Latitude E7440 hard drive size? 9MM? 7MM? mSATA?

Indeed it does! At least in my case. Running my system in UEFI mode, not legacy though...

I want to know if installing a 1 TB SSD Drive in SATA bay can produce energy / current drain problems to internal power circuitery.

A standard 128 GB SSD drains 0.3 A at 3 volts = 0.9 Watts, a Segate Momentus XT Hybrid 750 GB drive dains 0.7 A at 5 volts = 3.5 Watts, but a 1 TB SSD Samsung 840 EVO drains 1.4 A at 5 volts= 7.0 Watts eigth times more than the basic configuration.

Hi,

I know that the initial question is answered... but I will reuse the same forum to ask a question about mSATA SSD devices.

I have the E7440 shipped with HDD. I just bought a new SSD  INTEL 530 at 120 GB with mSATA interface.

I could plug it in just fine in the mSATA port-  WWAN. 

However, BIOS does not recognize it at all. Is there any trick to activate the mSATA port to put the SSD device? I did reset BIOS settings to default, I even upgraded from A08 to latest, A10 - but still no luck.

Any hint would be most welcome.

Thank you,

Stefan

Hi,

Coming in very late: when you say "standard HDD frame" do you mean the one that is fitted with the Dell 5mm drives with the rubber spacers?

The only thing I'm worried about is the lack of mounting holes for a 7mm drive - do you just shove it in and let it sit there?

Cheers!

Tim

(Who just bought an E7440 with the tiniest SATA HDD so he could throw it out and put a Sandisk Extreme Pro 960GB in there!)

Just info for other more punctual people like me. For us this solution is not acceptable 

HDD is laying on bottom _plastic_ casing. HDD can emit heat and I am not sure if long-term exposure of plastic casing to weight and heat can't deform it in some minor way. This casing is not made for holding (absorbing weight) of anything.

Dell wouldn't use more expensive smaller drives if use of 7mm drives would be without compromises.

7mm HDD is not fixed in bracket so it could shake freely (gap about 0,5-1mm total).

Yellow flat cable on bottom of bracket can't be made truly flat so drive could deform it (5mm drive would made some space for it because of rubber rails).

I hope my shop will take back 7mm drive i bought and I will try to get proper solution then.

I am not an engineer so I don't know how much big this problem may be in longer future. But for me this notebook is quite expensive and REALLY WELL MADE, it's really a shame to devaluate this technological marvel by inferior "tuning". Just my two cents :P

Hello,

a rather unpunctual reply from me ; )

Well, 5mm drives are okay for music libraries and maybe movies, but not much more, since they are really slow. Plus they only come in limited capacities. And from experience (I am using a 7mm HDD for 3/4 of a year now) I can say my Hitachi Z7K1000 works very well in my E7440. No deformation or heat issues.

The yellow cable indeed can get a little pressed and/or bent. So what. It's a cable. (And again from exprience: all is good.)

But funny you even bought a 7mm drive for your E7440 - after you've read this thread here? Because in many posts it says there is no proper mounting for it in the computer. The "devaluation of the technological marvel" was a given!

Cheers

I am really not saying that one solution is good and other is bad. I think that 7mm hard drives probably won't break anything even in long term.

I know that 5mm drives are even slower than 7mm. Moreover max capacity is 500GB instead of 1TB.

But let's not hide the fact that this is not professional solution, hdd can freely move and is held just by thin plastic.

I probably have just not taken seriously enough those many posts you were talking about.

In reply to MATZEXXX's post:

Just to confirm; you say you were able to use a 7mm 1TB 2.5" HDD and a 256GB mSATA SSD drive both on the same E7440?

Is this actually working? Were there any bios or software problems? This sounds like a hot set-up and "good job" to you for trying and sharing.. Thanks. 

Hi,

I am running such a setup for almost a year now without any problems. The WD drive I initially tried to use was horrible (spun down after 3 seconds of idle time, which made it constantly spin down and up), but the Hitachi drive is excellent. You have to use UEFI to make this setup work, if I remember correctly. Otherwise you can't boot from the mSATA SDD.

I have to update my post, in case somebody is interested in this setup. I got heating issues since last summer, and after having recently upgraded from the HGST Travelstar Z5K1000 to a Samsung 840 EVO 1TB SDD, it got worse. So maybe the Samsung drive gets hotter than the HDD, but either way a 7mm drive might block the air flow in the laptop too much.

I'm using the computer on a cooling pad most of the time, and then everything is fine. But the constantly running fan does get annoying at some point.

To me it looks like Dell intended the E7440 to run with a 7mm drive, because the space is there. But then they recognized the heating issues and sell it only with a 5mm drive or an mSATA card...

There is no problem with that orange flat cable, it just sit's under the 7mm ssd :)

There is a problem with that orange cable. It makes the HDD wobble and not fit in the space, since the cable it bulging up instead of sitting flush. I am trying to fit a 2.5" HDD 7mm.

Is there is a smaller cable available for purchase that fits flush? Or can the cable be pulled out and trimmed? I am afraid to apply too much pressure on the bulging cable, as it may pinch it and damage it. It is not a problem right now as there is a mSATA SSD in a converter cradle, which has lots of open space for the cable to bulge in. But try putting a traditional SSD or HDD, and you will know what I am talking about.

I found your thread and have a question (tech handicapped here). In your conversation it appears that 7mm DDD is better than the SATA.  I am purchasing the Latitude E7450 and wanted to be sure I bought the best part.  Is this correct?