Z Series Newmodeus Caddy Questions

Hi everyone,

New to the forum, and had a few questions if that's okay. I'm trying to work up the courage to install a Newmodeus caddy into my Z12, but as I couldn't find any definite answers was wondering:

1. Does it definitely void the warranty? Or can you just pop the DVD back in if it ever needs work? I thought there might be seals on the screws or something.

2. Does it destroy the battery life by being on all the time? Or can you get it to come on on demand like the DVD?

3. Are there any noticable disadvantages to doing this?

I've taken laptops apart before so not too worried about the installation side of things...

Thanks in advance!

Tim

 

Good questions. I eager to find the answers myself.

 

1. If Sony finds out that you were fiddling around with that thing, they could deny warranty. But there are definitely NO seals or anything - if you work carefully they will never notice.

2. Yes you can, there is software like the windows build of hdparm with which you can power down your hard drive. But since windows is not that smart at all when it comes to hdd power save (it accesses drives from time to time without any
sense), it will probably not work so good. Of course you can unmount the drive by setting it as a removable drive and you will have it shut down then permanently - but you will need to reboot when you want to use the drive again.

3. I dont see other disadvantages except a little more noise. Be aware that you will lose power management stuff (your CPU will be at 100% clock all the time) when you have a quad raid and add a drive in the ODD bay.

 

Thanks for the response - really useful. I'm still a bit hesitant given that I've only just got the laptop and it's complete with a 3 year warranty...would be very sad to see that gone if something did happen.

Just one more thing - what do you mean about losing power management stuff? Why does that happen? I quite like having power management - it makes my laptop last longer!

 

Changing the drive for the caddy is not that hard to do. just follow the guides here in the forums to open the laptop (you only need to unfasten a bunch of screws at the bottom and lift the baseplate). You will not need to unplug the keyboard ribbon cable so if you are not completely unexperienced in electronic/computer disassembling stuff, you will do it without problems and nobody will see that you opened the device. Just make sure you take out the caddy again if you need to send the device in for service.

That issue applies only on Quad-SSD models (256 [64x4] or 512 [128x4] GB). If you dont have such a model, dont be afraid of it.

 

Thanks again for the info. I'll try and find the correct thread.

Thanks.

 

If you're within the US, then your 256GB model is onlu a 2x128GB ssd, so no worries then. I'm pretty sure you wont have to worry about that since if you had the 512GB ssd... I'm not sure if you need more storage space .

The only disadvantage that i can see is having to lug around an external dvd drive, but then again, i've only used the DVD drive 3 times since i got my Z back in... may (wow it's been that long already???)

 

I'm in the UK actually. I have the smallest SSD available for the Z12 - 128GB. Student budget y'know? Hence wanting a bit more space to store media/work etc.

I think I'll hardly ever use the DVD anyway, but I'm going to put it in an external caddy. Hopefully someone will be able to offer some advice as to a model that is appropriate.

 

I recently installed a 640 GB Scorpio Blue. Scorpio Blues were discussed in previous threads, where they were praised for their battery life. 5400 RPM, and it's whisper quiet. CAD$50 and it's a no brainer.

 

model of external DVD caddy or HDD? I'm not aware of there being an external DVD caddy... but then again... it's got to be out there somewhere.

 

Oh, I thought I'd seen it mentioned in some posts around the place? Surely there's got to be one out there that fits it! Would be a brilliant little thing to have to hand for the odd occasion a DVD is needed.

 

You can get them for cheap e.g.

External USB case/enclosure for 9.5mm SATA DVD drive - eBay (item 220595035019 end time Dec-20-10 06:22:13 PST)

Just be sure you buy a 9.5mm external case for SATA drives.

 

Awesome, thanks for the link. Now to just get the newmodeus caddy...

I hope that enclosure isn't terribly cheap quality.

 

Its not cheap, its beautiful, and Professional, I have it now infront of me but waiting to get the correct screwdrivers and the HDD its self to do the job.

Do you guys prefer the Scorbio Blue or the Scorbio Black?

My main concern is NOISE, Battery life, and Vibration.

I will take photos and shoot a video of the whole process btw.

Will

 

Scorpio Blue is better at all your concerns. Scorpio Black would be faster; not worth the trade pff for me though.

 

thx KrazyStuff, I will take your word for what it is man.

 

Yeah, for a secondary drive, just get a slow 5400 rpm drive... you already got the SSD for your apps so you wont need speed for accessing music, photos, videos (<- maybe if you were doing some crazy encoding, etc but your CPU might be the bottleneck there).

 

I have the Newmodeus adapter installed and been using it for some time now.

Cosmetically it's far from perfect. The bezel color and texture does not match, it's not aligned/shaped properly which leaves a noticeable gap with little bit of metal sleeve visible. But since it's underneath all the time, I don't really notice it, but for how expensive this adapter is vs the others, it should be perfect.

Also, you have to disassemble the adapter to remove the HDD, which isn't a huge deal since you can't quickly swap out the adapter from the Z anyways, but it's worth mentioning, and again something I wouldn't expect in such an expensive adapter.

The Bezel is not swappable with the stock Z optical drive bezel, btw.

Also the adapter adds a significant amount of weight compared to the feather weight optical drive. Combined with the weight of the HDD and it's noticeable.

-Ed

 

I absolutely agree with Edwood. For fix some defects I disassembled the caddy, little filed off metallic edge were the bezel was attach. After I aligned and glued the bezel to metallic part. Now it looks better, more straight. I use Hitachi Z5K320 as a storage. It is prefect HDD, no vibration and additional noises at all.

 

Is it anyhow possible to connect the additional harddrive using USB or something, as a workaround for the quad-raid bug in BIOS?

 

I completely DISagree with AGabi and Edwood up there.

Installed a Scorpio Blue 500GB 5400RPM HDD in a Newmodeus Caddy on my Z12 (i5, 8gb RAM, 2x64Gb SSD) around the end of september.

I put apps and documents on the SSD, and movies, music, and games on the HDD.

It barely adds any weight, seriously the weight added is by the HDD not the caddy and it is barely noticeable.

I watch everything I watch from the HDD, I can't feel it spinning, at all. Maybe these two gents had the bad sense to install a 7200RPM Hard drive secondary to a blazing fast RAID0 array of SSDs. People, I'm only going to say this once, so listen up: your SSD arrays, at worst, clock in a 200Mbps; when you put in a caddy, it's for extra storage. IF YOU WANT VIBRATION AND BATTERY LIFE UNCOMPROMISED, YOU MUST GET A 5400RPM HARD DRIVE.

Finally, I don't know how you guys installed your caddies, but mine is completely indiscernable from the real thing.

Basically, to sum up, I'm loving the caddy and hard drive, and am experiencing none of the issues stated above.

Cheers.

 

Seems to be a few conflicting experiences here...anyone else care to weigh in?

 

WE are totally lost without this Fantabulous forum and people on Board.

Thank you So much guys.

Going to Computer Supplies Shops for my WD Scorbio BLUE, will come with photos, video, and experience.

Yay!

Will

 

Well, I've just ordered a caddy for my z13 so I'll report as it arrives.

However I wonder, why do you go for WD Blues and not for Momentus ^th genereation. Its 20+ grams lighter and uses only 1.8W during load operation.

Compared to WD Blue, its more than 1/3rd power efficient and almost 20% lighter.

Do I miss somethin ?

 

$$$

I already put 2k$ in my VAIO Z. I really wanted to limit the cash I put in accessories...

Then again, if you really want to play this game screw hard drives (no pun intended) and put in an SSD (C300 or Intel X25). That is, if money is no object to you.

 

I look forward to reading more experiences as I'm still on the fence about the newmodeus. I'd like to be popping in one of these in the spring to house another 256GB SSD.

 

Does an empty caddy weigh less than the optical drive? I'm curious if this could be a way to make the Z even lighter...use it as a space saver for the optical drive. Are there any other products that could be used to shave off a few ounces?

 

In that case remove the drive and take out the OD bezel, put in on the Z. There, that's the lightest it's gonna go.

 

Agreed. Especially at the potential cost of screwing up my warranty!

 

Ok guys, Now the modeus Caddy Installed, along with a WD Scorbio Blue as you all suggested.

I installed all my game collection on the WD, COD2/4/6 Modernwarfare II, etc.

I have this Lag when I'm playing the cod2 which is the lightest among the cod series, it happens every 10-15 seconds, the screen just hangs for 2 seconds while the audio plays smoothly, then the game flows naturally and fluidly until another lag hits within 10 seconds or so.

I'm thinking (HDD Power Save), maybe its set by default to Spind down and up again, but I'm not sure that this is the case though.

Cooling policy set to High Performance, Win7 Power profile set to Performance too.

The only thing that I'm doing, which I guess won't affect me is that, I completely disabled the SWAPFILE, since I have 6GB RAM.

I can't think of anything that might help, and if the case of lag, is due to HDD Internal Power Management, then I'm totally lost, Don't know how can I change these parameters

Any Ideas?

I will try other games and see what happens, will I get the same lag again?

I remember correctly that when I used to install the games on the SSD, I never had such a lag.

Its literally a LAG, a Pause, were the screen just stops moving (in-game)

Will

 

The Newmodeus caddy by itself weighs a but more than the stock optical drive. The HDD adds most of the weight.

The stock optical drive is incredibly lightweight, it's quite a fragile, skeletonized little thing. You could remove it, but there is no way to mount the bezel by itself without making a custom bracket or gluing/taping it into place.

I'm most likely going to modify the caddy to fit better and lighten it up by skeletonizing it by cutting a lot of holes in the sheet metal. I'll try to remember to take weight measurements before cutting it up.

The lightest weight solution would be to remove the optical drive, and hook up a 1.8" 256GB mini SATA SSD directly internally and foam tape/velcro it into place. Then tape or custom bracket the stock optical drive bezel into place.

Of course the trade off is a lot less storage space. I'm more likely to get upgrade my 500GB Hitachi drive to a 1TB one when they eventually have 9.5mm ones available.

-Ed

 

Talk is cheap. Show us some pics. Perhaps there are some manufacturing inconsistencies, or you're just not as picky as the rest of us.

Here's pics of mine. I double checked and made sure it was correctly seated. Luckily, the Z is very easy to open up.








-Ed

 

@Edwood:

Excellent photos, I actually have the same exact set on my camera as of now, will upload them later, and I hated the ONLY thing about the caddy, which is the thin Metal line appearing when flipping over the laptop, just like in your first photo.

Please install some games (on the HDD), and come back to us with your feedback, experience, and if you find the LAG we are all talking about, while gaming, while exploring the contents of the HDD using windows explorer.

Keep an eye on the HDD Led on the chassis of the Z, does it turn on for 2 seconds continuously when you are accessing the files, just a note, put some many files first on the HDD.

what are the specs of your HDD too?

Will

 

I don't play games on my Z. But I do have very high bitrate 1080P movies on the optical bay Newmodeus HDD, and they play flawlessly, no skipping, stuttering when playing, or exploring the drive. I do have the power options for Vaio Power Management on Automatic. And in Windows I have power set to Balanced with Turn off HDD after 20 minutes when on battery, and Never when plugged in.

-Ed

 

Z11 folks have noted the bezel on the ebay 9.5mm "Fenvi" caddy can be swapped, but the tabs are slightly off. See pics.

 

Yeah, that would be my post and pics.

The main clip is completely different (hole in tab vs. hook catch), and the tabs are far enough off that they'd have to be cut off, and the entire bezel would need to be glued/taped in place. So not at all easily swapped.

-Ed

 

Well, as Promised, Photos for final result.

Still awaiting Fix for the Intermittent Lag though, no way me and several other posters are wrong about it.

I so much encourage everyone looking for More Storage Space, to opt for this, Just awesome. !


Will

 

Yeah, the fit looks like mine. I don't think they molded it properly. It can be recessed a little bit more possibly, but it likely won't fix the fact that the bezel chamfer looks like it's a little bit off.

Also, it shows better in your pics, the Newmodeus bezel is darker in color and smoother texture than the Vaio Z plastic.

