VAIO TT 11LN Upgrade : from crappy & slow hdd to rocking fast SSD !

Hello World !

I just thought I could share my recent experience regarding several changes I made to my Vaio TT.

I bought a Vaio TT11LN last year. I wonderful computer but the hell slow !!!
I ran a few benchmarks on the built-in 1.8" HDD. Let me show ya all how well it performs...

(originally it was running on Vista Home 32bits, 2GB RAM...)
Let me introduce the wonderful Toshiba MK1216GSG - 1.8" / 5400 RPM :
System : Win7 x64 / 1600MHz C2D SU9300 / 4GB DDR3-8500.
Antivirus & Microsoft Search indexer OFF







Err... I won't comment.
Now what ? Well I wanted to buy a photofast v3 but I could not find any. All resellers I mailed told me "sorry, dude but hold on, we're expecting smt better soon"... Well same answer for Intel's X18M. Out of stock or way too expensive. So I went to ebay and found my candidate :


KingSpec (uh ? whazzat ?) 128GB microsata. 150MB/s Read, 85MB/s write (specs)... Well waaaaaay better than the above right ?
I bought two of them as I intend to go for raid 0.
I bought those babies on Sept. 22nd from a chinese comp. and got them yesterday (free express shipping). I must say that I was expecting worse.
Plus, I got them duty free (19.6% off).

After buying them, I decided to take the laptop apart to check if everything was in place... I mean the ribbon connectors... I followed the tutorial on that
kunkoku website and especially those 3 pics :





That was easy.
That being done, it was disappointing to discover that the 2 HDD ribbon connector was not there. Instead, one ribbon with 2 connectors : 1 for the HDD, 1 for the CD drive. Plus, the included HDD enclosure would probably not do the job.

So I went back to the computer and tried to find the required "things", not really knowing what that could look like. Using Google and some of my (poor) german skills, it took me 20 mins to find the needed parts and where to buy them : A raid bracket and a 2xSSD+1CD ribbon.

UPS Tracker says they'll deliver the parcel tomorrow. Good timing.
Unfortunately, I have no patience. I _had_ to stick one of my precious in place of that son-of-a-snail HDD.
I did the Win7 install from a USB stick to the new SSD. That took a bare 20 mins to complete.
Win7 now boots and waits for my order within 30secs VS 2mins+ and some more extra time to become idle. Amazing.
I used to waaaaaaait after almost every click... wait for the browser, wait for explorer, wait for this or that... Now I can barely keep up with this jewel.

I got a few screens for you. They speak for themselves.







I could only bench the drive that was actually also the system drive. That means probably that if I had had a microsata->sata adapter and benched it on my desktop computer, the results would have been better, and maybe closer to factory specs... Anyway... 'seen that IOPS ?

I dunno if I should really expect anything more from tomorrow. I'll keep you informed if you like. I could also post more pics if needed. I'm going to open it again tomorrow and try to set the raid array up. I think the 2 SSDs will be too thick to fit in so I may need to get rid of their case. I'll let you know and bench it all again.

If somebody wants results from a specific application (xxxxMARK and all), let me know. I'll try to provide that information.

Oh and btw, I also had to tweak the bios to enable VT and full bios options, especially RAID options (as well as _many_ other options) following these instructions

That's all for now, got snails to eat and wine to drink
That was Yann writing for you from his lightning fast VAIO TT11LN / couch / France. Take care.

 

very nice info

 

Well, I'm back.
Here the final part.

UPS did deliver the missing parts yesterday and everything went fine.

Here are the parts:
1/ The raid ribbon
- product references


- unboxed


- the ribbon itself (notice that it comes flat. It has to be folded)



2/ the ssd bracket
- packaging


- unboxed



Here's the Vaio TT11LN with 1SSD in place of the original HDD, keyboard removed


SSD & bracket removed : the original ribbon cable.



The original HDD



Removing the original ribbon



Inserting & folding the raid ribbon cable


The 2 SSDs


"Sandwiching" the SSDs



Booting the computer and Raid-0 configuration


Well, it works !
As expected, the SSDs would not fit into the raid bracket because of their thickness. I tried to extract the PCB from their enclosure but finally gave up with the backet because their size not being adapted to the backet.

