Help with upgrading my laptop's RAM

[bobafetthotmail]

No. RAM banks usually tell these details to BIOS that selects the best voltage automagically.
I just said that if you wanted to know, you can go in its panels and see what voltage the BIOS decided to give them.

We don't know for sure if those are 1.5 or 1.35 ram banks, and overvolting a 1.35 bank is dangerous (can destroy something), and ultimately pointless since you won't notice anything even with gaming RAM overclocked at 2800 mhz (yours is at 1333 mhz and in a laptop it's not recommended, if possible at all, to do so).

I feel like i'm learning so much about this. I was scared s***less when I put the RAM sticks in xD

Computer components are designed to be fool-proof, it's very easy to do maintenance and upgrades as most connectors can fit only in the right way.

So what's next? Swapping the HDD with a SDD? Placing the old HDD back in a drive bay caddy?

 

[Kratos Aurion]

No. RAM banks usually tell these details to BIOS that selects the best voltage automagically.
I just said that if you wanted to know, you can go in its panels and see what voltage the BIOS decided to give them.

We don't know for sure if those are 1.5 or 1.35 ram banks, and overvolting a 1.35 bank is dangerous (can destroy something), and ultimately pointless since you won't notice anything even with gaming RAM overclocked at 2800 mhz (yours is at 1333 mhz and in a laptop it's not recommended, if possible at all, to do so).

I feel like i'm learning so much about this. I was scared s***less when I put the RAM sticks in xD

Computer components are designed to be fool-proof, it's very easy to do maintenance and upgrades as most connectors can fit only in the right way.

So what's next? Swapping the HDD with a SDD? Placing the old HDD back in a drive bay caddy?

Ok, BIOS decision it is. Thanks

Oh shiz =O Better not tinker with BIOS voltage settings then, last thing I want is my laptop to die here and now. I need it to work.

And I'm glad it's way easier than I thought, makes me scareless from now on to add/remove RAM from future computers I get. I'm gonna test these 8GB with Vegas Pro, if they can handle what i'm trying to do i'll leave it as it is and save money. 16GB is very tempting, but seems pointless for now...

One thing that's bothering me is the pagefile.sys. It got even bigger with the upgrade. With 8GB RAM, do I need a pagefile this big?

Upgrading my HDD to a SSD would be a dream come true for me, since everyone says it's much faster and reliable =D I absolutely love this laptop, and i'd love to make it as fast and efficient as possible. But again, first time i'm doing it leaves me so scared it hurts xD They are EXTREMELY expensive though, which sucks
I would even dare to change the processor, but i've been told it's impossible so...xD

 

[bobafetthotmail]

I see what you mean.
In laptops you can upgrade RAM, swap the hard drive, and replace the DVD burner with a second hard drive/SSD with a drive caddy. they are all easy to do.

In a desktop you can swap more or less any component after watching a quick youtube video.

In case you need desktops you can save quite a few by buying components and assemble them yourself (also in this case you can build something you can upgrade as more money comes in instead of outright replacing everything). In case you need, just ask and someone will recommend the best component for your needs.

Any hard drive or SSD can be moved to a new laptop/desktop without major issues (the drive, but windows 7 will likely need some tweaks like a "sysprep" to work without requiring a new install).

 

[Kratos Aurion]

I see what you mean.
In laptops you can upgrade RAM, swap the hard drive, and replace the DVD burner with a second hard drive/SSD with a drive caddy. they are all easy to do.

In a desktop you can swap more or less any component after watching a quick youtube video.

In case you need desktops you can save quite a few by buying components and assemble them yourself (also in this case you can build something you can upgrade as more money comes in instead of outright replacing everything). In case you need, just ask and someone will recommend the best component for your needs.

Any hard drive or SSD can be moved to a new laptop/desktop without major issues (the drive, but windows 7 will likely need some tweaks like a "sysprep" to work without requiring a new install).

If I were to replace my HDD for a brand new SSD (with, supposedly, nothing in it), wouldn't I need to install more things other than the OS? You can see i'm no expert on this xD

Because my HDD has another partition called PQSERVICE or something, I think that's the name. Inside it must be important stuff, like factory defaults or where the ASUS stuff that appears on boot before Windows are right?

