Samsung's SSDs have been out for a few months now. They're 1.8" and use PATA. Has anyone tried it out in the X41?

Newegg seems to be selling the 32GB SSDs for ~$500. Not cheap, but not insanely expensive for a first-generation product.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820147021

It is not possible to install Samsung's SSD onto X41. X41 didn't use PATA interface.

It didn't? The specs say otherwise. In fact, I don't even think there are any 1.8" SATA drives, so what could the X41 use besides PATA?

I also would be interested in an answer to the original question.

That's partially true, yes.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the X41 has an SATA controller, an SATA-PATA bridge, and uses a PATA hard drive at the end. It's an awkward, weird configuration, yes, but that's the way it's constructed.

A couple of interesting links related to SSDs:

Dell's starting to put the SSDs into their laptops:
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=7048

Fujitsu's ending their 1.8" HDD production in favor of SSDs:
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=6875

You are correct, but the connector on that Samsung-SSD is on the wrong side for the X41, so it won't fit.

Björn

The X40/X41 use the regular 44pin IDE connectors, and it's on the side of the drive, every other 1.8" hdd out there uses ZIF and is on the short side of the drive.

<sigh>... That really sucks :/. I had such high hopes.

so no chance of upgrade ever?

There are SSD compatible to X4 series from PQI. However, the current largest one is 16GB, and I didn't see anywhere except one selling it. The one which sells this 16GB model is super expensive (about 1000USD), and you won't wanna try it.

By the way, a X4 compatible 32GB SSD is sampling now. Hopefully someday when it comes out, it will fall into a better price range. If it's about 500, I certainly will buy one to replace my 60GB super slow HDD

http://www.dvnation.com/nand-flash-ssd.html

$899 for PQI 16GB, 32GB units are coming soon.

if the X41 takes standard 44pin IDE interface, would it be possible to use one of those CF-44pin IDE adapter to slap in a cheap 8gb CF drive?

I've been wondering the same thing. But most 44-pin to cf adapters (that I've seen) are just as long as a normal 2.5" hdd, so it would stick out from the armrest about an inch.

actually, I had one that's only half (or less) length of the 2.5" drive. Anyone has one with them and can measure the dimensions?

some nice info on 1.8" drives and CF replacements

http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/add- ... 2#comments

Hi,

I just ordered a X41 tablet and was looking for a possible solution for this HD problem too (low speed).

Have you seen this CF to 2.5" IDE adapter?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0113780344

It seems to be very short and cheap.

The problem i guess is that HD FW check that some Thinkpad laptops has.

{}s
CreativeBR

Will the above item actually work? I thought the Thinkpad X40/X41 used a 1.8" drive. I wonder if anyone's tried that, or purchased the PQI Turbo Industrial 1.8" solid state disk drive mentioned by underclocker.

I'll have to watch this forum and see as I'm pretty curious.

As this CF adapter is not too expensive i decided to order one.

I have an 1GB CF card so i will try to load something very light as DOS and see if it boots.

I guess if i could get a DOS boot in a smal 1GB card there will be no reason to it does not boot on an 16GB card with a XP or TabletOS. Am i wrong?

I will post the results here.

{}s
CreativeBR

I'm anxious to have someone report back as to whether this CF-IDE adapter works. I also wonder if the "speed" of the compact flash card matters (44x or as much as 266x now), and if I'd need to use the exact same card in both slots if I choose the 2 card version. What speed are the manufacturers using in their flash drives (I can't find that spec in any of them)? Lastly, I see some adapters are 40-pin and some are 44-pin. Does anyone know what the extra pins are for and if they are necessary? I was at the Addonics site and they have them. Though they are more costly than the ebay $1.99 versions I'm the type of person who doesn't mind paying a bit more for peace of mind and will likely buy theirs. Cheaper is most of the time... well... cheaper!

- Yak

heh

44x -> 266x is write speed. Get the highest you can afford.

40 pin is for desktops

44 pin is for laptops. extra pins are for power. ;)

THANKS!

I have my adapters and flash picked out and will buy as soon as someone who has already purchased reports back with positive results.

- Yak

I've done it and it works okay for a small Linux build. Windows 2000 takes forever to boot, and that's after having to do a bunch of tricks to actually get it to boot.

I was really excited about the idea, but in the end gave it up. But you may have a different experience.

faberryman> Nonetheless, it sounds like a step forward! What sort of problems did you run into? Did you use the CF adapter or an SSD as from PQI? If the former, which adapter did you use and which CF card? Were there any problems with fitting the drive in? Does it stick out? If the latter, which SSD manufacturer?

Thanks!! We're all looking forward to your reply,

A little update, for anyone still interested in trying current SSDs on the X40/41... I believe the following SSD should work on the machine (both the size and interface are right, and the port is on the correct side of the drive--correct for the X40/41, at least):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820208063

$230 for 8GB? Even for an SSD, that's pretty outrageous! I'd really like to see some benchmarks of the different SSD manufacturers too. It'd be nice to know that it is faster than a CF card before spending all that money.

He he, 8Gb kind of defeats the purpose...
Then you have a fast disk... but you can't store any files on it.
(basic XP install will take-up the better half of the disk. Install an Full office 2007 setup and you are another 800Mb's further... )

With 1.5 GB I can live perfectly fine with my X41. (The 60Gb C4Kxx is a few percent faster btw)
My 1.2Ghz 512Mb X40 was a drama however... until I discovered Hibernation... it was still a bit choppy... but better since It could keep all the files loaded after hibernation.

if I buy x41 i might try it. after the price goes down below $200 of course. I think i could live with 8gb HD.

and according to ms all you really need is 1.5gb of hd space for windows xp. so left with ~6.5gb - msoffice2000 (100mb) and other apps you will have more than 60% of free HD space. unless of course you want to use the bloated IBM preload.

My Vista (Business) install on the X41t is 5GB+ alone, then add office and it makes this undoable.

Why in the name of a deity would you install Vista on X40 series, SSD or not?

I am reporting back after trying this 8GB CF card as the primary drive in my X41 Tablet:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820211164

I attached the flash card using a CF-IDE adapter and formatted the card to FAT32 and installed Windows XP Tablet PC edition. Installing windows and some applications including office, media player 11, firefox, notepad++, and others took up ~5GB. The rest of the space I'll think of a use for later.

Benchmarks: 35.6 MB/S average transfer speed measured using HDTune, random access ~0.5ms.

Thoughts: I was starting to think of an excuse to dump my tablet on my sister considering how slow and noisy the system has become. However, with the Compactflash HDD "upgrade," My tablet instantly became the greatest system I have. Lightweight, ZERO noise, SPEEDY response, low temps, and on top of that, it's a tablet.

People still on the fence about SSD in a X4x can climb over without any recourse.

Also, yes, the BIOS beeps loudly on boot and says it's a unsupported hard drive, and you have to press escape or wait five seconds... but really, who cares.