A few more pics !


See the controller is that "weak" JMF602. No indilinx nor samsung but hey ! that's a cheap SSD
I did not use the bracket. I simply stacked the 2 SDD as shown on a previous picture. It fits. I can close the laptop case properly and they would not move at all.

Final step : Reinstall Win7 64bits and bench again.
The install process (again, from my usb key) took between 15 and 20 minutes to complete (Win7 Ultimate 64bits v7600).

Here are the bench results

CrystalDiskmark


ATTO Disk Benchmark


Side by side comparisons with iso-scaled graphs (photoshopped)






Windows performance index


And finally a boot video in everyday life conditions (all drivers and needed applications loaded - see video description on youtube), cuz there's a real gap between a brand new win7 setup and a computer that's ready to use.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY0YTl7A6Z4

 

Congratulations for the post with lots of pics.Very well done.

 

nice upgrade on TT. everything looks fine and great, tho i think you boot time on bios abit slow *where the VAIO logo stays on the screen on the first boot.*

 

what noise is that in the background ?

 

>Miyabi : You're right, it's a bit slow compare to non-raid configuration. that's due to the intel raid bios doing its job.

In the "hacked" bios, you can decide to set the "SATA Configuration" to either AHCI or RAID. If you choose RAID, the intel matrix utility loads and takes some time.

I decided to hide that information at boot time after finishing the setup (it's a bios option, see the BIOS picture in the section "Booting the computer and Raid-0 configuration" posted above, where it says "RAID configuration : show" - the other option is "hide").

You can still have a look at what should (could) be displayed just after the VAIO logo on the last screen of that very section...

The options are as follow :
- 1 HDD/SSD configuration : setting the "Raid configuration" to "show" is useless cuz it won't let you enter the intel bios utility. Only the 1st 2 lines are displayed (intel matrix... and copyright). The ctrl-i key doesn't work either.

From the moment you stick a 2nd drive (2x HDD/SSD + 'SATA configuration' set to 'RAID'), the message changes... you can see it in the 1st picture of the same section of pictures previously posted...

Setting the option to 'hide' does not skip that screen, but rather hides it. The intel utility still loads the raid configuration and checks for drives & integrity, which takes some time. That's the explanation

> zimbros12 : The Vaio is not responsible for that noise, but rather one of the two other big tower servers located right under the desk. more than 14 drives are spinning there in RAID60 and sometimes, they make you remember that they're still working

 

what boot time u got right now ? did u clock it >

 

Hi. The current boot time from cold boot to complete idle is about 1 minute with all following startup applications loaded :

Startup programs :
- Avast Pro antivirus
- Bluetooth software
- LogmeIn Service
- Realtek manager
- VMWare drivers
- Vodaphone mobile connect
- Alps pointing device driver
- Raid event monitor
- intel GMA manager
- Daemon tools pro
- Teracopy

 

I am not aware that it is possible to clock anything on the vaio. Bios settings dont offer options such as changing FSB / PCI / CPU Multiplier, etc. If you know anything about that, pls let me know.

regards,
Yann

 

Dear Yann!
I wish to repeat installation RAID on the laptop. Please, write what by and where you modified BIOS. I have already ordered details.
Thanks!

 

I've also ordered those parts last week as this is a discontinued line i thought i would get the parts in case they ran out. I bought mine from Sonyservices in the US, the connector is a little cheaper through them.
My friend will also ship it to me free ship when she sends me a letter or something.

AMZ1969 good luck with your upgrade.

edited to add:
You should also use the original rubber support that came with your mechancial HD to secure the SSD's in the bracket.

 

Actually the bios upgrades sony released to enable vt in many cases disabled the efi boot option that allowed you to enable the advanced menu which you need to enable raid.

So....poster above needs to search hacking the bios and enabling advanced menu. Once that's done he can enable raid screen.

 

Ah... Lucky me for finding this thread~

Though this question is directed at Rachel, if the OP is around I own the older Z.
I just need to confirm something before commiting myself to an approx $1k upgrade... If Rachel has already answered this elsewhere; then flame / punish me as required (T_T)*. But it is a Friday so...

