SSD in an A31p?

[MikalE]

I watched a Youtube video of a German chap installing an SSD into an A30 using an internal IDE to SATA adapter and a small form factor SSD of 64GB.

I located the adapter and the drive, and I am wondering if this will also work in the A31p that I might be getting from a member here.

If this works in the A31p I will increase the capacity to 320GB or so.

[ajkula66]

It does work but the speeds will be very, very limited. See this:

/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=115478

[MikalE]

A lot of that is above my paygrade.

Will the speed be any greater than a standard spinner drive, just not quite up to true SATA speeds, or am I no better off at all?

Does this limitation apply to all drive bays including the main drive bay or only the Ultrabay drive bays?

[ajkula66]

A lot of that is above my paygrade.

Having seen the pictures of your simulator, I have trouble believing that statement...

Will the speed be any greater than a standard spinner drive, just not quite up to true SATA speeds, or am I no better off at all?

Transfer speeds will suck but the latency will be improved. Pick your poison.

Does this limitation apply to all drive bays including the main drive bay or only the Ultrabay drive bays?

All of them.

FWIW, I toyed with the concept several years ago and went back to the 7200rpm spinning drives. Obviously, YMMV.

[MikalE]

A lot of that is above my paygrade.

Having seen the pictures of your simulator, I have trouble believing that statement...

Apples and oranges, really. But, if I half way understand the explanation, the A31p will report an 80 wire connector for IDE even if a SATA drive is installed and therefore speed will not change?

I will then probably just upgrade the spinner drive to a 7200 RPM model.

I'm really looking forward to finally owning one of these machines.

[ajkula66]

But, if I half way understand the explanation, the A31p will report an 80 wire connector for IDE even if a SATA drive is installed and therefore speed will not change?

The speed might actually drop, but you got the essence.

I will then probably just upgrade the spinner drive to a 7200 RPM model.

I'm really looking forward to finally owning one of these machines.

Please let us know once you've received it.

[wujstefan]

Apples and oranges, really. But, if I half way understand the explanation, the A31p will report an 80 wire connector for IDE even if a SATA drive is installed and therefore speed will not change?

I will then probably just upgrade the spinner drive to a 7200 RPM model.

I have a PATA-to-mSATA adapter now in my hand, plus 32Gb SSD mSATA from Samsung. This one works fantastic in T23. I'm gonna do a test on A31p next week. I'm expecting to get top PATA speeds, and silence. Still, PATA.

I'm really looking forward to finally owning one of these machines.

If still in need just let me know. I have an almost mint unit I've been keeping as a spare machine, and that would be very happy to get all the upgrades a loving thinkpadder heart is willing to share. This takes to a total of 3 A31p's I have right now, and one of them could easily leave me did not put it on sale so far, but maybe this is the time.

[MikalE]

I'm still waiting to hear back from the member here that is thinning out his collection. I hope to hear something soon.

When he replied to me he did not state how much he wanted for his A31p, so I'm still waiting on a price.

[MikalE]

I'm happy to say we made a great deal on the A31p, but it will be a couple of weeks before I can purchase.

It's in almost new condition, no key shine, no marks anywhere on the inside of the palmrest, keyboard, bezels, etc, and an outstanding display. In pictures it looks like it rivals even my new Dell G3 display. It also has a/b/g wi-fi, Bluetooth and Ethernet.

It comes with a host of optional accessories, 1.5 GB of RAM and XP loaded to the drive. It even comes with the adapter for the drive bay that holds the GPS, internal 10 key keypad, etc. A 250GB ZIP drive, drive caddies, floppy drives, etc are also included.

This is going to be the Queen of my collection and I really wanted one of these because it was space flight certified by NASA. I know there were a couple of minor mods to the space flight certified machines, but I would have to look those mods up again. I have it bookmarked somewhere. One of the mods was Velcro on the bottom to keep the machines from floating away while in orbit. I might pass on that one.

Can't wait to receive this and take it for a test drive.

This will be my second IBM/Lenovo machine with XP loaded along with my T520 dual drive, dual boot with XP64 Pro.

Best of all though, it's a real IBM. I haven't had a real IBM computer since my old 266 Aptiva back in the '90's.

[ajkula66]

Well, you're getting it from the right source to begin with. Our former Admin never had anything but the very best ThinkPads.

The ultrabay keypad is almost priceless in itself.

Enjoy !

[MikalE]

No, I don't get the keypad, just the caddy for the Ultrabay that holds it. If, at a later time I can find one I'll add it to the machine.

This looks like a really nice machine. I can't wait!

[MikalE]

I just sent the funds for my new A31p to James. I haven't heard back yet, but I expect to hear from him soon.

It comes with a 1.5GB of RAM so I ordered a 1GB stick from ebay to replace the the 512MB stick that's in it now. That should make it a little easier on XP Pro.

I'm pretty excited to finally be getting my grail machine after so many years of waiting for one.

[MikalE]

I finally found the specifications required for the A31p to pass for being used aboard the STS and ISS. 80 page document prepared by NASA:

https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/ ... ect-paso/9

And this from the IBM project manager for the STS and ISS program:

https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index ... ic=27043.0

I still cannot find the modifications to either the 760 or A31p other than specifications for Velcro application. It's possible there were no other modifications but instead just had to meet the specification standard as published. The A31p did require there be video 'IN' and 'OUT' which is the S-video IN/OUT jacks that mine does have.

If anyone knows of these mods I'd be interested in re-reading them.

[ajkula66]

If anyone knows of these mods I'd be interested in re-reading them.

If rkawakami ever shows up around this forum again, you can ask him. He had a couple of A31p units that came from the program.