Updating HP all-in-one PC from HD to SSD

[Andrew]

I have finally plucked up the courage to take the back off my £25 BHF charity shop HP All-in-1 PC and the existing hard disk is fitted inside a metal caddy with 4 screws as per normal practice but the caddy has only a single screw which allows the whole unit to slide horizontally which disconnects from a rigidly fixed combined power and sata connector.

There are two cables coming out of this connector, which plug into the MB. The MB sata connector looks like a standard sata plug and the power connector is a 4-way plug that is a smaller version of the one that seems to be the norm for desktops.

Herein lies the problem. The 500 MB Blue WD HD in my desktop has a 'conventional' power socket but the

1TB WD Blue HD that is in the HP only seems to have two gold plated edge connectors that engage with the dual sata/power connector bolted to the chassis.

Have power connectors for hard disks changed in the last 9 years (HP made in 2014) ?.

The label on the 1TB HD says MDL: WD10EZEZ-60M2NAO

How am I going to fit an SSD into the existing caddy in such a way that it mechanically engages with the chassis-mounted multi plug ?. There are conversion plates on sale but some SSD's have threaded bosses on the 7mm sides while others seem to have 4 holes through the top to the bottom.

I suspect I will have to remove the multi plug and use 2 new cables to connect to an SSD. Someone posted here that he has done this and I am curious to know how he coped with the mechanical mounting of a 2.5 inch SSD in place of a 3.5 inch x 1 inch deep HD, from both the cabling aspect and physically mounting it ?

May be I could mount the new SSD ?securely but unscrew the chassis-mounted plug and just plug that into the new drive but I am wondering if thermal cycling might result in it popping out.

I changed the 2032 battery while I was in there, the one in-situ measured 14 millivolts - oh dear. Luckily it has not leaked.

[Theo]

Yes, from 'Molex' to 'SATA'. You want a converter:

Molex was typically only on 3.5" drives, which that seems to be.

Do you have enough space to squeeze the converter in there, given the SSD is a lot smaller? The SSD is probably a small PCB inside a metal case with a lot of empty space:

so if you were to uncase the PCB you would have loads of spare space - basically from 3.5" x 1" x 5" or so, down to a thick playing card.

You can get extensions for the data connector if you need one:

Recabling would also be an idea: if the motherboard has standard connections then new cables might be simpler than adapters.

SSDs are so light that almost anything will hold them in place - sticky tape, velcro...

Theo

[Andrew]

Ok, the black connector looks like a plug for an edge connector which is what the *existing* 1TB HArd disk has.

If all SSD's now only have edge connectors for power and sata then the existing multi-plug should plug straight into the replacement SSD ??.

The *existing* plug looks like the one on the extender on that same site marked "22 Pin 7 + 15 Male to Female Serial ATA SATA Data Power Combo Extension Cable UK"

QED I think what I have now should plug straight into an SSD (can anyone confirm this?).

If I removed the two torx bolts that connect it onto stand-offs attached to the chassis then I could use a couple of plastic cable ties to loop around the length of the SSD and mechanically hold the plug in place to avoid it popping out due to thermal cycling.

Don't they need some sort of ventilation/heatsink though ?. Double- sided tape doesn't sound like a good idea if they run hot.

The metal chassis immediately under the HD location has a rectangular area about 12x4 cms with about 85 holes which must be for ventilation. The caddy also has many ventilation holes along the sides.

[Theo]

Yes, all SATA SSDs have the 7+15 pin edge connectors, so if you have those on the cable they should plug straight in.

You can also get adapters designed for the job which handle the connectors:

Generally SATA SSDs aren't worked very hard, so they don't get super hot. NVMe SSDs can benefit from a small heatsink (1inch square x 5mm high kind of size), but the combination of SATA being slower and a larger volume means burning a couple of watts inside that form factor isn't much of an issue.

In the average consumer PC you aren't pushing the SSD hard - it's not being used as a database server or anything.

HDD get warmer than SSDs, given the moving parts.

Theo

[Paul]

[Picture]

What you need, is not just any old adapter tray.

