P7230 SSD suggestions PLEASE!

My P7230 is outstanding, 4 years on. (dual core). Thinking of placing a SSD in place of the 80G 1.8 PATA 100 that it came with. Despite searching online, I remain confused over whether I need a 40 or 50 pin SSD. Need a 'ZIF' one as well. Can someone suggest an SSD that def will work. I have placed an SSD in another computer in the past, was very easy as it was newer than the P7230 and the 1.8 drives are not so popular. Hoping someone can suggest??
Thanx,

Dubliner, Boston, MA.

 

I wrote about the SSD upgrade i did in this thread.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/fujitsu/497497-p7230-upgrades.html

This laptop is still going strong. I went with a Photofast 50pin V4 drive. I went with this drive as i didn't want to use a zif adapter.
I've also used a V2 Photofast drive in this laptop. You could look at what drive you have in the device manager but these laptops take a 50pin PATA drive.

You could get a zif adapter and use a zif drive that supports TRIM. I cannot say any of those drives that haven't been tested will definetly be ok.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...age/531052-1-8-zif-pata-ssds-available-7.html


I've also used a zif Samsung drive in this laptop.

 

Thanks Rachel,
I used device manager to see the exact specs on what I have- TOSHIBA MK8007GAH ATA device. So from what you wrote- I do not absolutely need a 'ZIF' hard drive, and a 50 pin ATA 1.8 drive will do. That is good to know.
Cheers,
Dubliner

 

Yes, that drives 50 pin. Kingspec make 50 pin drives and i've seen those being sold on Ebay. Sellers state that it's compatable with the P7230 but i cannot recollect any P7230 owners who tried one of these before.
May be it's worth a go though. Prices are pretty reasonable. If you do get one do let us know how you got on with it.

I don't know where you live but I purchased the Photofast drive from here-
PhotoFast UK - Home

eta
MemoryC sell Kingspec drives also

 

Hi Rachel,
I live in the US. I found the Kingspec 50 pin, looks good. Have a look at this new SSD drive- the Read/Write of 120/65 is outstanding. Looks like it will fit the P7230 as well. I will post how I get on when I get a SSD.
Mach Xtreme Technology 60GB MX-NANO 50 Series 1.8" PATA SSD - 50pin Female IDE Connector | My Digital Discount What do you think?
Cheers,
Brian

 

I'd not heard of that before and i don't know what controller that uses but the specs look very decent.
Good luck with your upgrade

 

Rachel- one final question !
I am looking at the 64GB 1.8" KingSpec SSD with CF IDe 50-pin interface from memoryC, is the CF IDe the same as ATA? It says it is comp. with the Lifebook P7230, thanx, Dubliner.

 

It can just be another name for it.
I've done a bit of googling about the Kingspec drive and i see some people complaining about getting lower battery life with it.
64GB KingSpec 1.8" IDE CF 50-pin SSD Solid State Disk: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

You can get better zif drives.
You just need an adapter like this-
1.8" ZIF to 1.8" IDE PATA hard driver HDD adapter -(a5) | eBay UK
Although, with a bit more rugged use some people are concerned with the adapter losing connection. I know i was and that's why i went for the Photofast drive when i upgraded this for a family member.

 

It appears that there is a new ide-zif adapter on the market. This may make the connection more stable.
ZIF HDD,SSD to 1.8 inch TOSHIBA type converter,zender on eBay (end time 13-Jul-11 06:59:34 BST)

If i was buying an SSD now for this laptop it is definetly something that i would have considered.

 

Hi Rachel- thanks again for the useful info. I ordered the more conservative 64G KingSpec 50 pin- I recall something around $150. I looked at the Photofast, but would be >$350 for the 64G!. I will be able to get Win 7 ISO disk for free (employer agreement with Microsoft). Any tips on how to optimize an SSD when installing?. I mostly do PowerPoint/Word docs so I do not need a lot of speed.
Incidentally my other toy is an Asus 901 with XP, it was 2 SSDs as origional, a 4G with XP on it and I upgraded the second in 2008 to a 32G which is on the slow side so I will be looking into upgrading this as well. It is also a fab little computer, a 8.9inch screen.
Dubliner

 

Dubliner, this is what i did-
Turn of indexing on the drive
Make sure disk defragmenter is turned off, it's meant to do this automatically but still i made sure it wasn't on.
Also, in the control panel under systems, then advanced tab-->performance. I unticked auto manage paging files and then custom sized virtual memory to 512MB for the initial and maximum size. You need then click set then ok and then restart.
This is more a space saving measure then i set system restore to around 2GB.

