Runcore 32GB SSD into a Vaio P = Win.

So, with the little Vaio P now running a 3D accelerated desktop and working all awesome-like… I decided the 4200rpm 60GB drive had to go, as this was an obvious performance bottleneck.

I bought a Runcore 32GB 1.8″ ZIF SSD from Solid State Central for $159 and waited a long and painful 14 days for it to arrive (out of stock, had to come in from overseas).

When it arrived, I obviously tore the box apart like a kid at christmastime.

Anyway, a few words on the package itself… it comes with a handy external caddy for mounting 1.8″ ZIF drives, as well as coming with a curious USB cable that plugs straight into the SSD itself using some sort of proprietary port up the other end of the drive…. strange.

Now the bit that REALLY got me was the connector… ripping the Vaio apart is a piece of cake in itself, but one thing that needs to be noted is that the ZIF connector on the original drive IS INVERTED… so if you’re looking at the original drive with the ZIF connector facing up, the conductors are on the bottom edge of the socket. On the SSD, they’re on the top edge, despite the fact the connector looks extremely similar and is in exactly the same position. EDIT: Apparently some drives ship with the ZIF connector in the correct position… so look out for this (Thanks Lars).

This wasn’t really a huge issue, except that a) it took me hours to figure it out while I scoured forums for evidence that the drive was actually incompatible, and b) once I had the damn thing in, the Vaio’s ZIF cable is a little bit squeezed in by the new arrangement, as the hard drive has to be installed essentially flipped over from the original spec.

The whole thing went back together just fine though, and the install etc ran smoothly… and damn this thing boots up fast. Easily as fast as my desktop, which is good considering we’re talking about a 1.3ghz Intel Atom vs a Q6600 Core2 Quad.

Obviously this is due to the awesome seek times of SSDs… the actual throughput of the drive is obviously improved but its the seek time that accounts for the awesome boot times. With no moving parts, SSDs will always outpace mechanical drives in that regard.

So if you’re ready to drop $950 on a Vaio P and want a relatively cheap performance boost… GET AN SSD. I went with the cheaper 32GB because I didn’t really need the space… I have an external bus-powerd 120GB drive for that… but the SSD is well worth the money, and you might even get a bit longer battery life out of the P as well.