W3j Modular Hardrive

Where can you buy the modular hardrive and for the W3J? And im guessing whatever size drive you buy can be replaceed with another standard h/d?

 

I think you just buy a HD kit and put it in your W3j. Then you buy a HD, and put it in the kit, that goes in the modular bay. Not sure where you can get one... Checked proportable, and didn't see anything. Perhaps contact your dealer?

 

From what I understand~ we buy the harddrive kit and then we can pop in any harddrive (prolly any 2.5" drive right?).

And would the hardrive kit include some sorta sleeve for the dvd drive that would be pulled out? (I havent really taken my drive out too much because i don't have a protective case for it)

Anybody know where in Canada I could get a hd kit~ I'll ask my dealer on monday.

 

would any HDD enclosure label'd "hot swappable" work? I know there are 2.5'' and 3.5'' enclosures, which would work on the w3j modular bay?

 

Definitely no, a 2.5" & 3.5" hd enclosures have their own design for their hd module even a drawer. If we need a modular bay, we have to order from Asus. Any 3rd party manufacturers will not make this!!

 

Definitely no, a 2.5" & 3.5" hd enclosures have their own design for their hd module even a drawer. If we need a modular bay, we have to order from Asus. Any 3rd party manufacturers will not make this!!

 

so will any ol 2.5" work as long as we have the hdd kit?

 

No, W3j also is the same as W3v and z63a's hard drive cable, connector module. This model need a specific module. You can not use the 2.5" enclosure connector to apply to W3j without its module.

 

Ok, so I know I need the w3j modular hdd kit. What hdd's will fit in there? And do you guys carry the kits?

 

OK, Check these pics out, should clarify a few things.

Basically the HDD kit is exactly the same as the blank travelers draw your W3J comes with, the only difference is that the HDD kit has the bit of circuit board at the end that allows you to plug in the HDD.

It would fit any 2.5' notebook drive, although I think the old 12.5mm high drives may not fit.

Can I just say, it is great I permenantly run my 100GB seagate hdd in this bay, I use it as a photoshop scratch disk, and with both drives in, I now have 200gb storage!

I actually ran a basic speed test, I am considering swapping drives as my Seagate is faster than the Fijitsu.

 

I am sure any PATA 2.5' notebook drive would work (SATA had a different connector), hey whay don't you get one of those Seagate 160gb drives, that would be cool

 

yes, if you have a 2nd hard drive housing, for sure, PATA hard drive can be put it in as a 2nd hd. If the user want to put a 2.5" hd enclosure's module for internal 1st hd (not for optical bay use) without the original module, it won't work.

 

NZwaverider where did u buy the housing?

 

I purchased the HDD kit and Optical Battery from Proportable, at the same time I got my W3J, so I would have everything arive together.

 

NZ:
I'm trying to figure out wether I should buy the HDD kit and get around a 100 GB drive or if I should just get an external USB drive that could be around 200 GB for the same price (I think). Itll be for storage of music, movies, plus some important data that I need to back up regularily. I can't decide which would be more convenient and I could use your opinion since you went with the HDD kit. I like the idea of the drive inside the w3j but is it worth foregoing the extra space I could have with the USB option.

 

Another questions, is the modular bay on the the w3j filled with the optical drive when you buy it? or is there a 2nd empty slot? I'd love to have a 2nd HDD all the time without having to carry an external, but probably not at the cost of taking out the dvd drive ~_~

 

The optical drive is in the bay. You can replace it with the HD module or a second battery.

I just ordered a W3j, and will swap the std. 100GB drive out with a 160GB, and use the 100 in the bay as a scratch disk to store music and a couple of ripped movies for when I'm traveling. Much easier than carrying DVDs!

 

NZ, what kind of battery life do you get when using both batteries?

 

One Advantage of runing internally is it is much quicker, my 100GB Seagate HDD in the optical bay is faster than the Fujitsu in my W3J!! you are not limited by the USB interface!! If speed is important get the HDD kit.

First off my old Compaq Armada would split in half with the CD drive on the botttom, I always had it off and hardly used it so I am used to not having a DVD drive.

For that reason I have the HDD kit and for 90% of the time run the second HDD in the optical bay. It is much faster and safer running it internally, my first USB drive was copying when the neighbours dog ran through the flat hooked the cable and sent the drive flying!! (I had to send the drive back to NZ to get fully recovered) also if you have your laptop on your lap and an external drive hooked up through USB when you move your laptop it can drag the drive around. (i am talking about ones with shorter leeds, I nearly draged one off the couch when I put my laptop on the floor one day).

