Lexar 128GB NS100 SSD 2.5 Inch SATA III Internal Solid State Drive, Up To 520MB/s Read, Gray (LNS100-128RBNA)

So I have this computer and I absolutely love it after giving it a complete makeover. This was my daily driver for 2-3 months back in 2024 when I was traveling and it's surprisingly usable. I was definitely getting some weird looks carrying around and actually using this tiny nugget laptop during my travels. Recently, I work in different locations, some of which are really boring with nothing to do do, so sometimes I still take this with me to work to browse the web or play some old games. My good condition battery can run up to 5 hours when I turn down the brightness and just play some offline music with VLC media player. For this complete makeover, you'll need: HP Mini 311 mini-PCIE card with 2x USB 2.0 ports Lexar NS100 SSD 128GB-512GB TP-Link Bluetooth 5.4 UB500 Nano TP-Link WIFI AC1300 T3U Nano Rome Tech CR1220W CMOS Battery 4GB DDR3 SODIMM PC3-12800 Dual Rank 3M Command Adhesive Strips Instructions: Disassemble the system completely, with the goal of removing the original embedded Broadcom Bluetooth module. While you're in there, consider changing your thermal paste for the GPU and CPU. Put some thermal pads on the memory chips. This system has 1GB of on-board RAM soldered to the motherboard and it needs to stay cool! We need to ultimately remove the original Broadcom Bluetooth module so it doesn't conflict with the newer upgraded Bluetooth dongle. The original Broadcom Bluetooth module is very small and is positioned under the left corner palmrest area, and it looks like this. There are screws located underneath ALL of the rubber feet/bumpers so carefully remove those rubber bits so you can stick them back on when you are done. Peel the Lexar NS100 SSD plastic shell to expose the bare SSD which is much smaller. After assembling your system again, don't install the original WIFI card. Keep the WIFI slot open. Optional: throw your old WIFI card and Broadcom module in the trash where they belong. Use pliers to make some precise cuts in the plastic chassis area that divides the SSD space and the wireless card area. Remove the blank portion of the mini-PCIE USB card. You only need to keep this if you are using this in a full size slot. For the Mini 311, it's a half size slot so you need to snap off this blank portion from the adapter. Plug the mini-PCIE USB card into the WIFI port and carefully route the USB port wires through the cuts you made in the middle plastic area. Position the new USB ports in very precise locations within the SATA bay and secure them down with the 3M command strips. Hold the wires down with tape. Duct tape or electrical tape is recommended but I didn't have any so I used regular plastic tape. Plug in the naked SSD and position the SSD very precisely alongside one of the new USB ports. One of the new USB ports should act as a space filler that will block the SSD from rattling around. Plug your two new TP-Link wireless dongles into those two new USB ports that you installed inside of the SATA bay. Upgrade your RAM and CMOS battery. If you did all of this correctly, you should have successfully replaced your old WIFI card and Bluetooth module with a new internal USB hub that holds newer more powerful wireless dongles. This keeps your normal exterior USB ports available for more important accessories. The bottom cover should still fit perfectly without any problems. In this first photo, you can see everything that will be used. click here In this second photo, you can see everything that will be used. click here In this third photo, you can see everything plugged in and ready. click here In this fourth photo, you can see everything working correctly in Windows 7. click here In this fifth photo, you can see the Mini 311 compared to the 8470w. click here When it comes to an operating system, Windows XP is certainly incredible and from personal experience, the HP Mini 311 is the only ION-based netbook with XP driver support. However, when it comes to drivers, I have to recommend Windows 7. The TP-Link UB500 & T3U Nano will not work in Windows XP. For Windows XP you will need to use the TP-Link UB400 & T2U Nano. If you don't care about wireless features, you can use anything else in those two new internal USB ports. Maybe a controller dongle, some flash drives, lots of things are possible. The other reason to use Windows 7 is to get the best graphics performance. Windows XP is limited with DirectX 9. Windows 7 supports DirectX 11.0. The NVIDIA ION supports DirectX 11.1 with feature level 10.0. The last things to mention are RAM and wireless nagging. The HP Mini 311 requires a dual rank RAM stick. This looks like 8 memory chips on both sides of the memory stick. In my experience, using single rank memory (4 chips per side) prevents the computer from even turning on. Every time you turn on the computer, it will nag about the original WIFI card missing. This is fine, just press enter and continue. The WIFI port is secretly another USB 2.0 port so it will use anything you plug in through the USB adapter card.