Soon to be S7 owner, few questions

Greetings,

Long time reader, first time poster, have a few questions!

I just managed to snap up a NP700Z5A-S03CA at NCIX recently for a real good price. I originally bought an open-box model, but since they didn't actually have it in stock they offered to send over a new model for the same price. Combined with a store credit I have lying around, total cost for it was really good. Props to NCIX for being willing to honor the OB price!

Although the specs of the laptop are very nice, there are a few things I want to swap around.

Optical drive: I don't use DVDs, ever. Instead of carrying dead weight around, I'd like to do a drive swap. My plan is to use the 7K750 in there with this Newmodeus caddy, as suggested by this thread. Yay or nay?

Boot drive: I have a spare Kingston SSDNow V 64GB drive from a previous project that I'd like to use here. To the best of my knowledge it's a 9.5mm drive. This thread confirms the compatibility. Apart from alignment issues, what difficulties should I expect? I almost never work with laptops, I'm a bit concerned about proprietary stuff required on the original disk.

OS: I prefer to work under Windows Server and would like to implement this OS on the laptop, mostly for fun. Apart from the usual tinkering and driver hunting, is there any outstanding issues related to this OS with this laptop (or laptops in general) in regards with hardware management?

Keyboard: Although I mostly type in English, I'm used to a French Canadian layout:


Even though a regular US layout is an annoyance, it wasn't a deal breaker. However, I see three paths:

• Leave it be, relearn the layout
• Pull keys, rearrange as a Dvorak layout
• Order replacement set of CAN-FR keys, or if they don't exist, order any other set, MacGuyver a CAN-FR set with various materials and a laser etcher

I'm leaning towards the third option, since I could also produce a more rigid space bar to deal with the issues I've been reading about.

How complicated is it to remove the keys? Anyone know where I can find a picture of a key on all sides?

Thanks in advance, good people and good knowledge around here!

 

You cannot rearrange the keys without remapping the keyboard layout.

 

Don't worry, that's covered. Up here in Quebec I had to familiarize myself with both layouts (CAN-EN being essentially equal to a US layout) since some of my employers or schools had draconian IT policies in place preventing even changing the layouts and had purchased US computers.

Right now, have CAN-FR, CAN-EN/US and Dvorak layouts loaded, with a CAN-FR physical layout.

I don't really like the CAN-EN/US layout because of pure force of habit, and if I have to switch I'd rather make the jump to Dvorak.

I usually touch-type, but will refer to the keyboard from time to time for less used accented characters or special characters. This is where the difference between a CAN-FR and CAN-EN/US appears.

 

1. I think you may find that physically swapping keys is a challenge with the probable requirement for removing the keyboard surround in order to lift the keys off.

I would opt for the less elegant solution of putting stickers on the keys that you wish to change.

2. SSD alignment is handled automatically by Windows 7 and/or modern disk cloning software.

John

 

1. I have not issues doing a full tear-down of the laptop, I'm guessing plucking out the keys isn't an option?

2. I was talking about physical alignment.

 

You may be unable to use the caddy, because for some SSDs the size is slightly larger than the caddy. In that case you can tape the SSD on to the chassis.