I noticed that the OP initially had a single HDD version of the TT. Connecting a RAID cable with 2x SSDs to the motherboard; I know that won't enable RAID and to enable that requires more setup.
So let's say we simply connected the 2x SSDs onto the dual connector and linked them up to the motherboard, not doing anything extra. Does the laptop then just simply recognise the two SSDs seperately (C: and D ? Or won't it boot at all and requires BIOS hacking to enable RAID?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=363312&page=3
At the bottom of that thread and page, philfree describes this but on a machine running XP, with some sort BIOS mod hack I couldn't find out more about there. I know what involves the BIOS hack, but the one there seems different...?

Cheers (and apologies to Rachel who might end up repeating herself...)

 

5ushimonster I couldn't really give an answer one way or the other about this now until i do the upgrade myself. Seeing what others have written though it could be likely that i might have to do some BIOS hacking.
I'm hoping though that this is quite straightfoward.

I know some others have done this upgrade on a TT and i may ask them for their input.

Edited to add:
This what Philfree wrote-

 

Hi all!
Today I took 2 BIOS:
1. From model without RAID (VGN-TT1RLN)
2. From model with RAID (VGN-TT190UB)
After processing.exe a file both BIOS have name R2021M4. Then I have made comparison of files bit by bit. They are absolutely identical! Now I think, that the menu will appear automatically, after connection of a cable and 2 HDD.

By the way, at me is BIOS R2022M4 with built in SLICv2.1. I can share

 

You know Intel released 9.6 RAID driver support.
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/detail_desc.aspx?agr=N&ProductID=&DwnldID=15251


Let us know how you get on AMZ1969.

You probably will do this upgrade before me. I have gone for 128x2 uSata Samsung 220/200MB drives. I'm looking/hoping to retain the info on my SSD when i do this upgrade. I already have a single SSD installed.

I still am not sure if you can put them in non RAID mode JBOD and disable one drive to conserve power when on battery? I'm not sure if switching between modes will mean that you lose your info on your SSD?

 

Taking a RAID configuration out of RAID will delete all data. This is since RAID allows the BIOS (thus OS) to see numerous drives as one, and since there is no particular pattern as to which drive the data being saved goes to (bits go to one drive, other bits to another drive), you try taking it out of RAID and you probably will end up with parts of whole files or something.

To top that off, I do remember Zoinks talk about this very subject a while back with his SSD degradation tests on the new Z.

 

I would go for Samsung Slim SSD or Intel X18M. Kingspec is too expensive for its JMicron.

 

I do not think that there will be a big problem with drivers. The main thing that has earned BIOS. I do not worry loss of data. I anew will instal all programs. I will try SSD Samsung.

 

So i got my SSD today and connector and have fitted the parts. It is quite funny because as predicted i don't have any RAID menu. It does though work but i have two separate drives. I had one drive already with OS on it. The extra storage space might be a good idea if i cannot get the RAID 0 to work. It might solve my concern about power consumption so i'm not entirely sure what i'm going to do now. I even have an option to disable the 2nd drive if i want. I think i might leave it for now and just use that drive as extra storage space.

Edited to add:
The hardest part about this was fitting the bracket lol

UPDATE

Well i can now see the RAID menu. I Updated my BIOS and my RAID was recognised then. I don't think it is important what version you upgrade to. I am though using the latest TT290 BIOS. I've not checked power consumption yet. I have options to boot in RAID 0, 1 and non RAID mode.

Boot up is about the same.

 

I looked at the power consumption today, it looks to be pretty much the same. I compensated slightly i turned iLink and the SD card of in the power management but i doubt going on past Vaios that it made a difference.

At 99% i was predicted 13hrs 27 mins with a slightly reduced brightness setting. It seems to be on par anyway to what i was getting before. I've turned the brightness all the way down before and turned AERO of when i had the single drive and got 13hrs30-42mins so i doubt it has made a difference. I'm not sure why it hasn't.

Anyway on wifi this is more battery life than i can ever need. It took at least a good 15 minutes for it to drain to 99% so the battery doesn't appear to be draining any faster. I also upgraded from 4GB to 6GB also.

