iRiver iHP-1X0 mSATA SSD drive mod

[bpfiguer]

Has anyone tried an mSATA SSD drive using a ZIF to mSATA adapter and rockbox in an iRiver iHP-1X0 player?

I am asking because the price of a 256GB mSATA SSD drive is 1/5 of a 256GB ZIF SSD drive.

[cereal_killer]

All I know is that rockbox does not work on an iPod Video with a mSATA SSD drive and a ZIF to mSATA adapter, but the OF does. So there might be a problem with rockbox and that drive mod, but I am not sure if that applies for the iRivers too. But rockbox developer torne is investigating this problem on a modded iPod Video right now and I am absolutely sure, that he is capable of solving this problem.

By the way: Are mSATA drives really that cheap compared to ZIF SSDs? Can you point me to some examples? I live in Europe and for 256GB SSDs the price of mSATA is about 3/4 the price of ZIF SATA drives.

[bpfiguer]

SuperTalent 256GB ZIF SSD: $1.127 (last year the price was $500)

Crucial M4 CT256M4SSD3 256GB mSATA: $199

[cereal_killer]

Interesting. I get

Super Talent DuraDrive ZT2 256GB, 1.8", ZIF : €254 (~US$345)

Crucial m4 SSD 256GB, mSATA 6Gb/s (CT256M4SSD3): €180 (~US$250)

Adding the price for an adapter (don't know which one exactly) makes the difference even smaller.

[monoid]

Shouldn't be the right interface 50 pin CF? At  least that is what I use in H120.  It does not-seem to be more expensive than eSata or ZIF.

[bpfiguer]

The Super Talent ZIF SSD drives are overpriced 3-folds in the US (e.g. eBay and Amazon) compared with Europe.

The mSATA drives should be faster than ZIF drives unless the iRiver´s controller and/or the mSATA to ZIF adapter are limiting factors.

Interesting. I get

Super Talent DuraDrive ZT2 256GB, 1.8", ZIF : €254 (~US$345)

Crucial m4 SSD 256GB, mSATA 6Gb/s (CT256M4SSD3): €180 (~US$250)

Adding the price for an adapter (don't know which one exactly) makes the difference even smaller.

[bpfiguer]

The 50 pin CF adapter does not work with ZIF or mSATA drives. The 256GB CF cards are difficult to find http://www.lexar.com/about/newsroom/press-releases/lexar-introduces-industry-first-256gb-compactflash-card. If you are ok with 128GB then the CF mod is a very good option. If you need 256GB or more then SSD could be a better option considering the cost.

For a ZIF SSD drive you use an IDE to ZIF adapter.

For a mSATA drive you use two adapters: an IDE to ZIF and ZIF to mSATA.

Shouldn't be the right interface 50 pin CF? At  least that is what I use in H120.  It does not-seem to be more expensive than eSata or ZIF.

[monoid]

OK, I meant that easiest solution is to buy 50 pin IDE - SSD.  (Edit PATA (IDE 50-pin / CF50) SSD.)
http://www.mx-technology.com/en/product/ssd2.php?sid=5#fragment-16

No adapter is needed. I have installed 120G in iRiver H-120.

[AlexP]

Newer players don't use 50 pin IDE

[monoid]

I made mistake. I wanted to write PATA.

[DMinor]

Interesting. I get

Super Talent DuraDrive ZT2 256GB, 1.8", ZIF : €254 (~US$345)

Crucial m4 SSD 256GB, mSATA 6Gb/s (CT256M4SSD3): €180 (~US$250)

Adding the price for an adapter (don't know which one exactly) makes the difference even smaller.

Crucial m4 SSD 256GB, mSATA is sold for $185 at Amazon.

[monoid]

From, what was written in this forum, it seems that the bootloader of iHP-1x0 (H-1x0) cannot be changed/fixed at present time. There was introduced some kind of bug years ago which bricks the player. The current state of bootloader is that it is unmaitenancable.

So, nobody can count on that if mSATA SSD disk will not work that someone will be able to fix the bootloader.

If you use 50 pin PATA (CF) SSD, you do not need any adapter.

This 120 GB works for sure (I have it and another user as well). They make also 240 GB, so most probably it will work as well.
http://www.mx-technology.com/en/product/ssd2.php?sid=5#fragment-16

[hypergreatthing]

I'll repost from another forum:
and success! rockbox reads it.  Did a battery swap to a 2200 mAh one as well.  That little battery plug is a pain in the ass to get in there.
So apparently my boot loader (version 6?) recognized the drive.  All i did for good measure was to connect the usb, format the drive as ntsb so windows would assign a drive letter, then i used guiformat to format it to fat32 (with 32k cluster sizes).  Copied my backup of the old 40 gig drive back to it and started it up.  Rockbox loaded up.
I'm fairly sure the original firmware doesn't work (confirmed, says check hdd) but with rockbox and usb working i don't mind.
I got some pics, lemme see how to get them on here.
http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/9680/20130221204458.jpg
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/3562/20130221204509.jpg
thanks again for the inspiration =)
^^
This was using a crucial msata 256 gig ssd with msata to zif adapter and the zif to toshiba hdd adapter
Love it.  If you need a screen shot of total space on the iriver i'll be happy to add one

[bpfiguer]

I'll repost from another forum:
and success! rockbox reads it.  Did a battery swap to a 2200 mAh one as well.  That little battery plug is a pain in the ass to get in there.
So apparently my boot loader (version 6?) recognized the drive.  All i did for good measure was to connect the usb, format the drive as ntsb so windows would assign a drive letter, then i used guiformat to format it to fat32 (with 32k cluster sizes).  Copied my backup of the old 40 gig drive back to it and started it up.  Rockbox loaded up.
I'm fairly sure the original firmware doesn't work (confirmed, says check hdd) but with rockbox and usb working i don't mind.
I got some pics, lemme see how to get them on here.
http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/9680/20130221204458.jpg
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/3562/20130221204509.jpg
thanks again for the inspiration =)
^^
This was using a crucial msata 256 gig ssd with msata to zif adapter and the zif to toshiba hdd adapter
Love it.  If you need a screen shot of total space on the iriver i'll be happy to add one

Thank you for posting!

How fast is now the player compared with the Toshiba hard drive disk or another reference (bootup, shutdown, browsing files, etc.)?

How fast is transferring files to the player through USB?

Did you try WAV or lossless files?

Does gapless work fine?

How is the battery life?

Does the player behave stable or freeze sometimes?

[hypergreatthing]

It's pretty hard to compare honestly.  I had an issue where the hdd light would come on and freeze up the player for like 10-15 seconds.  After a day of using it that seems to be gone.  USB transfer speed from my computer seems to go at like 12-14 megs a second without slowing down.  Rockbox seems to boot fairly fast.  I'll take a few videos and you can see yourself.  I was scrolling in rockbox and i didn't see any issues.  Again I'll show it off in a video i guess.  Battery i can't tell.  I can turn it on and time it, but it's a new 2200 mAh one, not the original.  It wouldn't be a really good test.
I did notice that after a day of using it through my computer and using it as a hard drive, i noticed it was a bit warm to the touch.  Not hot or anything, but i didn't notice any heat with the original harddrive in it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpInHxTpbwA