number ..
do you know what is it ?
thnx

 

You'll have to pay some tax I guess (?), as US are not part of EU But at least you're lucky, as it seems you'll receive what you ordered.

 

Why taxes ? wth ?
oh dear lucky am bit paranoid ..

 

Anyone actually complete the 1.8" dual SSD swap?

 

Wait for the X18m G2.

 

Hi,

Did you ever find out what these part numbers are? I too need to replace the 1.8" drive with a 2.5" drive and need to find these parts.

If anyone else knows, please post.

Thanks!

 

Hi guys
I've got the first gen Z (VGN-Z11XN)
Since then I have upgraded the following in order of occurence:
HDD to memoright 128GB SSD GT
CPU from P8600 to T9600 then to P9700
and most recently bought the raid cable and upgraded from single 128GB SSD to 2x OCZ vertex 256GB for a total of 488GB (formated)
Windows 7 did not need any drivers.
By the way, the RAID ribbon cable offers microSATA (often called uSATA) usually used on 1.8" SSDs.
But I had two OCZ vertex of 256GB each and I thought I will make it work.
Took me all night to find the corresponding pins on the SSD and the ribbon cable but made it work.
BTW, the RAID Ribbon can work in place of the DVD so you can ultimately have 2x Raid sets.
I tried having the standard SATA cable with my old drive on the standard HDD position and the RAID cable in place of the DVD.
the 2x Vertex drives showed up as one in Win 7 when I booted from the single drive.
Better do a fresh install when you make a RAID set.
BTW, the raid controller allows you to select RAID 0, 1 or JBOD but you need to flash the old firmware (pre summer 2009) and enable the adv menu.
one of these days I will open up my Z to show the connection of the RAID cable to the standard SATA 2.5" drives.
Two things to note:
I didn't think to order the bracket for the two SSDs so since they are larger I removed the casing of both, placed a piece of antistatic film between them and stuck two pieces of blue-tac to keep them in place.

My Z has been running 18hours a day since September when I did the raid mod with no problems (I had access to Win 7 earlier as a developer)

 

Where's you buy the cable and how did you pin the uSATA to the regular SATA connector on the SSD's?

 

I bought COMPL_PWB_FPC-126(SSD RAID)(S)
Item# A1553769A
from the www.sparepartswarehouse.com
To better explain the cable mod I will have to post pics. No time to do so today.
In short I cut the socket connector and the ribbon cable lengthwise and then I had to mask one pin on the drive's socket with a bit of tape and that was it.
Again, a photo will explain better.