Hi everybody,

I've got a Dell Latitude X1 since January 2006 and still love it for being fanless, perfect size (12,1") and weight (1,1kg). With a SSD, it feels like a pocket calcultor! Until now, I found no better laptop fitting my needs, as I'm not accepting noise and more than 1,5kg. And I hate Dell for poor support and information.

Now I want to use a Compact Flash card in the built-in CF Card Reader as a kind of second HDD for application data etc and bought a 8GB 233x Compact Flash Card.

The transfer rate is below 1MB/sec at very high CPU load. Obviously, PIO is used instead of UDMA.

How can I change the CF Card Reader to UDMA? I already tried to resolve the PIO problem with deleting the "IDE ATA/ATAPI-Controller".

Has anyone better results? What is the maximum speed on SD cards and CF card in Dell's Latitude X1? With SD cards I made much better expiriences, but still at disapointing speeds.

BTW: My SSD is slowed down to UDMA Mode 2 - still faster than the original 60GB.

Latitude X1 owners, PLEASE provide me with your knowledge! Are faster transfer rates than 25MByte/sec possible? Which SSDs work as system HDD in Dell's X1?

Thanks a lot.

Martin
[frustrated]

I returned the CF card to the dealer. With PIO it's useless.

Now I changed to microSDHC 8GB Class 4.
Write performance ist only 2,6 MB/sec, but at least without remarkable CPU load.

I'm still looking for experiences of other Latitude X1 owners.
What are your maximum speeds with the internal card readers?
Has anybody tried PhotoFast G-Monster SSD?
Any other alternative HDD/SSD for the Toshiba MK6006GAH?

Only read about the Mtron's being up to the job.

I checked Mtron's site, but as I'm restricted to PATA 1,8", I found only two models:

MTRON SSD MOBI: MSD 1000 (MLC): MSD-PATA1018 (16 or 32 GB)
MTRON SSD MOBI: MSD 3000 (SLC): MSD-PATA3018 (16 or 32 GB)

but both are ZIF connected, not IDE 50 pin or IDE 44 pin.

Or can I build ZIF in my Dell Latitude X1?

Do you have a X1, SandSand? Who else?

Other expiriences?

Yes Mobi 3000.
I thought the X1 had zif connection inside. It's a long time since i researched the options for an upgrade.
I believe Mtron is working on a 64GB version of the mobi 3000.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=383788&page=3

Looking to upgrade my own X1 with it.
Also looking for a mini PCI wireless N (5 ghz) card to put in.

Mmh, actually, there IS something like a ZIF connector on the motherboard, 50 "pins", exactly 1 inch wide - is that something like a ZIF connection standard? I once bought a ZIF drive by accident, but I had no matching "cable" to connect it to my X1, so it went back to my dealer.



Are you sure? There is no 64GB 1.8" mentioned at Mtron's. I guess it was a misunderstanding, as there are 64GB 2,5" - too big for my tiny X1. On the other hand, e.g. RunCore already sells 64GB 1.8" PATA ZIF.

However, 32GB would be enough for me. All my backups and videos go to cheap external USB 2.5" HDDs.

I'm afraid, ZIF wouldn't fit in my X1. Only PhotoFast 1.8" G-Monster-50 IDE seems to perfectly replace the original HDD, but it's hard to find vendors.

try to see this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=222885&page=19

Thanks a lot!

That thread contains much information about X1 upgrading and I found some answers: connection of ZIF drives is possible - but only with an adapter, not direct.

I think I'll try to get a PhotoFast 1.8" G-Monster-50 IDE V4, but it's good to know, that ZIF could be an alternative with a fitting adapter.

Good to know that it helped you.
Looking forward to hear about your experiences and performance (post them in notebookreview thread preferably, to keep info in one place.)

Hi.

I just bought a new IBM-computer, but have sold it after one week. Don't want to get rid of my X1 yet!

Now - i'm searching for a larger SSD thatn my 32GB SSD (MOBI Mtron ZIF + connector). But i don't know what to look for now?!

I have read this thread and I do really want to hear abobut - if you bought the PhotoBucket ZIF-drive. I bought the MOBI Mtron and i bought an adapter that looks somewhat like this: (ebay item:) 1.8 ZIF Hard Disk Drive SSD HDD to micro-IDE Adapter

Did you buy the Photobucket SDD? or what did you buy? And If i should buy a SSD for this X1 - without using an adapter - then what type of connector should i look for? I fit the ZIF-connector right ind under the keyboard (it's a tight fit) and i could do the same to a new SDD - if only i knew what connector i should look for.

Anyone that have experience in this matter? And could someone direct me to a 64 (or larger) SSD that i could use in the X1? I would be thrilled

Hi Thorun,

visit the notebookreview.com forum mentioned above. You'll find a lot of stuff regarding the Latitude X1.

Look for PhotoFast or KingSpec SSDs up to 128 GB. They have models which fit perfectly in the X1 without adapter. There might be even others. PhotoFast is probably the fastest (measured performance 85 MB/sec read, 35 MB/sec write) but also most expensive, KingSpec is a little lower, also in price.

The connector is sometimes called 50pin PATA Toshiba style or CF connector, since it is the same as CompactFlash. DON'T try 44pin IBM.

Additionally, try a memory upgrade to 2 GB. WiFi 802.11n also possible.