 

There are far cheaper EWS720-based ZIF SSDs you could convert. See http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...-1-8-zif-pata-ssds-available.html#post6861746 . Cheapest being the Renice K3VLAR-E and SuperTalent ZT2, 60GB for US$140. They consume less power and are faster than the Kingspec PATA SSD.

 

Rachel and nando4- I appreciate your good advice. I am actually thinking of returning the KingSpec unopened (just checked the amazon return policy and looks ok) and looking for a faster ZIF PATA. I understand I will need a ZIF adaptor so it will fit my 50 pin connection. Feeling more brave now to go forth and get a meatier SSD!
Dubliner

 

This is the hard drive bay of my Fujitsu P7230 (image attached). I am concerned that there will not be enough space for a ZIF adaptor?
Dubliner

 

If that is a 8mm tall 50pin 1.8" drive, then a replacement ZIF drive like a Renice K3VLAR-E is 5mm tall. So there's room on top of the drive to plumb in a US$4 ZIF-to-50pin adapter.

If want a clean solution without such cabling then consider a US$41 ZIF-to-50pin adapter.

 

nando4 YOU ROCK!
Comments and links (as with Rachel) were SO HELPFUL.
Will keep you posted over the next few weeks,
Dubliner

 

another alternative is this:

1.8" PATA/ZIF CE HDD to toshiba IDE/CF 50pin adapter | eBay UK

you'll need to fold/bend the ribbon cable a bit, but at ~$9 usd might be worth a shot.

Im in the same boat as you but with a P7120 so this thread has been invaluable!

 

As stated I have a Fujitsu P7230 Duo, 2G RAM VISTA SP3 and wanted to place an SSD in place of my 80G Toshiba MK8007GAH. This drive is 1.8 inch 50 pin.
I bought a RENICE K3VLAR ZIF 120G (from MemoryC) and the $4 ZIF to Toshiba 1. inch connector from dealextreme on ebay (adaptor took ~1 month to arrive). See my graphic attached. The original Toshiba although a 50 pin is connected with a 44 pin connector on the computer. The ZIF adaptor also has slots for 50 pins so not all are used. It can connect upside down and since it was not clear what was the correct way I tried both, with boot VISTA CD in the optical drive. The computer did not recognise the drive. I then put back the Toshiba, and connected the SSD via the USB cradle. It was not recognised so with drive manager and a short/brief FORMAT was able to get the drive recognised and it would show up in COMPUTER when connected via USB. Placing the SSD back in the bay again, both positions, again it would fail to recognise. I am thinking of getting another connector- the adaptor is rather loose when it connects with the fujitsu 44 pin connector.
Any thoughts?
Thanx,
Dubliner

 

UPDATE!
Good news- the problem was the adaptor, and appears to be working now. Further update to follow. Deep in surgery now!

 

any further updates? i'm looking into a ssd again

 

Further update- well, when I placed the SSD most of the time was spent figuring out how to place the adaptor. See my pics above- they show a lot. The black adaptor (as ref in prev post) did not fully clip into the origional connector- or so I thought- see the pics where you can see the pins- it gave me resistence to cliping them in fully-BUT it gave and fitted perfectly. Might be obvious to those more knowledgable however. From what I recall I think there was reverse way to clip things in, so when testing I kept the laptop on a book and had the guts (SSD) hanging out. You will know REAL QUICK whether the SSD is being recognised or not and it was plain sailing from there. Another thing I learned, with Vista, all SPs, I did need the 120GB, the programs took a lot of memory. Boots faster, and overall I am pleased.

 

US user.

I would like to upgrade to SSD. I must be looking in the wrong places but I am having trouble trying to find a drive to fit. Ideally 120GB Any suggestions?

I have never replaced a hard drive but I am thinking about cloning my current with norton ghost and a cf to usb converter. Any other ideas?

My P7230 is a duo core XP machine.

Thank you!