Upgrading an A110L...

Hello everyone.

The last few weeks that Acer has decided to release new models, the prices of the old ones have dropped pretty low. I'm thinking of getting myself an A110L. Of course i'm not planning to leave it as is, so i'd like to ask for info on how easy it is to upgrade it a little.

I'm planning on adding 1 GB of RAM to it, to reach 1.5 GBs total. I'm guessing it won't be that difficult, right?

My main concern though is whether i can easily (or not so easily ) replace the internal SSD with one of the new 2.5" ones found around (i.e. a transcend 32GB P-ATA one). Will it fit in the A110L case? Are the plugs compatible?

I'm not interested in using a real HDD, i prefer an SSD simply because it's much less sensitive than HDDs. Is a 1.8" solution the only way to go?

Will i have a better chance if i get an A150L and replace the HDD at some point?

 

You can use 1.8" or mini zif ssd on the included pata connector. You'll need to solder a sata connector to the motherboard for a 2.5" ssd. Have a look in the current threads, there is more than enough info to get you started.
Good luck.

 

Since A110 does not have a normal P-ATA connetor, PATA drive is not a good idea.

At this time, both Runcore and Mtron have 1.8 ZIF SSDs which can be easily connected to the ZIF connector in A110 as a direct replacement for the original 8GB SSD. Someone has reported his success with the Mtron and I hope Runcore 1.8 ZIF will be tested as well sooner or later

For common 2.5 SATA SSDs, you'll have to solder a sata connector yourself to the motherboard and clear up the bottom of the chassis to make room for a 2.5 drive, then you can use any 2.5 SATA device you like.

 

You can always use a fast flash drive as your internal storage (solder it to the extra usb ports on the motherboard) and use the SSD as a secondary storage.

A 32GB flashdrive capable of 35mb read and 30mb write only cost a little over $50USD. It's about half the price of runcore SSD, and half the performance as well.

 

Great. Thank you all for the very helpful info and ideas.

 

I was refering to the zif pata connection. Sorry if I wasn't clear..

 

As far as soldering is concerned, I believe a SATA SSD is a better solution than USB flashdrive. You can get 120mb read and 80mb write with a 32GB SSD at a cost of $60-$70 USD. The performance of a flahsdrive is crippled by the limit of USB transfer rate.

 

I think you were clear enough by mentioning 1.8 and ZIF

My point is, normal PATA drive like Transcend 32G PATA SSD is not suitable for A110L.

 

2fridtear

I thought of the PATA because i believed it had a better chance of being compatible with the ZIF socket. Is ZIF a serial-type connector? Sorry but as you can imagine i don't have any experience with it.

Not only that, i think USB flash drives are much less reliable than SSDs...

 

The ZIF connector in A110L is a parallel-type ZIF, not serial type, the same as those in many old HDD iPods and some other 12-inch slim laptops.

And I think you are right about the flash drive. They are not designed to endure intensive read/write operations as in most cases the system partition will have to deal with. Nor are they designed to have random-write-distribution technology which helps real SSDs prevent large amount of write operations on any single cluster and prolongs the life of a typical SSD up to over a million hours, even longer than mechanical HDs. For flash drives and even CF cards, the lifetime might be drastically shortened under massive write operations.

 

Fast usb flashdrives uses the same memory chip as SSDs and have write distrbution functions. A 16gig of runcore SSD cost $50, but a 16GB fast flash drive cost $15. 32GB flash drive cost about $30.

A good flashdrives can sustain 35MB read and 30MB write speed. Runcore SSD reaches about 75MB read and 55MB write speed. There's only about 1/2 speed difference, but it's more than 50% cheaper. In everyday situation, you'll not notice any performance difference since webbrowsing, watching videos, word processing will be easily handled by either the flashdrive or the Runcore SSD.

Some people might save money and buy a fast flashdrive instead of SSD. They're both solid state flash storage and have almost the same.

 

Well, you don't have to choose Runcore since you already did the soldering work on MB. People can buy a new OCZ Core V2 32G with 60$, which sustains 120MB/s read and 80MB/s write on SATA port. But, for USB flashdrive, 30~35MB/s is the maximum speed and those who can reach this number are still at the top level of this market. A typical "high-speed" flashdrive like Kingston DT150 32G, as claimed to sustain 19MB/s write and 34MB/s read, is still priced around $50. I don't think $30 is enough for a good and extremely fast 32G USB flashdrive.

 

HMM.. the price seemed to have been inflated since a couple month ago.

Anyways..here's the current prices
8GB Corsair Voyager 33MB/s read and 16MB/s write $9.99 from
16GB Corsair Voayer 22MB/s read and 7MB write $$19.99
16GB Patriot Xporter 29MB/s read and 16MB write $25
32GB PATRIOT XPORTER 29MB/s read and 16MB write $59.99

 

I see lots of references to the OCZ Core v2 30GB for only $60, but the cheapest I have found it as @ newegg for $100. Does anyone know a cheaper location to buy in the US?