 

[bobafetthotmail]

No. You just need the OS for it to run fine. And you can get clean and safe win7 install iso files you can burn to a disk or place on a USB thumbdrive from this tutorial (step 1 and 2). Just need the sticker with the activation code, that is somewhere on the underside of the laptop.

That PQSERVICE is the recovery partition, that has the awesome power of being less-useful than a real install DVD/thumbdrive as it can be a safe haven for malware, if the hdd fails it is lost with everything else on it, and the windows 7 it installs is full of "enhancement" programs and suites that we call bloatware or crapware as serve little purpose but slow down the computer.
Removing that partition has the only negative effect of voiding warranty.

Point is, you may want to keep your stuff/programs and not start from scratch. There are programs that clone the drive contents on a new empty drive (bigger or smaller as long as the data can fit), this post goes more in depth.

Since you have a laptop, you may need either to find a friend with a desktop, or buy a external hard drive enclosure, a box with connectors for a normal HDD or SSD inside and a USB or eSATA port on the outside. First you put the SSD into it, clone the HDD on it, place the SSD in the place of the old HDD. Make sure that you are buying an enclosure, that is an empty box.

You can also use a drive caddy as said above to place both drives as internal in the place of the DVD reader (the reader can be then placed in a slim external DVD reader enclosure which is the same thing as a hdd enclosure, just different size of the box). This is what I'd actually do. As it makes no sense to rob a bank to buy a 500 GB SSD when you can do fine with a 120 GB one plus the older HDD filled of the bulky but dumb data (images, videos, movies, music, documents). SSDs are best used for programs and OS only. Unless you swim in cash anyway.
I doubt you need that DVD drive so often nowadays.

 

[Kratos Aurion]

No. You just need the OS for it to run fine. And you can get clean and safe win7 install iso files you can burn to a disk or place on a USB thumbdrive from this tutorial (step 1 and 2). Just need the sticker with the activation code, that is somewhere on the underside of the laptop.

That PQSERVICE is the recovery partition, that has the awesome power of being less-useful than a real install DVD/thumbdrive as it can be a safe haven for malware, if the hdd fails it is lost with everything else on it, and the windows 7 it installs is full of "enhancement" programs and suites that we call bloatware or crapware as serve little purpose but slow down the computer.
Removing that partition has the only negative effect of voiding warranty.

Point is, you may want to keep your stuff/programs and not start from scratch. There are programs that clone the drive contents on a new empty drive (bigger or smaller as long as the data can fit), this post goes more in depth.

Since you have a laptop, you may need either to find a friend with a desktop, or buy a external hard drive enclosure, a box with connectors for a normal HDD or SSD inside and a USB or eSATA port on the outside. First you put the SSD into it, clone the HDD on it, place the SSD in the place of the old HDD. Make sure that you are buying an enclosure, that is an empty box.

You can also use a drive caddy as said above to place both drives as internal in the place of the DVD reader (the reader can be then placed in a slim external DVD reader enclosure which is the same thing as a hdd enclosure, just different size of the box). This is what I'd actually do. As it makes no sense to rob a bank to buy a 500 GB SSD when you can do fine with a 120 GB one plus the older HDD filled of the bulky but dumb data (images, videos, movies, music, documents). SSDs are best used for programs and OS only. Unless you swim in cash anyway.
I doubt you need that DVD drive so often nowadays.

All that sounds awesome =O

I get a 120+ SSD, install W8 (which is much faster and more efficient, from my relatively small experience with it) on it and the rest of my programs. Maybe i'd keep my music, images and documents on there too since it's faster and I use them frequently. And then i'd keep everything else on my old HDD and put it in my DVD Burner's place (you're right, I rarely use it xD).

All of it sounds so awesome...but i'm scared...what if I screw up? xD

Let me ask you this: Imagine if I did all this, and wanted to use Sony Vegas Pro. It's installed on the new SSD, and the videos I want to edit are on the old HDD. Since the program is getting the files from the HDD, wouldn't it be as fast as it is now only with the HDD? Kind of a confusing question, but I wanna ground myself with this before I even consider it xD

 

[bobafetthotmail]

install W8 (which is much faster and more efficient, from my relatively small experience with it)

I personally dislike 8, mainly for the touchscreen-centered interface and for the complete change of UI, dropping so much options. It is more a tablet's OS than a laptop's or desktop's imho. Isn't significantly faster or better than 7, it just integrates some programs anyone has already anyway.

Maybe i'd keep my music, images and documents on there too since it's faster and I use them frequently.

bulk of the load times are due to application loading itself. You see a difference if you place programs on a SSD, but no difference for dumb data (that does not really need more speed than what a decent HDD can provide it).

what if I screw up? xD

what could possibly go wrong? :sarc: Yeah, last words of a dinosaur before an asteroid wiped them all out. At most you don't find win 8 drivers for your laptop and you need to install win7 ones in compatibility mode. Go look at the support page about your model to find a driver list.
In case you don't know, drivers are pieces of code (not programs, more like "OS addons") that allow it to operate the different components in your computer. Some devices don't need drivers, but some cannot work at all without.

Imagine if I did all this, and wanted to use Sony Vegas Pro. It's installed on the new SSD, and the videos I want to edit are on the old HDD. Since the program is getting the files from the HDD, wouldn't it be as fast as it is now only with the HDD? Kind of a confusing question, but I wanna ground myself with this before I even consider it xD

While I never did such things myself, last time I asked the bottleneck was still the CPU (and a quick googling confirms that, but feel free to check and see for yourself). I mean when you are doing rendering/exporting stuff (movies or 3d images/animations) the best modern CPUs can work on the data slower than the speed it is read from a decent HDD, making a SSD overkill.
Will be snappier when you are loading a project if it is in the SSD, but not much more.

When all programs and the OS are on another device, the HDD will perform better, as it will only be asked to fetch data, not data+programs+OS at the same time like it is now.

 

[Kratos Aurion]

I personally dislike 8, mainly for the touchscreen-centered interface and for the complete change of UI, dropping so much options. It is more a tablet's OS than a laptop's or desktop's imho. Isn't significantly faster or better than 7, it just integrates some programs anyone has already anyway.

The interface is something that takes a little time to get used to, which can be annoying, but after getting used to it I realized it's much more convenient and the notebook I installed it in increased in speed significantly compared to when it had 7. That's why I wanted to try W8 on my machine, and if I don't notice much difference i'll go back to 7...

bulk of the load times are due to application loading itself. You see a difference if you place programs on a SSD, but no difference for dumb data (that does not really need more speed than what a decent HDD can provide it).

Oh...so if I load an mp3 from an external source (like a pen or HD), with OS on SSD, would it be the same as well? Didn't know load times we're all application related...

what could possibly go wrong? :sarc: Yeah, last words of a dinosaur before an asteroid wiped them all out. At most you don't find win 8 drivers for your laptop and you need to install Windows 7 ones in compatibility mode. Go look at the support page about your model to find a driver list.
In case you don't know, drivers are pieces of code (not programs, more like "OS addons") that allow it to operate the different components in your computer. Some devices don't need drivers, but some cannot work at all without.

Yeah that's usually what people tell me, but I don't know. The first time you tried this, opening your laptop and start exchanging RAM and the HDD, weren't you a little intimidated? One thing that makes me extra scared is the love I have for this laptop...
Drivers don't really worry me that much, I know where to get them and know which ones I need. What worries me is the ASUS applications that came with my laptop (still have them), and if they would work with W8. One of them supposedly improves boot time...

When all programs and the OS are on another device, the HDD will perform better, as it will only be asked to fetch data, not data+programs+OS at the same time like it is now.

Does this apply to games too? If I installed a game on the SSD, would it be quicker than if it were on the HDD?

What manufacturer do you reccommend? Western Digital is without a doubt the best, but since I can't find any SSD from them here in my country which would you reccommend me? Samsung? Kingston?