The 2.5" and 3.5" drives, the 15 position and 7 position sections are at the same relative position, to two seating surfaces (side and bottom). This means, your installation scenario shares more with "server backplane installation" than with conventional (cabled) PC installation.

If you bolt a metal plate to the bottom of the 2.5 drive, it's not going to mate with the connector, because the drive will be "elevated" too much. The bottom of the

2.5 drive, has to touch the cheese grater metal of your housing.

Instead, the drive can only be held by two side screws. (Your cheese grater housing, does not have holes in the side for this right now.) Then, the drive could slide into that backplane connector scheme they are using.

Using your existing cheese grater housing, you may be able to press the 2.5" drive into the correct orientation, to align with the backplane-style adapter. A block of wood might do it. You need to hold the drive, from more than one direction. It has to be held so it can't move backwards, during plugin. it also needs to be pinned against the top of the cheese grater container, to maintain the seating plane correct position.

Fitting adapter cables, in that confined space, would be a giant pain in the ass. SATA cables *cannot* be bent, because it throws off the characteristic impedance. if a SATA seven position data cable has a "kink" in it, discard the cable, it's ruined.

*******

This center-oriented adapter is fine for desktop PC installation, and completely useless for your AIO.

Paul

[John Rumm]

Yup, that is quite a common setup in laptops and small form factor machines.

Quite often the (wider) power lead would come straight form the PSU unit

- but for a AIO they may have provided a connector on the mobo for the job.

Most drives these days will have pair of connectors side by side - they both look like edge connectors, and have a polarising "corner" to make sure they only connect one way. In desktop applications they are often fed from two totally independent cables, but in cases like yours they have a single connector that mates with both parts. The spacing of them is standard - so they can design PCB backplanes that allow drives to "plug in" to the PCB directly.

Older drives may also have the older Molex connector - typically with two black, one red and one yellow wire terminating in pins in a plug shell. On those drives you would use one power connector or the other - but not both at the same time.

Yup, that is a standard SATA arrangement of power and data.

You should find the spacing is such that it will physically connect to the 2.5" SSD. Note also that the spacing of the connector is also a standard distance from the edge of the drive - so the smaller drive should always be able to interface with the connector:

(SSD sat on top of HDD with edges aligned, also SSD in 3.5 to 2.5" bay adaptor frame)

You have three options really - put the SSD in an adaptor frame, install in caddy, and the connect the exiting lead - however you would probably need to free it from its mount since the adaptor frame will displace the position of the smaller drive.

Or, you could do the above, but connect using new standard SATA and power leads - this might be harder since you may not have traditional power leads spare in the AIO.

My personal approach would be to leave the existing caddy in place, insert the SSD into the fixed connector, and the fix it in place using either adhesive Velcro tape, a blob of hot melt glue. Since the new drive has little mass, and there is not vibration, it does not need particularly strong fixing.

Usually using frames - either the very simple type like that on the HyperX drive in the photo - or more sophisticated ones that allow mounting a pair of 2.5" drives in a 3.5" slot.

It is unlikely to pop out - especially in a desktop machine.

[David]

Worth looking at Icydock who do plastic boxes which fit a 2.5" drive inside and fit into the space designed for a 3.5" drive. I have quite a few of these in the desktop estate, either housing SSDs or reusing laptop drives.

Cheers

Dave R

[Andrew]

OK, thanks for that.

One thing I have noticed is that there isn't a spec of dust or fluff inside. Nada, nothing, whereas my desktop has a nice accumulation of dust all over its internals.

I wonder just how much use it has had since new ?. I might get a caddy and put the 1Tb hard disk in that (with an external PS) and run it from USB3 which this HP already has (2 on the side and

4 USB2 at the rear). Something else to consider.

That metal converter for HP caddies looks ideal, except that I no longer have a paypal account and I imagine it is shipped from China.

[Theo]

If you did put it in a caddy, be interesting to read the 'power on hours' from the SMART data...

