SA upgrades -- are these possible?

hi,
Looking at an SA, but I'd like to know if it'll take the following upgrades "out of the box" or if some customizations are needed

for a core i5, is it possible to upgrade to
- 16 GB of RAM
- replace the main drive with a Crucial M4 256 SSD?

How hard is it to do this?
Thanks and sorry if this is covered somewhere else, I could not find it.

 

interested in this as well. I know you can do it. Just haven't found a guide anywhere.

Video (older S series swap in CD drive): Add a 2nd HDD or SSD to Sony VAIO S Series laptop - YouTube
and the caddy: 2nd HDD / SSD caddy for Sony VAIO SA, SB Series (Black) [SONY-2BAY-SB-BLACK] - $44.55 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

 

Thanks for the reply and the links on your signature; it looks like I can put a second drive quite easily; do you know if it'll use SATA III on the caddy? Else can I boot from the caddy and get sata III from the main drive?

The idea is to run my VMs from the fast SSD where I need the speed, I don't really care a lot for the OS drive

Has anyone put 16 GB on this machine yet? -- does core i5 VS i7 many any difference?

 

I'm not sure about 16GB of RAM (if you can find 12GB 1333 DDR3 SODIMM you may be the first one to try it ), but you can replace the HDD (I assume you are talking about HDD version) easily. Look it up in the SA/SB/SC/SD owner place, you'll find the instruction with pictures included.

 

16 GB is theoretically possible to establish ...
Chipset Intel ® M67 it makes do.
http://ark.intel.com/products/52224
and
http://www.intel.com/content/dam/doc/datasheet/6-chipset-c200-chipset-datasheet.pdf
but on board - 4Gb and only one free RAM sodimm slot, and on sale only sodimm 8Gb ddr3 1333, for example
NEW SAMSUNG 1x8GB 8G LAPTOP Memory DDR3 1333 SODIMM RAM PC3-10600S Notebook | eBay
and so, only 12 in total

 

Thanks to all, so I am now looking for a good deal on an "SA" with an HD to replace; main usage is to run all my VMs from my portable lab, so 1600x900 screen is nice -- which is in turn THE main drawback of the Lenovo X220 the other worthy competitor.

Does anyone know of coupons or a good place to score?

 

Just an important remark concerning HDD: Yes you can easily swap the HDD for an SSD. You can also use a caddy to replace the ODD with an SSD/HDD. BUT the caddy will only have SATA II. And if you buy a new machine now it seems (according to user reports in the Owner thread) that the new Vaio SA3s are limited to Sata II on all ports! On the older machines you could revert to an older bios and get Sata III functionality back on the main HDD port. But on the new ones that trick doesn't work!

 

Ahhh ... back to yet more investigation using an M4 256 sata 3 speed demon on a sat 2 for VMs would surely suck.

 

Yes it is a pity that Sony doesn't care to give us Sata III on that machine. I'm in 'luck' as I have the older model and can have Sata III with the old bios but have to live with the louder fan etc. which would be fixed with the new bios versions.

 

I don't think this would be noticeable to most users?

 

Most users may not need sata III speed, which for a VM lab is "have to have" unless a patience-developing device is desired ...
Compared with a Lenovo W520 and a Dell M6500, my current machines I and any other user would notice it -- my goal is to have a reduced reasonable working lab.

After extensive investigation I am getting to the conclusion that available options are being carefully adjusted by manufacturers; they include
- do not allow more than 4 GB of RAM on any ultra book (ie: Asus UX31), for else the gap between ultra book like this (which does support sata III on the stock 256 GB drive with an i7 -- although low voltage thing--)
- do not provide a 1/2 decent screen on any 14 inch
- cripple all 13 inches in one way or another (including the Z2 although the only rare exception in most categories

WHY?
Because otherwise there's no gap between "workstations" and "premium machines"

It is very sad that my (ancient) Dell D630 14 inch screen is much better than most current 14 inch screens ... (x768 resolution ... anyone? ... pleeeaaze!)
15 inches still weigh a relative ton (save the Vaio at 4.4 lbs and 1080 screen)

The more I look at it, the more I realize that machines are adjusted if they slip with features between these; case in point the SA being capped sata II (Toshiba does similar uncalled for tactic)

Conclusion: I may not be able to escape the "luggable category", at any cost ...

 

One solution may be to get the SA with the Vaio preconfigured SSD RAID0 array. If it's the same as the Z2 SSD setup (which all indications show it is), then it will be two SATAII (well, the Z2 has a SATAIII option, too) SSD connected to the Intel ICH via two seperate SATA links. That way, you still get the performance you're looking for. Get at least 256GB (128GB x2) to get enough performance to top more SATAIII SSD in at least read/write sequentials.

 

A nice option, I did not know they use two separate channels.
This is tempting ... I'll post news on whatever I do and experiences.

Any sources for good prices? I am in Canada but travel almost weekly to the US, every couple of months to Europe.

 

I'm in the same boat... W520 is my main machine. With the slice I get 9 hours work but it's a beast to carry. Not to mention the power brick...

I want:

- Minimum 1600x900 and reasonable quality
- 16GB RAM
- SATA III
- Reasonable battery life (5 hours)

Is it so much to ask??

Did you find anything?

I thought maybe SA was the one.. I had the previous S Series and it was ok but lower screen res. Maybe I'll just bite the bullet and accept SATA II - I believe one of the ports on my W520 is SATA II which means I may be able to try this out.

 

You could search for either a refurb SA2 series or a used one through ebay. You would have to sacrifice the 16GB for 12GB ram. Battery life with slice would be 5h +

 

^ or get an SA3 and flash the BIOS to R1031H4 which has SATA III support.

 

Or get a EU version SSD array Those are based on 4 x 64 GB Sata2 SSD's with 4 channels. It is almost as fast as my 2 x 256 GB Sata3 setup in the Z! That gets over 1000 MB/sec sequential read, the SA gets up to around 750/800 MB/sec sequential read.