Question 1

Does this need installation kit for desktop ?

Accepted Answer

It depends on how you want to mount it.

YES, if you want to mount it in a 5.25" or 3.5" drive bay.  OTOH, if your case will not be subject to a lot of abuse, then you can just use one or two screws on one side and forego the mounting kit.

NO, if you don't want to use the usual mounting bays.  Just use some "velcro" (with sticky backsides) and stick it an inside surface of your case at any convenient location.

Question 2

Does the ssd come will software and sata cable?

Accepted Answer

Does not come with any software. On PNY's support website there appears to be a Firmware update available for download plus an instruction sheet for installing the drive into a laptop. It is recommended to apply firmware updates before you install or clone anything onto the drive. Several other brands offer both free "cloning" software you can download as well as an SSD "toolkit" software for checking the health of the drive, performing updates, etc. Unfortunately, PNY offers none of that. You can use free software to "clone" your existing hard drive onto the new SSD. Check out EaseUS ToDo backup software which includes copying/cloning a drive and optimizimg the copy for SSD; also popular is the free Macrium Reflect software with cloning ability.

Question 3

This is a technical question. If you successfully clone your current hard drive to this SSD, and say, 3 months down the road decide to get a new motherboard, will this SSD automatically "accept/recognize" the motherboard without a re-installation of the operating system and other installed programs. I ask, because I understand that the license code for the operating system (O/S) is tied to the motherboard, which makes we wonder that if the motherboard is replaced, whether the O/S needs to be reinstalled to the SSD. Is this the case?

Accepted Answer

Technically, yes.  This applies to any hard drive, you can simply plug in a new MB and as long as the drivers download and install correctly you should be good to go.  However, with the installation of any new motherboard the general consensus is to reinstall the OS to insure you don't have any driver conflicts.

If you have a retail version of the O/S then you can install as many times as needed (up to the number of concurrent installations allowed on the license).  OEM versions are tied to the MB.

Question 4

What are the dimensions of this drive?  It is listed neither here nor on the mfg website.  For ultrabooks, this is important!

Accepted Answer

According to the PNY website: Dimensions (L x W x H)	100 x 70 x 9.5 mm

Notice that the Height (thickness) is 9.5mm. Ultrabooks are very slim and usually require a thinner 7mm drive to fit in. Many SSDs now come in a 7mm height with a spacer you can add to make it fit in a 9mm space if necessary. You should look for a model with 7mm height for your Ultrabook.

Question 5

Is this compatible with Windows 8, the box only shows Windows 7 and XP?

Accepted Answer

I bought this drive with the sole purpose of making it my system boot drive for Windows 8.1.  My Asus dekstop motherboard is at least 4 years old.. It's got a single hexacore AMD provessor.  I did not upgrade the BIOS.  Stuck in the drive, pointed the BIOS at it, installed Windows 8.1 on it and have been flying ever since.  It's been running beautifully for about 3 weeks without any isses.  The boot and reboot times is at lest 5 X faster than it used to be.  I highly recommend this drive.

Question 6

is this 845hard Drive compatible with my Toshiba Satellite U845W-S400 Ultrabook?

Accepted Answer

From what I understand the Ultrabooks require a 7mm thick drive and this one: Dimensions (L x W x H)	100 x 70 x 9.5 mm, may be too big. Check to verify this with your model

Question 7

Will this fit in to a Sony Vio PCG07112L Notebook???

Accepted Answer

Sorry...I use it, and six other HDDs, in a tower.  It responds more quickly than the HDDs.
It will NOT fit into my Vaio PCG-6112L laptop

Question 8

Is this drive compatible with a 13-inch mid-2009 MacBook Pro? I believe it is but want to confirm before placing the order

Accepted Answer

Sorry, can't help there, I'm a Linux person (it works flawlessly in Linux Fedora 20 x64) but I can't see why it wouldn't work as long as the Mac is SATA and accepts standard 9mm thick laptop 2.5" drives.  The power draw will be less than a spinning drive..

Question 9

How much power does it use relative to standard laptop drives?  Can anyone tell me how installation will effect this issue?

I think it's better, but by how much.

Accepted Answer

Since there are no moving parts, this should use less power than standard laptop drives and also be cooler.

If your current laptop supports sata drives, there should be only one issue and that's physical dimensions of the ssd itself, sometimes they are thinner or thicker than the drive in your laptop so be sure to verify that.

This particular drive is very good performance-wise. Installed in my wife's computer and everything is really fast, it's a nice drive in every respect, really good value for money.

Question 10

If a motherboard chipset or system BIOS does not not support ACHI, is there a go-around to achieving TRIM. For instance, does PNY provide a software utility that manually runs TRIM so it can be run periodically? (I believe Samsung and Intel provide such TRIM utility).

Thank you.

Accepted Answer

Unfortunately I do not believe PNY offers a tool like that.  The drive is really intended for use in an AHCI environment.  Of course, it will take time and large amounts of data moving before you notice any significant speed loss without TRIM.  Likely when nearly all the cells have been filled or large data has been erased repeatedly or even when repartitioning and reformating the drive has been done without running something like a secure erase.

An add-on SATA Controller card that does support AHCI might be the best option if you're worried about the eventual speed loss.  Newegg carries some in PCI by SYBA that are SATA 3Gbps.  If PCI Express is an option the ASMedia 1061 based cards work fine at 6Gbps for full SSD speed.  Of course these would require Win7 or 8 for TRIM to function even with AHCI as XP does not natively have TRIM.

Hope that helps.

Questions & Answers