As for your intermittent lag, what are your Windows and Vaio Power settings? Particularly "Turn off HDD after...." amount of time?

-Ed

 

Ok so I guess I'm not as picky as you, or I don't turn my laptop over as often (?) xD

To tell you the truth the 1 mm of caddy that can be seen on the right is what I consider "being picky"I mean honestly how often do you turn your vaio over... Apart from that the frontplate is perfect. From the front/side it looks spotless.

As for the intermittent lag, I'm set to turn off Hard disks after 20 min on battery or on AC power, and am getting no lag whatsoever (picky or not lol I'm a cinephile so trust me on this) even if i'm watching a 12Gb 1080p with DTS 5.1 audio on my 50 inch plasma, from my WD Blue in the caddy.

Maybe try putting the HD in another computer to see if your HD is not deficient...

As for battery life, I'm on the extended battery so I'm not sure you guys can compare but I get 8hrs surfing, 5hrs watching videos. While in class the other day reading a pdf on low brightness, even though the pdf (150mo, so not a tiny one) was on the HD in the caddy, my Z displayed 13hrs of battery. Gotta love this gem of a PC...

 

Killer626, and Edwood:

Power settings are set to NEVER, Profile = Performance, Cooling Policy = Performance.

Guys try to play a game that has been installed on the WD Blue, I guess other HDD does not have the Power Management that WD use, that's why Edwood does not see this problem since he has a Hitachi.

But It Exists, and its so Lame, making all games not playable, Damn!

 

great photos.. just wanted to ask how's your battery life now with the additional hdd installed?

thanks!

 

I can say that from Personal experience that battery consumption increase = Almost Zero

Yeah!

I was so worried about that too, but choosing a good brand, low power HDD, will make you sing.

 

I agree that it doesn't look exactly right - definitely the colour is slightly different. But I don't think it would bother me too much, I don't really look at the bottom/side of my laptop that often...

 

Hi!

I installed Hitachi 5K500.B-320 hdd in my z12 (for photos, music and movies) after I finally got a little bit tired from plugging in and out an external hdd for some months. And the overall experience is positive for me.
The hdd is very quiet, no vibrations, and it switches off automatically when not in use. Actually, I pulled it from my external drive.

The Newmodeus caddy appears to be securely in place on 2 screws (one under the touchpad area, and the other in the front right corner - through the computer bottom to the keyboard bottom). But there could have been some additional fixation with 2 more screws on the screen side as for the optical drive. The right side of the caddy aligned ok for me. It sticks out a millimeter or so evenly on both sides, but that's not noticeable at all.

Finally comes a weight. I already have an extended battery but the whole thing adds some noticeable weight imho. I used to hold the computer by a front corner but now it feels heavy that way so it's better to grab it with both hands now. It feels not so mobile on my lap as well but I mostly use it on a desk, so that's not critical for me.

v.

 

Well guyz,

few minutes ago, I have joined to your clan of newmodeus caddy owners and I have it just installed.

Here are my findings:

Z13 disassembly was piece of cake. Puttin WD Scorpio Blue 500GB into the caddy was not as easy as I thought, but after 2 or 3 tried I have succeeded but I have no idea how the HDD will be put off the caddy in case of need. Theres no eject ribbon, nothin like that. Then I have removed the OD drive, which was pretty easy, you just have to remember to eject the OD, because theres the 4th hidden screw.

From that moment, all that I have been through was one big dissapointment.

The caddy is really fixed by just 2 screws and even that is not that ok, because the 2nd screw is the one that comes from the lower chasis, so you have to be careful to put it in correctly. Then I have assembled the lappy and turned it on.

Am I the only one who feels the vibration of this low RPM HDD even on the keyboard and palmrest? If so, whats wrong? Or are you really that storage hungry that you just ignore those tiny vibrations of that additional drive?

My conclusion is, that am gonna prolly put that thing off and get back to OD.

And yes, the weight difference is much more feelable than I thought.. The lappy with that drive feels so much heavier, that even if I ignore those vibrations, this heaviness will change my mind as well..

And one optimistic point to the end. The bezel is really well done, I dont have feeling that its not well aligned. It sticks our really well, nothin noticeable.