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4530s model with right wireless adapter? And SSD questions.

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Motherboard
HP ProBook 4530s
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i5-2450M
Graphics
Intel HD Graphics 3000
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First of let me say I love the forum and all the support and great documentation you guys put into this.

I'm looking into the 4530s notebook model for putting OSX 10.8 mountain lion on it. They are not easily found in my country (the Netherlands), but I did found one here (translation to english here): the model LY471EA. Although the notebook is a bit below what I was looking for specification-wise (was looking for a good graphic card and full HD screen), I read nothing but good things about it.

A few questions remain though:
  1. Obviously I want WiFi to work optimally. Does this model contain the Atheros 9285 wireless adapter? I can't seem to find it anywhere. Not even on the website of HP.
  2. I want an SSD in it. It's not clear to me, does the SSD drive run ALONGSIDE the default HDD or does it REPLACE it?
  3. I saw people saying the Crucial m4 SSD is a great drive. Is this still the case at this moment? Are there better/faster solid state drives these days?
  4. Do I have to look for a model that has a mSATA connector? Anything else I should know when searching for a good SSD drive?
 
First of let me say I love the forum and all the support and great documentation you guys put into this.

I'm looking into the 4530s notebook model for putting OSX 10.8 mountain lion on it. They are not easily found in my country (the Netherlands), but I did found one here (translation to english here): the model LY471EA. Although the notebook is a bit below what I was looking for specification-wise (was looking for a good graphic card and full HD screen), I read nothing but good things about it.

You are probably not going to find a 4530s with a 1080p screen, as it doesn't come that way from HP. Upgrading to 1080p is something the end user needs to do. See the sticky "After installing" post at the top of this forum for links and details.

A few questions remain though:
[*]Obviously I want WiFi to work optimally. Does this model contain the Atheros 9285 wireless adapter? I can't seem to find it anywhere. Not even on the website of HP.
You never really know what WiFi adapter you will get unless it is specified. And even then you might get something different. You can search this forum for links... people are finding them on ebay, for example. Also look at the HP Parts Store (use google).
[*]I want an SSD in it. It's not clear to me, does the SSD drive run ALONGSIDE the default HDD or does it REPLACE it?
Generally the SSD replaces the HDD. But you can also purchase an HDD caddy, and replace the optical drive with the HDD in the caddy.
[*]I saw people saying the Crucial m4 SSD is a great drive. Is this still the case at this moment? Are there better/faster solid state drives these days?
It is the one I use. I purchased it because of good reviews (although be sure to upgrade the firmware before using it), and because I found it for a good price. There may be faster/cheaper ones, but this one works. For a while I pulled one of my Mushkin Chronos Deluxe out of my desktop (the Muskin is a little faster than the Crucial) and installed it to this laptop. It worked but had trouble waking up from sleep (wake up works fine on my desktop). So, you just never know what kind of incompatibility you might run into when being "system integrator"

[*]Do I have to look for a model that has a mSATA connector? Anything else I should know when searching for a good SSD drive?
You want one in 2.5" form factor with a standard SATA connector. mSATA is used for thin/light notebooks (Ultrabooks) and some small-form-factor desktop boards, not this laptop.
 
Great! That answers all my questions! Thanks.

You're saying I could replace the optical drive with a HDD caddy. Does that simply mean a container for the SSD disk? That is quite brilliant. :clap: Who needs a optical drive these days anyway.
 
Great! That answers all my questions! Thanks.

You're saying I could replace the optical drive with a HDD caddy. Does that simply mean a container for the SSD disk? That is quite brilliant. :clap: Who needs a optical drive these days anyway.

Yes, that's what I've done. Optical drive is in the closet... I don't have it installed all the time, but only when I need some extra space. It is where I have my Lion and SL installs, for example. I purchased mine from newmodeus.com. Not cheap but good quality.
 
I saw people saying the Crucial m4 SSD is a great drive. Is this still the case at this moment? Are there better/faster solid state drives these days?
Yes there are faster drives.

As far as I can see the Crucial m4 has 500mb/s read and 175mb/s (some have apparently 260mb/s) write speed. The Intel 330 SSDs and Samsung 830 SSDs are considerably faster in write speed. Will you need the extra 300mb/s write speed though? Maybe, maybe not.

When shopping SSDs always go for these four brands: Intel, Samsung, Kingston or Crucial. At least don't go OCZ, they might be cheapest, but they also have a high malfunctioning rate.
 
Thanks for the advice guys.

One more question. I found this caddy. It's for 12.7mm (thinkness) HHD's. The Crucial SSD's I found are 9.5mm and 7mm thick. Is that a problem?
 
Thanks for the advice guys.

One more question. I found this caddy. It's for 12.7mm (thinkness) HHD's. The Crucial SSD's I found are 9.5mm and 7mm thick. Is that a problem?

You're going to want the Crucial SSD in the main HDD-bay anyway, but it doesn't matter. The drive will generally be secured with screws through the bottom of the caddy into the bottom of the drive.

But the caddy you link doesn't have the 4530s as a compatible model, so you might want to clarify that with the vendor before ordering.
 
You're going to want the Crucial SSD in the main HDD-bay anyway, but it doesn't matter. The drive will generally be secured with screws through the bottom of the caddy into the bottom of the drive.

But the caddy you link doesn't have the 4530s as a compatible model, so you might want to clarify that with the vendor before ordering.

You're right. I got there through this page on their website. It lists a bunch of 4530s models. When you click on the top link saying "BESTEL DEZE CADDY VOOR ..." you'll get to the caddy I linked earlier. My exact model (LY471EA) is not on that page unfortunately. I'll have to contact them.
 
Just to give closure to this topic: I verified this with the people from that website and they confirmed it also works for this specific model. :D
 
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