Jeff said:
You don't say whether it's for a desktop or laptop. Hopefully, it'll go
without problem, but you might like to read this first...
http://windowssecrets.com/top-story/some-ugliness-installing-an-after-market-ssd/
Yes, I've worked with people like that. (Mutters under breath...)
It's why we kept the Dremel under lock and key.
2.5" drives come in 12.5mm and 9.5mm. That was for the rotating kind.
In a quick check, I couldn't find an article with a definitive
list of possible drive dimensions. There might be other sizes now
for all I know.
To shock mount them properly, there should be a means to hold them
in place. You can do it with a metal tray (that's what my laptop uses),
or make the (plastic) enclosure a form fit.
Part of the reason for taking care on dimensions, is the SATA connector.
You can't allow the drive to flop around, with the SATA bits plugged
together. Something is eventually going to snap.
It could be, that the "spacer" described in the article, was
an attempt to give the drive a particular thickness dimension.
And that the computer used in the article, had one bay of each
type (12.5mm and 9.5mm), for no particularly good reason.
I'm willing to bet, an SSD could be made thinner than 9.5mm.
There would be ways to do it. But then, the manufacturer may
want to make them an exact physical replacement for a rotating
drive. So that, at a laptop factory, they could mix and match
HDD or SSD in the same production line. And have everything
just work.
The various drive dimensions exist, in order to enable various
numbers of platters to be used. The same kind of thing happens
with 3.5" drives, where you have one thickness for a single
platter drive, and a thicker drive for the multi-platter ones.
On a desktop, it may be less obvious, as the spacing between
bays in the front is sufficient to take care of whatever
thickness is involved.
OK, according to this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk_drive
2.5 inch
15 mm Enterprise-class drives can have a height up to 15 mm
12.5 mm typically with three platters
9.5 mm (usually having two platters inside)
7 mm Seagate released a 7mm drive
And the middle ones might be more popular.
In a desktop, you can use an adapter, or some people use a nylon tie
or two, to hold their SSD in place. And by using SATA cables, there's
less chance of snapping something off.
Paul
