VPCS111FM/S WWAN or Intel Turbo Memory support?

Does anyone know if the VPCS111FM/S has an extra mini PCI-e slot for installing a WWAN card or an Intel Turbo Memory card?

 

I tried to find out this info from Sony tech support and was told I can plug my Intel Turbo Memory mini PCI-e card into a USB adapter and use it externally. Riiiiiiight. Needless to say, the tech had no clue what I was talking about. So maybe I will just hold my breath and open up my S111FM/S to find out for myself this weekend.

 

I'm not sure if your model has an open PCi-e slot or not, but Intel Turbo Memory has been proven to show no speed increases what-so-ever. I'd use the slot for something more usable, like what you suggested with the WWAN. But again if you install the WWAN, you'll need to run some antenna's for the card if you're model didn't come with a build to order option for WWAN.

 

Sony's don't typically come with an extra mini pc slot for wwan. They normally come with their own proprietary wwan board and ribbon which you plug into the mainboard. Remove your battery and see if you can see a sim slot that is covered over. You probably can add the wwan as i doubt that they would send out different motherboards compared to the ones that will be used in the EU which do come with wwan. As wwan is an EU only feature right now i doubt that you would be able to buy the parts you need from Sony spare parts sales in the US.

 

Thanks for the replies!

@XGX2007: I realize ITM is not exactly highly regarded as an extreme performance addition, but I already had a 4GB ITM card from my previous Thinkpad and figured I would use it in this Sony if possible. Intel User Pinning did make a noticeable difference for some of my regular apps.

@Rachel: Thanks for the helpful info. I have owned several Sony notebooks in the past and had never seen more than one mini PCI-e slot on the mainboard. I was hoping that these newest Sony models might be different. I am slightly spoiled after coming from a Thinkpad with two mini PCI-e slots. Oh well--thanks again!

 

Interesting, I might have to give ITM another try. You say they've updated the software? But yea, I also have a Dell Latitude E6400 and it has I think 3 Mini PCI-e slots, and it's nice to have extras when you need them, thats for sure.

 

It worked well for me with Windows 7. I can't remember exactly which driver version I was using. I performed a few recommended tweaks to ensure hybrid drive support was enabled. The 4GB ITM cache module (which I have) does not support ReadyBoost, but it does allow for ReadyDrive as well as User Pinning. Again, it wasn't anything like using an SSD, but I saw respectable improvements (my CPU at the time was an Intel SU7300).