I have about 6 notebook drives of varying sizes (two of which got damaged running in external USB enclosures), I have used cheep IBM HDD cases from ebay, they are cheep and not really reliable, I now have 4 Argosy HD 260's they were approx $19.00 USD each from Amazon, I found a good review on the internet, they have a good solid construction USB2.0 powered (by single USB connection, unlike some that require 2 x usb to power) they have a special chip on the motherboard that improves transfer speed over USB 2.0, they are fast!

I basically have the second HDD in the optical bay all the time (currently A 100gb Seagate 5400.2 drive I was running in my old laptop full of music and stuff) I also carry 2 drives in Argosy HD 260 cases, one another 100gb Seagate 5400.2 (work stuff) and a Hitachi 80gb travelstar (music).

I would say for speed and travelling get the optical HDD kit, I would also buy a Argosy HD 260 from amazon, they are only 19usd!

What I would not do is buy a 3.5' desktop HDD in a case, because they are much larger and require an external power source and I travel a bit, yeah buying notebook drives are expensive but they are so much more portable.

I plan to buy the Seagate 5400.3 160 GB perpendicular drive (you can get them for 190-230usd) which I will install as the main drive, and I will run one of my Seagates in the HDD kit.

hope that helps!

 

The W3J comes with the DVD drive in the optical bay, but for the size there is no way you would have that and a removable bay unless the laptop was much larger.

The DVD drive is quite small when removed, sits flat, so personally I find it ok to travle with, and having the second HDD in most of the time.

 

Well to be honest I have used a Dell latitude with the same setup and it added a good 3+ it worked much better when you ran both batteries together, it seemed to hook the batteries up and combined it lasted for up to 7.5hrs both batteries would run down together, they ran down quicker if you put one in ran it down and then inserted the second.

However the Asus second battery seems to operate independantly, if you insert the optical bay battery, it will fully run the optical bay battery down to nothing, then it switches to the main battery and runs that one down.

So to be honest I was expecting it to last longer, I havent actually timed it yet, let me charge it and I will let you know.

 

i was thinking about picking up one of the optical batteries too so i'm really interested in the battery life you get from having two

 

what kind of battery life do you get when running with a modular hdd installed?

 

Right... I ran a test today at work.

I had my W3J on Battery saving mode, with the CPU @ 25%, LCD @ 15% and I also had a 100GB 5400 seagate drive running externally of usb.

Basically I was listening to MP3's off the external HDD with Wifi on (and connected) and I let the batteries run flat,

With just the optical bay installed it lasted 1 hr 35 mins which is not far off what others have reported to get, personally it would be nice if it was around the 2.5 hr range (like the Dell) but hey its not bad and I was running an additional external HDD.

I recharged and ran the same test with both batteries installed, prety much the same, the optical bay ran out in the same amount of time, and then the main battery ran flat that basically gave me a total time of 4.5hrs, which is not bad.

I am buying a 160GB Seagate perpendicular drive, once I get that, I will do a freash installl (including using the ATI omega drivers so I can underclock the GPU) and I will retest, hopefully underclocking and not running the external drive will give me over 5 hours.......

I saw a review of the sony SZ? the model that can switch to integrated graphics, that inproved the battery life by 2.5hrs, so who know would be great to get a bit more!! maybe 5.5-6hrs, then I would be happy.

 

hmm a real world total time of 4.5hrs is a bit disappointing....to be honest the rating of the main battery at 4800mah is a bit low when compared to the likes of say the t60's 9cell which is rated at 7800mah and lasts for nearly 6hours and this is with a 15" screen (also a core duo and uses a gpu similar to the x1600..the workstation version)

 

I will have to be honest and say I expected more.... I used the same setup in a Dell Latitude, I was using it with optical batter and main battery, I was on a flight from Dubai to NZ (16hrs) I was doing indesign work, and the two battery setup lasted for 7+hrs....... mind you it used an intergrated gpu and I was playing music off an external HDD.

So considering what the W3J can do, im just going to buy another main battery for long trips.

 

NZ,

i'm curious if you can do this test...

instead of running an external hard drive, just play music and have screen brightness set to 50% and have wifi on. 1.5 hours doesn't seem all that much...

 

Aren't USB Drive known battery drainers?

 

Well the reason i ask that is because i won't have a USB drive running.. i just want to see how long it'd last under that condition

 

Yeah, I will do a test liek that tomorrow.

The main reason I tested it with an external drive was because I am getting a new drive, I havent transferred my my files across to the W3J I still have everything on my old notebok drive and I wanted to listen to music while I worked.

The funny thing is, that when I change the powergear software to High Performance my battery meter estimates 2.36 hrs and when it is set to battery saving mode the estimation is 1.42hrs??? (battery at 85%) WTF

I will do a test tommorow with those settings and let you know.

 

When I'm sitting outside my house with Wifi on and bluetooth off and 40% screen brightness I get around ~2.5 hours when I'm just browsing and playing music. So it must be the USB hard drive that takes your battery life.