I'm also using auto hide to hide the RAID setup at the BIOS.

The benchmarks are a little strange lol. With 2 Second gen 1.8 drives in RAID 0 i get this.

The old one is 1st and new one 2nd. It is very strange that my 4k read is slower lol. May be it is a driver issue. I'll try other drivers later. I don't have any option to do write back cache in the storage manager. I have done a clean install now.

Anyway i welcome the extra storage space which seems to not have impacted on my battery life.
Oh and it didn't like me using one drive as a usb drive at all. Sometimes it didn't want to boot like that. It could be a driver issue i don't know. I was using the RAID 9.6 drivers prior till i did the clean install but now i'm using the stock RAID drivers for the TT4. One drive i have supports TRIM/GC and one doesn't as it is a older 2nd gen drive so that is going to be a bit interesting lol.

Edited to add:
If i get the time later i'll test on the exact same settings i had it before.

It seems like my drive is still settling in and i've got the 4K result up using the Sony drivers compared to the 1st benchmark i ran. It seems pretty much up and down right now.

.......
In regards to the battery life i checked it again and used exactly the same settings and brightness level where i got 13hrs 4 with a single Samsung SSD drive at start up at 100%.
Now it has improved lol. I don't pay any attention to that but what i can see is that my battery life has not reduced because of going RAID and i don't need to bother myself about that.

I'm now using the latest Intel storage drivers and it improved my write scores a bit. Write back cache worsened my score so i've disabled it and the 3rd benchmark is with it disabled.

 

As I remember well you are using a TT36GD-machine. May I ask you what BIOS update you are using now?

 

The RAID failed in less than 24hrs, i was using the latest BIOS though that you can find on the US esupport page. I'm not sure if i'm going to try RAID again.

Sony eSupport - VGN-TT290 - Software Updates & Drivers

 

Hi there,
Would it be possible to have 2 different sized SSD in the TT, I mean, I we use the cable mentionned in this thread, could we use 128+256gb ssd giving total of 384 GB ?
Thanks

PS : I'am on the way to byu a second hand TT with 128gb but I alredy have a 256gb spare SSD

 

For RAID0, if one drive is larger than the other, the resulting RAID drive size is 2x(smaller size). So in your case the RAID0 drive will have size 256, even though you have 128+256GB.

That said, it depends on how sophisticated the controller is. It may allow you to create another drive from the remaining 128GB. This I do not know.

 

HELP !
I installed this kingspec ssd yesterday ... it worked 2h ... and now the disk look down ...
the bios see it
windows dont't boot and paragon hard drive manger say : "disk I\O error" ...

 

I think this is for a single drive and not RAID?
Is this drive new if so just send it back or if cannot/want to give it another go if you haven't done this already buy a USB Microsata external on ebay and test it that way. By what you wrote it seems that you might have done this anyway but i'm just making sure.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250596859457

 

I tried RAID again with a new drive and it failed within 2 hours. I don't know what is causing this to happen. May be it too much power or a bad batch of drives. Either way i'm quite puzzled.
I've decided to not try RAID again. If i want more storage space i will get a 256GB SSD.

 

...So I'm assuming you are going to simply use your setup as 2x drives (C: and D: )?

Well, considering the speed benefits, I personally thought RAID0 was the way to go but now thinking otherwise.

Also, when you say 'failed', do you mean to say that all of a sudden it just simply won't boot? Yet both drives work when you kill RAID and use as 2x individual drives C: and D: ?

 

It looks like the actual drive gets destroyed. My original microsata SSD drive though continues to be ok. My old drive doesn't support TRIM and is MMCRXXXXMXP drive. The drives that i bought twice were the newer DXP drives that are meant to support TRIM. May be mixing the drives like that is bad news.

Last time i sent the drive back to who i bought it from and they at first installed it in another laptop and said there was nothing wrong with it and then a little while later they emailed me and told me that yes the drive did have a problem and they were sending it back to Dell.

I didn't have an external usb microSata HD then. I bought one though and also bought a 2nd drive to try again with the intention to only use the drives as JBOD.