 

[bobafetthotmail]

if I load an mp3 from an external source (like a pen or HD), with OS on SSD, would it be the same as well?

yes, it should be the same. If the player program is on the SSD as well.
The point is that the file to be played is loaded in chunks, not all at once, so as long as the external source is fast enough for smooth playback, load times are the same.

What worries me is the ASUS applications that came with my laptop (still have them), and if they would work with W8. One of them supposedly improves boot time...

Hmmm, your post makes me think your Win 7 is underperforming vs win8 so much because the win 8 you tried was a clean install, while atm you say your win7 is still full of bloatware.

We call it bloatware because it does very rarely add something on a laptop (the suites for a desktop tend to be more useful). More often than not they are redundant as they display options and info that is accessible from Win7's own control panels. What do those programs do in your laptop exactly? Do they have a name?

Now, "improving boot time" is a pretty straightforward affair, and is achieved 2 ways:
-remove any non-critical program from the "open at startup" list. You will likely have a bunch of auto-updaters (adobe, flash, java, some other program), plus such ASUS utilities.
This tutorial (especially method three but check the first two as well) allows you to prevent stuff you don't like from being started at boot, and change your mind easily (as long as you are just unticking the boxes). Untick all stuff that isn't from microsoft or of your antivirus, or from Intel or NVIDIA.
I suggest you to try measuring the difference in power-on to ready-to-use before and after.
In case you don't know what some entry is, google it and you will find someone talking about it.
You can also post a screenshot or ask if you are still unsure.
Depending on how much nonsense is in that list, you can speed up boot by 30 seconds or even a full minute.

-installing more performing hardware, as during boot a ton of stuff (around 2 GB) is copied to RAM. Hard drives are of two kinds: 5400 RPM (rotations per minute) or 7200 RPM, the more RPM the better. SSDs usually cut boot times in half or something like that.

Does this apply to games too? If I installed a game on the SSD, would it be quicker than if it were on the HDD?

An SSD drastically decreases "game loading, please wait" time as that is the time stuff is moved from the storage memory (HDD or SSD) to main memory (RAM). But of course cannot make your CPU or graphic card run faster than they already do as once stuff is into RAM it's job is ended.

What manufacturer do you reccommend?

I have too little experience with SSDs to recommend a brand over another, but this forums has some heavy SSD users, so read this thread for their recommendations.

BTW, we have quite a few tutorials about using win 7 on an SSD, feel free to check them as they likely work for 8 as well.

 

[Kratos Aurion]

Hmmm, your post makes me think your Win 7 is underperforming vs win8 so much because the win 8 you tried was a clean install, while atm you say your Windows 7 is still full of bloatware.

We call it bloatware because it does very rarely add something on a laptop (the suites for a desktop tend to be more useful). More often than not they are redundant as they display options and info that is accessible from Windows 7's own control panels. What do those programs do in your laptop exactly? Do they have a name?

Now, "improving boot time" is a pretty straightforward affair, and is achieved 2 ways:
-remove any non-critical program from the "open at startup" list. You will likely have a bunch of auto-updaters (adobe, flash, java, some other program), plus such ASUS utilities.
This tutorial (especially method three but check the first two as well) allows you to prevent stuff you don't like from being started at boot, and change your mind easily (as long as you are just unticking the boxes). Untick all stuff that isn't from microsoft or of your antivirus, or from Intel or NVIDIA.
I suggest you to try measuring the difference in power-on to ready-to-use before and after.
In case you don't know what some entry is, google it and you will find someone talking about it.
You can also post a screenshot or ask if you are still unsure.
Depending on how much nonsense is in that list, you can speed up boot by 30 seconds or even a full minute.

Never heard of that term before. Reason I keep my ASUS apps is because I have trust in the company, I don't really use them at all (except for Power4gear, which monitors my high performance power setting). But I guess you're right, the more software installed on the system the slower it gets. Here's what ASUS gave me:

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/3038/asusapps.png

I thought the reason for my laptop to boot so fast was because of FancyStart and SmartLogon, that's why I haven't unninstalled them. But that was in 2011, I know much more about PC's now compared to back then (which is not saying much xD). Other than Power4gear, never used a single one of them.
I'm gonna try unninstalling them and removing some of my startup apps, and see what it does...

