Dell E7440 and swapping the 5mm HDD for a 7mm SSD - quirks

Hi,

Just got a new E7440 with the tiniest HDD possible, so I could fit a Sandisk Extreme Pro 960GB (not yet purchased) - this is a 7mm drive. Basically Dell's standard disk offerings do not have the disk arrangement I wanted (loads of SSD).

I am a little perturbed by several things, having just opened it up:

1) Current disk is 5mm, with rubber pads to make up to 7mm (well, OK);

2) HDD is not screwed in - relies on the rubber pads to make it a friction fit;

3) There's a ribbon cable running underneath that is not laying flat (poor show Dell!)

OK - well I tried a 7mm SSD borrowed from my old laptop and it fits - just. It's clearly forcing the ribbon cable to be flattened a bit. But the original cage clamp does screw down OK.

I rate the force required to squash the ribbon as "more than is nice" but not "ridiculous". It booted OK and seemed to work (not sure what that ribbon cable does). Seems to be a known problem:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-latitude-vostro-precision/743200-retrofitting-msata-interposer-into-e7440.html

SSD did not rattle about, mostly because the ribbon was acting as a spring against it!

So the questions: before I order my SSD:

1) What do you all reckon about fitting a 7mm SSD and that cable? Short term seemed OK. Not sure about the long term effects of the strain...

1a) I could pad the bottom out a bit with PVC tape or silicon rubber sheet and maybe not screw the frame in - put some foam pads on the outside face of the SSD so the case bottom holds it in...

2) I could get an mSATA frame and interposer here:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111454411165

and fit 2 mSATA cards (I still have the other slot free). This will get me to about 500GB total with is acceptable. I was hoping for more...

2a) Anyone know what screw thread is the mounting post hole in the internal (not disk bay) mSATA slot?

3) Or I could wait until I can get hold on one of the new 5mm Ultraslim SSDs that have been announced by Seagate and WD.But that could be a while.

Really Dell - this is not good form. Most people expect to be able to swap a disk without hassle! This is getting like plumbing - everything's "standard" but nothing ever quite fits...

Anyway - look forward to some opinions before I commit myself...

Cheers!

Tim