Seller is in Glenfield, Leicestershire, and eBay uses credit cards not PayPal these days. But similar can be found on other sites like Amazon. (the existence of one thing usually means at least a dozen settlers selling the same thing across all the online marketplaces). So buy from wherever you're comfortable)

Theo

[Andrew]

This product looks very similar to the one that theo gave a link to.

[John Walliker]

I have used a few of these which are very nicely made:

John

[SH]

Thats not bad at all! :-)

Now bookmarked..... Sabrent are pretty good for the products they offer....

[John Rumm]

Still going to have the same problem that I described above - they will move the position of the connectors, so not suitable for fixed position SATA headers.

[Theo]

That one appears to position the connectors in the right spot where they are on a 3.5" drive. That's why the SSD is mounted off-centre, rather than the usual bent-metal adapters that put it in the middle like the Icy Dock.

Theo

[John Rumm]

It needs to be positioned so that the side of the SSD is in the same place as the side of the HDD would be. See my photo:

The distance from the RHS of the drive to the edge of the connector is the same on both 3.5 and 2.5" drives - so any frame cant have anything to that side of the SSD unless it is *very* thin.

[Paul]

You can see the video of drive change-out.

And there is a HP tray that adapts a 2.5" drive to the 3.5" caddy.

The problem with the HP tray-within-tray, is it uses a passive adapter PCB, to move the electrical signals from the middle mounted

2.5 inch drive, to the offset mounted 7+15 AIO-facing connector. In some cases, that adapter board causes the drive to throw errors (CRC errors on SATA packets sent via the passive PCB). That is the main risk with that style of positional adaptation.

It's a matter of holding the 2.5 inch drive, such that it aligns with the 7+15 connector, that needs to be DIYed. Some carefully prepared blocks of wood, might hold the drive in the required place. You might even dispense with the HP slide-into-place step, and simply hold the drive in the proper position with an adapter made from odds-n-sods in your workshop. You don't absolutely have to fork out additional cash to make up a solution. With the existing 3.5 tray out of the way, the 2.5 drive can be plugged directly into the 7+15, so you can check the degree of support needed to "hold it in space". You have the one holder-screw position below the drive, to hold your piece of wood-or-whatever, in the correct position.

Average drive power for 2.5" SATA can be on the order of 2.5W during continuous read or continuous write. This can drop to near zero, during "devsleep" state. If you have an ancient Kingston drive with a Sandforce controller inside the drive, those have a peak consumption of 7 watts (the Sandforce chip compresses the data in real time, which is a feat). It can be difficult to measure peak consumption with a multimeter, as the peak can be very short and not register well on a meter. Power consumption on SATA SSDs is only an issue when preparing USB housings with such a drive inside. There may be a small amount of air circulation inside the AIO. I've never really felt any heat from the SSDs I've used here.

The majority of SSDs, are like the one on the right here. Modern drives, hardly ever have more than four flash chips. Even a recent 4TB drive, it used four 1TB chips for the job, so the internal PCB is a "shorty". That's to give some idea, just how "insignificant" the mass of the base item is, inside the SSD casing. I am continually amazed at their ability to stack VNAND die on top of one another, to build such monstrosities. The die is stacked internally, and then dies are stacked on top of one another and an epoxy package fitted around the lot.

Paul

[John Walliker]

The one I mentioned (

) has an adapter pcb but I have never seen any errors. I have several of these in servers and I do check from time to time. If they get the impedance matching right, why would there be any errors? John

[Theo]

While that one appears to have a passthrough connector, which moves the SSD around within the 3.5" footprint, I think a 2.5" drive mounted from the bottom would work, avoiding anything on the side.

Theo

[Andrew]

Oh, really ?. That's a pity because it looked like a 'perfect' mechanical solution.

[Andrew]

The listing says it is 17.9 cms long which is longer than the length of the HP AIO caddy, which completely surrounds a 1 inch high 3.5inch drive.

QED, nice product but mechanically too long. I think Pauls idea of just making up some support blocks of wood to hold it in place inside the HP caddy is the DIY solution, though theo's link is mechanically perfect, bearing in mind Pauls warning.