Now that I was so hyped to buy this amazing SSD, I started to wonder...is this even compatible? I can't believe this question hasn't come to me sooner, it was the first one that came to me when I was looking for RAM. After some research, i've heard of SATA I, II and III and some PC's not being compatible with III. Is there a way I can know?

 

[bobafetthotmail]

Hey, I told you to use the startup applications panel to disable something from there, not the panel to uninstall stuff. Not the same thing! Tutorial linked above!
The programs that slow down the machine are the ones activated at startup that run 100% of the time. As I said they are components of programs you don't want to uninstall, like auto-updaters or preloaders (they shorten load times of a particular program by pre-loading it, this of course degrades performance for everything else, and slows boot times), uninstalling stuff is useful but not what I said.
Whatever is installed but not running does not have any effect (otherwise I'd have already killed this rig with the crapload of Steam games I have on it).

After some research, i've heard of SATA I, II and III and some PC's not being compatible with III. Is there a way I can know?

Yes, there are some ways, but I'd say it's unnecessary. All modern SSDs are SATA III. Even if your laptop has a SATA II, the SSD will run at SATA II speed (usually automatically, but check if there are jumpers to set). SATA I is way too old for your laptop so I'd rule it out.
Of course it will be a bit worse in theory, but unless you run benchmarks you won't notice it. The main effect is being snappy, and that's because of very very low waiting time before it finds the data it was looking for. SATA II speed is more than enough as it can fill that much more than HDDs can.
This article goes more in depth with benchmarks and their conclusions are just that.

As for the size, 2.5'' is the same size as your laptop's HDD (any laptop HDD for that matter) and they say it is only 7mm thick. Check your current HDD thickness, but I think the SSD is thinner. At most you may have to put some paper or whatever into it just to make sure it does fit snugly. If your HDD is in a metal frame screwed on the HDD, then you're probably ok as the SSD will be screwed to that frame anyway.

 

[Kratos Aurion]

Hey, I told you to use the startup applications panel to disable something from there, not the panel to uninstall stuff. Not the same thing! Tutorial linked above!
The programs that slow down the machine are the ones activated at startup that run 100% of the time. As I said they are components of programs you don't want to uninstall, like auto-updaters or preloaders (they shorten load times of a particular program by pre-loading it, this of course degrades performance for everything else, and slows boot times), uninstalling stuff is useful but not what I said.
Whatever is installed but not running does not have any effect (otherwise I'd have already killed this rig with the crapload of Steam games I have on it).

After some research, i've heard of SATA I, II and III and some PC's not being compatible with III. Is there a way I can know?

Yes, there are some ways, but I'd say it's unnecessary. All modern SSDs are SATA III. Even if your laptop has a SATA II, the SSD will run at SATA II speed (usually automatically, but check if there are jumpers to set). SATA I is way too old for your laptop so I'd rule it out.
Of course it will be a bit worse in theory, but unless you run benchmarks you won't notice it. The main effect is being snappy, and that's because of very very low waiting time before it finds the data it was looking for. SATA II speed is more than enough as it can fill that much more than HDDs can.
This article goes more in depth with benchmarks and their conclusions are just that.

As for the size, 2.5'' is the same size as your laptop's HDD (any laptop HDD for that matter) and they say it is only 7mm thick. Check your current HDD thickness, but I think the SSD is thinner. At most you may have to put some paper or whatever into it just to make sure it does fit snugly. If your HDD is in a metal frame screwed on the HDD, then you're probably ok as the SSD will be screwed to that frame anyway.