Anyway i put the new drive as the 2nd drive and went through and updated the BIOS again.
I had the drives as separate disks first.
I tried to use my backup and that didn't work.
I then decided that i should give RAID 0 a go again.
Shortly after before i actually installed any OS RAID 0 failed. One of the drives just disappeared from my RAID menu and i cleaned the other drive which still appeared in my RAID menu.

I connected my drive that failed to another computer via usb and in computer management a box popped up informing me that the drive needs to rebuilt or something using GPUID or the MBR and i try and do that a message pops up that the disk is not ready.
I then try and intalise the disc as it showing that the disk is not intalised but i cannot intalise it.
I then try and use diskpart and clean the drive but it shows up as 0 and i cannot format it.
So it looks like the drive is destroyed.

We had a discussion about the power consumption of the new and old drives in the TT owners thread.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/6312201-post1565.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/6312349-post1566.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/6312451-post1567.html

I'm still not 100% sure about it.

 

Is there anyone apart from the OP and of course myself who has done this and if so what has your experiences been like?
Earlier in this thread i know that AMZ1969 was looking to do this, did you ever do it?

 

That is extremely strange indeed...

You did say that one of your drives supports SSD and another does not.
Did you ever get around to using 2x identical drives? Or is that out of the question (understandable, considering the prices of SSDs are still through the roof)..?

Another thing. Am I correct in saying you are using Windows 7 (x86 or x64, but that doesn't matter I think). I read that W7 does have a background TRIM / garbage collection service for SSDs (which surprisingly does its job with my current HDD).
Maybe that non-TRIM SSD ain't playing too well with W7.

An SSD to die is rather strange. If I were you, I would first use 1x SSD and make sure that is working on its own, then try the RAID. Though granted, that is going to be time-consuming...

I rather doubt that strip size will change anything, but have you tried a different size?

Anyways, good luck.
My Z got sent into repair for a replacement DVD drive, and it's been almost 2x weeks now... I'm not too sure if I want to go ahead and do my mods with college being so darn expensive (have an upcoming invoice...), but I do have some cash saved up for a wireless mod at the very least...

Well, that plus, I've asked a few contacts in SAMSUNG Korea's Engineering Department to find myself a brand new 1.8' drive (after reading your horror story here...), but the search continues.

 

Thanks 5ushimonster
No i never tried both exactly the same drives.
I did think that if i didn't decide to go with RAID and decided to sell on one drive at least i'll have a newer drive that does actually support TRIM. Also, i asked about this and the conclusion was that it would have no impact. May be it is not ideal though.

TRIM is not meant to work in RAID but i don't know maybe something is going on.

I have W7 64bit installed.

I bought a 256GB and i was planning to sell on my 128GB but i don't know now. I plan to copy over my drive anyway so will test the drive on its own for a while.
I really don't know what is going on with all of this but i know that i cannot have another drive fail. I think the best thing really for me to do is just to use the drive as a single 256GB and not use the other one in non RAID mode without even flashing the BIOS.

 

Greetings!
At me all is successful. I have made updating about one month ago. All works perfectly!
Also used only a cable and a regular bracket for fastening of disks.
I`m install Win-7 64-bit
And BIOS MOD i take wrom this source:
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/7033-Insyde-bios-mod-requests.?p=211244#post211244

http://slics.myftp.org/Insyde/SONY/EP0000211647_SLIC_2.1.RAR

 

That's good to know AMZ1969. May be the different drives really don't help.

May be i should cancel the 256GB then and look for another 128GB that i own.
Or may be one day way down the line i will get another 256GB the same as the one i bought and go for 512GB RAID.

 

Anybody here tried this TT sata cable to work o TZ ?

 

About vaio TT bios , there is a tt46gn bios in sony asia , version r3061M4.

 

The TZ uses a PATA interface for its storage devices. You'll need a ZIF connector / convertor if you want to use SATA drives in the TZ. So basically, the TZ isn't SATA capable without an adapter. And I'm not too sure if the TZ will even support RAID, let alone fit two drives inside the body...?

I remember reading of good alternatives though. There was a 256GB Photofast ZIF SSD that someone in the forums installed in their TZ, and no adapter was required. Though you have to note, ZIF is considered to be superseded technology and is hard to find these days, and if you do they are on the expensive side of things; that Photofast SSD mentioned above, the last time I saw it was around the US$900 pricing ranges... Though it was one of the fastest SSDs around (can't remember the speeds now...)

 

The TZ without optical drive comes with a 2.5"SATA DRIVE besides the 1.8 zif SSD.

 

Ah. I was assuming darkmount was willing to keep the optics drive.

Well, that option is possible. I know a 2.5 will fit in that bay but not sure if it will require extra bits and bobs to keep it in place (even the adapter...?)

I know that the TZ has a UJ862as optics drive, and I know there is an ebay seller who sells an UJ232a (9.5mm optics drive bay) -> 2.5' HDD conversion bay kit (search uj232a on ebay US). So darkmount can buy that, use the exisiting optics connection cable, and use the 2.5HDD as desired. Though I'm not too sure if the height is right for the TZ series...

In actual fact, that bay conversion is compatible with the TT (and the VGN and VPC Z) as well, provided you remove the optics drive. I'm not sure if this kit has the screw holes for attaching the metal edges, to keep the drive fixed and still within the laptop body though...

 

This is the first that i'm hearing that the Sony TZ can take a bluray drive. Anyway, that's for another thread.
The X which uses a pata to sata connector as you'll probably find if it can be done the speeds are degraded to PATA speeds.
So you will use a TT BIOS on a TZ, the chance of doing damage to your laptop is quite high.

 

Sorry Rachel. My bad there. The TZ comes with the UJ862as. Got extremely used to typing UJ232a and I guess I typed that in semi-consciously... My previous post has been fixed.

Anyways, the UJ862as is what some TT and VGN-Z also come with. Which means the TZ is indeed capable of taking and using a UJ232a. That said, I don't know how the machine will fare in blu-ray playback performance. I know the first gen VGN-Z1 didn't do too well with the nVidia 9300m and 2Gb of RAM, so the TZ will probably fail on that front...

And in regards to the BIOS, I don't know whether the upgrade app will run, let alone succeed. The TZ is physically different to the TT hardware-wise. CPU, well, they're similar but the TZ for one has the instant-boot-up and dedicated media keys whereas the TT does not. And assuming the firmware does install, and it checks for a BIOS signature code on the motherboard, you'll end up with a pretty and expensive door stop / paper-weight...

 

Yeah 9.5mm will do >>

 

Since there's no PM function on this board, I'll have to resurrect this thread:

I understand that you succeeded in installing the RAID bracket unlike the OP. Would you say that ordering this part is a must for this kind of setup or more a hassle than anything else?

Also, slightly Offtopic but since it was mentioned to better activate the RAID among other useful things: Is there a viable routine to enable Advanced Bios Functions for the TT's more recent BIOS Versions like Rev. R2022M4 ?
The EFI Memory Stick variant doesn't seem to work for me anymore.

Thanks
Lars

 

^
From pictures it looks like the original generation 1 SSD that was used/bracket was held in place by two screws (see picture below). However, the G2 drive appears to not line up in order to use such screws and it also doesn't ship with any. May be you could use tape instead, I wouldn't say it was useless and it does give it support.

I didn't do any EFI modding so can't help there.

I'm also using a single 256GB ssd drive now which is much more prefrable for me.

 

Thanks for the reply. Did you have to physically mod the bracket to make it fit? You mentioned it was a pain.
Thanks

 

^
I didn't do any modifications to the bracket. It's just that it took me a little while to figure out how how the drives should go in the bracket. It's easy when you work this out.

 

Thanks again. Like yourself, I'm planning to get at least the Raid ribbon for my newly acquired TT in case supplies deplete at some point.

 

I am wondering whether the Sony has RAID in the BIOS and three SATA ports (one for the optical drive, two for disks) or https://www.servicesplus.sel.sony.com/sony-part-number-185715911.aspx and https://www.servicesplus.sel.sony.com/sony-part-number-410914801.aspx are implementing the RAID and as such they would be useable in other notebooks ordinarily supporting one 2.5" disk? Getting a 128GB bare Samsung 1.8 is cheap off eBay.