How To Get A 32Gb Zune For Under $130

My old and reliable Iriver H300 recently decided to pack it up and quit being so reliable, and so I was forced replace her with a newer sexier device. While searching for a replacement I decided one thing that I really wanted was to have the reliability of a solid state drive. (Although to defend her honor, my H300's drive is not what led to her demise, rather her inability to hold a charge... most relationships end this way though, sooner or later one of you just loses that magical spark.) As none of the models in my price range seemed to meet my particular criteria I decided to see about modding an existing model to better fit my needs. I, as always, put excellent sound quality as a paramount feature for a portable audio player, and so that left most Ipods out in the cold. I thought it would be nice to have integrated wireless, a large screen to watch videos on, and decent battery life (sorry Archos). So that left only one logical choice... a Zune!

Now there is no way I was going to pay $300 dollars for a MP3 player. You can get a netbook or an older laptop for that kind of money, and that to me is ridiculous. There is also no way that I could go back to anything less than 30Gb, (Which is what my previous H300 had) and well there was no way I was going to pay good money for a lumpy brown Zune. (Whoever it was in Microsoft's marketing department that greenlighted the decision to make a brown Zune should be forced to go door to door selling them, till the last one is sold. I think it would become a, quite fitting, life's work, only worthy of such an inept public perception harming decision.) So that meant I was looking for a 2nd gen 80Gb Zune in black as a base. (Because my homies agree, I really look good in black... fool.)

I knew to get the price point I wanted I would need to find a Zune that had "issues" and rehabilitate it, so it could return to normal life among the other Zunes in the "social". Since I knew I was going to replace the Zune's original drive, I simply searched around for a seller that was getting rid of a black 80Gb Zune, that was displaying error code 5 on boot. (Error 5 is Microsoft's way of telling you that your hard drive's cheese had slid off its respective cracker.)

It didn't take me long to find a pristine example, with a seller looking to part with a well cared for model for a measly $50. They even threw in a USB cable and the original box. (I really was hoping for the headphones too, but alas they had died a while back, and so I continue to rock my venerable V-Moda Vibes. You can always use an extra pair of decent sounding headphones though.)

So one Zune with error 5 issue... check. Now all we need is a decently priced 1.8" solid state hard drive to cannibalize for this project. It has to be EIDE/PATA, it has to use a zif connector, it has to fit in a space designed for a 5mm single platter drive, and it has to be inexpensive. (Hey this projects appeal is all about budget baby.) Well that seriously limits my options. Most current solid state drives are 2.5" or larger, have a SATA connector, and are really expensive. Luckily a few of last generations drives did become popular enough that they can be had for a relative song if you know what to look for.

What I eventually settled on was a refurbished Sandisk SDU5B032G102501. A model that was pretty much used exclusively by Dell in some of their previous generation high mobility Latitude notebooks. TechForLess_Outlet has them for around $75 on ebay, and although they are listed as 8mm drives, and certainly not the fastest in the world, they will work perfectly well for my purposes. (For the record I have no affiliation with techforless, I just thought their price on that drive was decent.)

So now we have a drive and a Zune, what do you think comes next? (Three points for the guy in the back of the room that shouted out, "Will it blend?") Well for starters a little bit of comparison.

Now as you no doubt noticed, there is quite a bit of difference between the two drives in the way of thickness. (Our solid state drive is a little bit on the husky side.) So to rectify this issue, and get our new sexy drive, to fit in our new sexy Zune, we are going to have to do a little bit of hardware liposuction. To accomplish this we are going to remove all that clunky casing that was supposed to keep our drive firmly in place in its Latitude home. (In looking at the the casing I can surmise one of two possibilities for its overly "robust" design: either Sandisk already had that casing stamped, and wanted to save costs by recycling it, or the thickness is to help provide it with better stability while it is sitting in the Latitude's drive bay, which was originally designed for 8mm dual platter drives. Perhaps it is one of those, a little from column A, a little from column B, things. America you decide.)

To transform this SSD fat to a SSD lite, all you need is a precision phillips head screw driver, and a blatant disregard for warranty literature. (The last two screws are hidden under the label at the back of the casing.) Once removed you will find that your solid state drive consists of a 32Gb memory module, a zif loving memory controller, and a plastic wafer that is the glue that holds this relationship together.

So now that our SSD is fat free, simply stick everything back together, including the plastic wafer, and add some electrical tape to keep the your connections intact. Once that is completed you will see that there really is not that much of a difference in overall size, and in fact your new SSD actually is much more svelte in most of its physical dimensions, not to mention lighter. You are of course forgoing the protection that your stock drive offered you, but given that you already have the Zune's battle tested casing to protect your precious SSD cargo, I don't really think all of that extra metal was really necessary anyways.

So now that our drive is compatible with our drive bay, all that is left to do is crack open that Zune and "git'er done". For anyone that does not know how to get their Zune into very little pieces already, Rapid Repair has a wonderful guide that gets into all the gory details. All you really need to accomplish this is a T4 torx bit driver, and a couple of decent precision flat head screwdrivers. (I highly recommend you use these instead of a razor blade. Without going into to details, lets just say the casing is surprisingly prone to chipping when using a razor blade.) Even the notoriously finnicky zif connectors seem to match up well, and their does not seem to be any play in the data connection. (This is a trend that is sometimes exhibited when going from Toshiba made storage hardware to similarly designed drives made by Samsung.)

Total: Once your drive and your Zune are one, start her up. Wait till you get the error screen saying connect your Zune to a pc, update the drive to the newest firmware, (or if you are one of those hacker types, the firmware of your choosing) and you are done. For the sake of any accountants that might be in the room: $49.99 for the Zune + $4 to ship the Zune + $75.58 for the drive = a grand total of $129.57. Leaving me a whole 43 cents to spend on accessories. I am sure I can find something in that price range of Hong Kong origin on eBay. (And before I get flamed like the Hindenburg for a misleading title: I said a 32Gb Zune for under $130, not a Zune HD, but sorry if I got your hopes up.)

Performance: I am still evaluating performance as we speak, but early indicators seem to be that overall performance stays the same. Battery life does not seem to be diminished or greatly enhanced, and the only discernible difference in actual usage is that you no longer have to wait for the drive to spin up. (I always hated that feeling. When you feel that faint vibration as the drive wakes itself. It always reminded me that there was that mechanical component at work that might randomly decide to die one day.) If you are someone that does have the drive constantly actively seeking content for some reason, I could see the potential for increased battery life, but that is the only area really. As far as going through the menus it does seem slightly faster, especially when loading album art, but this could just be my perception, and it not at all based in scientifically measured figures. I do worry slightly about wear leveling, but I am going to assume that in this sort of application it will not be a huge deal. As I get more facts and perform more tests, I will update this section accordingly.

So why would you do all of this instead of just buying a Zune HD? Simple, it costs less than half as much as a 32Gb Zune HD, you have access to most of the same services, and battery life is almost exactly the same when playing audio. Sure you get 480i instead of 720p HD output, and yes tegra is one sexy beast, but Microsoft does not seem keen on opening up the Zune for outside developers: meaning that their is only going to be a limited number of games and apps coming out for the Zune, at least in the near term. (There is some conjecture as to what HD format the Zune actually outputs, read the comments below for more information.) Look, I think the Zune HD is great, and yes if they were giving them away, or selling them for around a Franklin, sure I would take one, but as a straight audio player it is not really any better than the second generation Zune. Bottom line, for me, I will save the $170, take my girlfriend out to a movie, (love you Ginger) and enjoy the geek street cred that goes along with my modded out Zune.

-Andrew N. Price