Yeah I knew what you meant, but I unninstalled them anyway. I realized they didn't really do anything and I never used them, I was just afraid because of what I said in the other post. Unninstalled some of them, and disabled some startup apps, and now my boot time is shorter. Thanks =D

Oh. I searched for my chipset, and it said SATA 3GB so yeah it must be only I and II. And Samsung says it's compatible with I, II and III so yeah I guess i'm ok...right? xD

I think this is my drive, if it isn't the specs are basically identical and here's the dimensions:

WD Blue 640 GB SATA Hard Drives ( WD6400BPVT)

Physical Dimensions
English
Height 0.374 Inches
Depth 3.94 Inches
Width 2.75 Inches
Weight 0.26 Pounds
Metric
Height 9.5 mm
Depth 100.2 mm
Width 69.85 mm
Weight 0.117 kg

It's 9.5, which is kinda worrying me now...and looking at this video i'm not sure if it has that frame where you slide the disk in, just some metal cover you unscrew which is kinda worrying me also...
And is that paper thing safe for the disk? If it heats up would it be ok for it to be there supporting the disk? Man, I thought it would be simpler

Once again, thank you so much for the attention and help =D

 

[bobafetthotmail]

Sorry for late reply, had issues needing my attention.

Oh. I searched for my chipset, and it said SATA 3GB so yeah it must be only I and II.

SATA 3Gb/s is SATA II. Is reverse-compatible with SATA I but in case of a laptop it's kind of hard to find a SATA I hdd that physically fits as most SATA I are desktop drives, 3.5'' disks not 2.5''.

The drive's electronics are also reverse-compatible, so they will switch to SATA II as that is the best the chipset supports. As I said it's not a big deal.

I think this is my drive,

What about opening the panel and pulling it out? To pull it out you usually need to slide it to the opposite direction of the connector to detach it from the connector, then flip the laptop and have it fall down on your hand. If it does not slide out with a medium-strenght push don't go berserk and start looking for screws or mechanisms that lock it in place.

It's 9.5, which is kinda worrying me now

heh, was kinda expecting it. It will connect fine but there will be space under it (between the drive and the laptop's cover) or over it (more rare).

No fire risk. Paper (printer paper or similar book-grade paper) auto-ignites at over 230 C (or 451 F, like that old film Fahreneit 451) and no component in that laptop is ever going to reach more than 100 without triggering safeties.
If you somehow have flames in your laptop, paper or not it will burn down anyway as the plastic casing will ignite.
I saw a laptop that burned down becuase of a battery failure (plenty of videos on youtube) but I was still able to recover the hard drive and the data on it. Admittedly it's rare.


Btw, Where will you put the HDD/SSD? seems like you want to replace the internal drive with an SSD and put it in an external enclosure. Since your laptop has a e-sata port i'd warmly recommend to buy an enclosure with an e-sata port as that is basically a rewired internal disk connector (so it will go as fast as if it was internal, this should make a difference if you plan to use it in video-editing and A LOT if you move around dozens of GB at once like when you are unloading raw video from a camera, what I said above applies to media players and office programs). Seems like a combo port, so it should be able to power the device as well, so it is a e-SATAp.
Enclosures for that are a bit more expensive than cheapo USB 2.0 ones, This one from Delock has all cables as well.
This from startech is more expensive and requires you to purchase a e-satap cable as well.

You also have a USB 3.0 port, which is a good second choice. It has USB 2.0 as well but that's the worst choice (the slowest).

 

[Kratos Aurion]

Sorry for late reply, had issues needing my attention.

Oh. I searched for my chipset, and it said SATA 3GB so yeah it must be only I and II.

SATA 3Gb/s is SATA II. Is reverse-compatible with SATA I but in case of a laptop it's kind of hard to find a SATA I hdd that physically fits as most SATA I are desktop drives, 3.5'' disks not 2.5''.

The drive's electronics are also reverse-compatible, so they will switch to SATA II as that is the best the chipset supports. As I said it's not a big deal.

I think this is my drive,

What about opening the panel and pulling it out? To pull it out you usually need to slide it to the opposite direction of the connector to detach it from the connector, then flip the laptop and have it fall down on your hand. If it does not slide out with a medium-strenght push don't go berserk and start looking for screws or mechanisms that lock it in place.

It's 9.5, which is kinda worrying me now

heh, was kinda expecting it. It will connect fine but there will be space under it (between the drive and the laptop's cover) or over it (more rare).

