Replacing a laptop HDD with an SSD, which one?

[seaward62]

I'd like to upgrade my hdd in my samsung Q40 laptop, currently it has a 1.8" 60GB Hitachi HDD in it running at 4200rpm which is too slow for my liking.

However, I have no idea about which ssd would work.

I'd like a 32GB ssd if possible and I guess it has to be the ZIF type one's rather than SATA or IDE? But correct me if I'm wrong.

The part I'm really confused about is the motherboard has a 50 pin connector and the HDD has a 40 pin connector but most of the SSD's say 44pin.

I have taken photos of the internals of the laptop and uploaded to flickr but as this is my first post I can't add the link, hopefully the explanation is enough. Let me know if I need to give more information.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks very much

[Pob255]

I'm not 100% sure about this will need to see the connector.

normal 1.8" sata SSD's use a slightly smaller than normal sata connector, known as the micro Sata connector
Best you can get I think is the Intel 80GB X18M

[seaward62]

Thanks for the reply pob. Yeah I think its hard to see without the image. I know it's definitely not mini sata though as the connection is nothing like the same as the sata ones i've put in my desktop PC.

since I can't post the full link to the images perhaps I can just put in
****** .com/photos/61611768@N04/5606315174/in/photostream/

and replace the asterixs with flickr

hopefully this will help

[watercooled]

Click-able link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/6161176...n/photostream/

From what I can see the Intel ones are uSATA, but I'll keep looking. Also I don't think you'll get a good price, unfortunately.

[seaward62]

thanks for posting the link watercooled. I'm not too fussed about brand or extreme speeds, so I don't mind non-intel, I just think any SSD will be faster than my 4200 rpm drive.

I've found this:

replace ***** with memoryc
****** .com/storageproducts/ssd/32gbkingspec18zif40pinssdsolidstatedisksmicontrollermlc.html

The thing that puts me off is that my motherboard has a 50 pin connection so I'm not sure this is suitable as in the specs it says 40pin. Could I use my existing ZIF cable which is 40pin HDD side and 50pin motherboard side?

[watercooled]

I'm not sure about compatibility really, I don't know much about 1.8" drives. The 1.8" SSD market seems neglected, maybe because devices which need SSDs this small use mini PCI-E SSDs instead, which are smaller again. The trouble with cheap SSDs is performance degradation over time due to lack of TRIM, stuttering like was present on some early mainstream SSDs, etc. The Kingspec one looks reasonable, but from what I've read it's pretty poor value for money considering you can get a good 2.5" Intel drive for that price.
Here are some reviews I stumbled across, the images are missing from one but it mentions the problem with stuttering.
http://www.ocia.net/reviews/kingspecssd
http://www.ssdworld.net/kingspec.htm

[seaward62]

Thanks so much for the info, that has helped a lot, especially the first review as that is my exact aim, to get a few more years out of my laptop. To replace it with something similar that's new would cost a lot more as small 12" screen fanless laptops are hard to come by and this does all I want it to do but I just want a little more speed out of it.

I've used HD tune and got a speed of 22.5MB/s and 30ms on my existing drive so even the 55MB/s read times and 0.2ms on the Kingspec SSD are a massive improvement for me.

If it was for my desktop PC I'd definitely use an Intel SSD as I would need the extra performance but my laptop is only a 1.2GHz ULV processor so something like the Kingspec would be ok. I'm finding it hard to find anything else that I think will fit my laptop is the main problem, I'm sure there are alternatives to the Kingspec I just have to find them.

[Pob255]

Those Kingspec's are 2.5" same size as any common SSD (first one is standard PATA laptop connector instead of sata)

Most of the current smaller 1.8" SSD's use a smaller than normal sata. (aka micro SATA, aka uSATA, aka slimline SATA)

What seaward62 has there is a zif connector afaik the only thing that's going to be compatible with that is a 1.8" hard drive.
I know you can get an adaptor for miniPCI-E to zif, they are used by people to replace the 2nd slow ssd in asus eee pc netbooks with 1.8" hard drives, however I don't know of any adaptors the other way around.

[OilSheikh]

[seaward62]

Hi everyone,

First of all thanks for your help. I thought I'd update on how I've gone about putting an ssd on my laptop as it has been quite a long process and it might help some poor googler out there from going through my pain!

First of all, I took the plunge and bought the Kingspec 1.8 ssd linked above. It was the only one that had a ZIF connector to it that I could find, and the review was pretty good. Cost about £80 altogether with postage from memoryc.com who I have to say were very fast to deliver.

I opened it up to install into the laptop and low and behold the ZIF cable would not fit into my new SSD. It turns out there are different thicknesses of ZIF cables. My laptop had the thicker cable. So I had two options, send it back, or the more sensible option of shaving of a few microns of ZIF cable to fit the SSD. If I messed it up it would probably be near impossible to get a replacement non standard ZIF cable from Samsung I'd guess on a 5 year old laptop so it was all or nothing.

Luckily it worked! and I've installed Ubuntu 11 on it, less than 30 seconds to boot and generally pretty nippy. I'll put on WIndows 7 eventually I think, I couldn't use my clone disk of the old HDD with 7 on it because it was larger than my new HDD and I don't have my original install CD with me at University.

I'd highly recommend the upgrade to anyone thinking of doing it for the performance increase, but see if you can check the ZIF cable and SSD input to get them to match rather than hacking the ZIF cable.