No fire risk. Paper (printer paper or similar book-grade paper) auto-ignites at over 230 C (or 451 F, like that old film Fahreneit 451) and no component in that laptop is ever going to reach more than 100 without triggering safeties.
If you somehow have flames in your laptop, paper or not it will burn down anyway as the plastic casing will ignite.
I saw a laptop that burned down becuase of a battery failure (plenty of videos on youtube) but I was still able to recover the hard drive and the data on it. Admittedly it's rare.


Btw, Where will you put the HDD/SSD? seems like you want to replace the internal drive with an SSD and put it in an external enclosure. Since your laptop has a e-sata port i'd warmly recommend to buy an enclosure with an e-sata port as that is basically a rewired internal disk connector (so it will go as fast as if it was internal, this should make a difference if you plan to use it in video-editing and A LOT if you move around dozens of GB at once like when you are unloading raw video from a camera, what I said above applies to media players and office programs). Seems like a combo port, so it should be able to power the device as well, so it is a e-SATAp.
Enclosures for that are a bit more expensive than cheapo USB 2.0 ones, This one from Delock has all cables as well.
This from startech is more expensive and requires you to purchase a e-satap cable as well.

You also have a USB 3.0 port, which is a good second choice. It has USB 2.0 as well but that's the worst choice (the slowest).

It's ok, I understand

Great, so the Samsung 840 Pro SSD is compatiblie at all. Awesome =D

No need, I have the SIW report here. I said that because I couldn't find the specs for the exact one I have, but they're virtually the same. Here's my HDD's real specs:

Property Value
JOAO-PC (ASUSTeK Computer Inc. N53Jq)
Disk 0
Manufacturer - Western Digital
Model - WDC WD6400BEVT-80A0RT0
Size - 640.1 GB
Firmware Version - 01.01A01
Serial Number - WD-WXB1A3079876
Rotational Speed - 5400 RPM
Form Factor - Not Available
Interface - Serial ATA
Standard - ATA8-ACS | ----
Advanced Format Supported - Not Available
Transfer Mode (Current / Max) - SATA-300 / SATA-300
Features - S.M.A.R.T., APM, 48bit LBA, NCQ, AAM (Disabled)
Power Cycle Count - 1672
Temperature - 31 C (87 F)
Drive Letter(s) - C: D:
Controller Buffer Size on Drive - 8192 KB
Queue Depth - 32
Removable - No
Cache Enabled (Read / Write) - Yes / Yes
SMART Support - Yes

In this page there's a guy that had the same question, and the best answer says that it would fit perfectly. From the pics, it's thinner but the places where the screws are give it kinda the same thickness. But does this apply to all drives? I'm guessing not, and if I need I just put printer paper anyway...

Glad to know it's safe, was getting kinda worried of that. Thanks for the info there

Yeah my plan was to put the new SSD in the internal HDD's place, and then either get an enclosure like you said and plug it like an external drive OR I would do like you said the first time and replace my DVD Burner and put the HDD in so I can have 2 internal Drives =D
Still not sure what i'll do though...

 

[bobafetthotmail]

The lateral screw holes matter if you have a metal tray (like the images in that thread) for the hdd OR for a desktop, or if you mount it in a caddy. If they use their own mounting system or if it is just kept there by the back panel, you may have to use some paper.

Btw, you can place the SSD in the caddy too. The connections and speed are the same, and you save the hassle of removing the old HDD.

 

[Kratos Aurion]

The lateral screw holes matter if you have a metal tray (like the images in that thread) for the hdd OR for a desktop, or if you mount it in a caddy. If they use their own mounting system or if it is just kept there by the back panel, you may have to use some paper.

Btw, you can place the SSD in the caddy too. The connections and speed are the same, and you save the hassle of removing the old HDD.

I see. If I notice that it needs some space to fill, i'll put the paper in then.

I know, but I prefer this way. If I could put the old HDD into the DVD Burner's place would be a perfect setup for me, just need to ground myself on how to do it properly...