Exchange tips and tricks for the Akai MPC4000
By cnwayland Wed Mar 02, 2016 11:35 pm
I wish I'd taken some install photos, but alas.. I did not. But I am telling you exactly what I bought and what worked for me.

Have you opened your MPC yet to see what you have on the inside? You may have a different mounting bracket, or you're current hard drive will have the housing that sits in the bracket in the photo you keep referencing.
By loading779 Mon Mar 28, 2016 2:48 pm
Hi everyone!
i'm Ariel from Argentina, i'd like to show this device, that i found it in ebay. searching for this staff to connect my mpc4k in SSD hard drive. and go fast.
i found this

KingSpec Parallel Port SSD IDE/PataInterface X31/T43/R51 128GB 2.5inch

some that you guys tray to proof this device? to much thanks to everyone.
sorry about my english.
BR
User avatar
By Horseclick Mon Mar 28, 2016 8:44 pm
get a adapter and use any ssd.

Horseclick wrote:just to update while my mpc was open, i installed a StarTech 40 Pin IDE PATA to SATA Adapter

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set it on master, then installed a samsung 850 pro

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my friend removed my fan and "spliced" the noctua low noise cable and fitted (dead silent ) mpc makes little to 0 noise now.

Noctua NF-A6x25 FLX

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having 120gb and having nightmares with aksys, i decided i need to have access to my ssd rather then mounting it internally i wantted to be able to copy paste back stuff up without aksys.

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StarTech.com 5.25in Trayless Hot Swap Mobile Rack for 3.5in Hard Drive


took me a while to try adn fit it, one side i use a metal 2.5/3.5 vracket the other side i had to zip tie.

used the same ide/sata connecter

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now that was working good,

how to get a 2.5 drive to fit in a 3.5 drive.

used a adapter.

Icybox IB-2535StS

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fitted my 850 pro in there
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now i can take out my drive and back stuff up to and from the pc.

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once again just want to thank frank, in a birght welly lite room the 4ks screen is fully visible and to me it seems sharper.

frank how many kits do have left?

i know this is a limited run so people if you want them get them quick.
By 2Mb Mon Jan 15, 2018 11:54 am
Read this before you buy anything to SSD your 4k, 2018 edition

i almost did a similar thing with a fan but found the sunon one mpc stuff sells for cheap on ebay. it is ball bearing so it should work well and for a long time. it wont be quiet as the noctua fan but its fine. it is still in the mail. It has the two pin connector instead of the 3 pin you find on pc ones, so no re-wiring.

i actually had a compact flash to IDE adapter, a SD to compact flash, and a Sandisk Ultra 64GB SD card lying around already. I just bought a molex to floppy style power adapter for the cf-ide adapter, and it's much smaller and even less power consuming than a SATA SSD. plus you can screw the cf-ide adapter down to one of the mount posts for the hard drive.

It works perfectly and has no reliability issues. It is just as fast as a SATA SSD in the mpc4000.... both max out the transfer bus speed completely... unless you are using a very crappy SD card.

You might think the SSD is a better choice because its more expensive but the truth of the matter is SATA and IDE/ATA are totally different interfaces. Any performance gain the SATA SSD might provide is negated by the adapter having to translate it to ATA format. Whereas compact flash is already using the IDE/ATA specification. So you just hit the SD card directly.

I left the CD drive in place.... i do like to use it from time to time.

If you don't believe me a SD card in the adapters is good enough, see the speed tests for youself... And remember the MPC 4000 uses the ATA 100 standard which means the highest possible transfer speed is 100mbps. below you see a test showing a Sandisk Extreme Pro SD card pushes nearly 250mbps. Thus it's good enough for even the most hardcore mpc4000 user

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PS If you insist going the hard drive route, which you shouldn't for several reasons, but if you need that space, you can get the toshiba p300 for very cheap and it rivals the WD Black and Red in terms of speed, those WD greens are sloooow and i know because i have about 6 of them. The spin up to load something on the p300 is nearly immediate versus the lag time on the wd green.


Shopping list
https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Com ... pact+flash
https://www.amazon.com/C2G-Cables-Go-In ... oppy+molex
https://www.amazon.com/Optimal-Shop-Ada ... pact+flash


MY 4000 recognizing a 32gb Sandisk SD card
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Messy install pic before i screwed the SD adapter down in place where the HD was, and covered the adapter it in electrical tape on the under side.
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If you want to access the card without opening the 4000, you can use one of those Compact flash bays that go where the floppy goes that the MPC 2000 guys use. Dont tell me you guys forgot that removable plate in front on the hard drive bay was intended for a zip drive too? :smoker:
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By JUKE 179r Wed Jan 17, 2018 2:15 pm
Thanks for the info 2Mb! Cheers!
By CharlesRandolph Fri Feb 02, 2018 4:42 pm
tiger001 wrote:going that route too, got a bunch of CF cards lying around doing nothing...
so i bought this IDE to CF card reader + enclosure, so i can access the card easy
38.77€ incl transport
https://www.centralpoint.be/nl/interfac ... num-63776/


Is that drive hot swappable in the MPC 4000? I used that same drive in my 2000XL and it's not hot swappable.
User avatar
By richie Fri Feb 02, 2018 4:53 pm
CharlesRandolph wrote:Is that drive hot swappable in the MPC 4000? I used that same drive in my 2000XL and it's not hot swappable.


No, that Startech drive is not hot swappable. CF readers that are hot swappable have a lot more circuitry on the board -- an actual controller that handles the eject process to let the machine now it is ejected. The cheaper ones don't have that at all, they're literally just cheap pin converters to the IDE port.
By CharlesRandolph Fri Feb 02, 2018 5:29 pm
richie wrote:
CharlesRandolph wrote:Is that drive hot swappable in the MPC 4000? I used that same drive in my 2000XL and it's not hot swappable.


No, that Startech drive is not hot swappable. CF readers that are hot swappable have a lot more circuitry on the board -- an actual controller that handles the eject process to let the machine now it is ejected. The cheaper ones don't have that at all, they're literally just cheap pin converters to the IDE port.

Also the hotswappable drive normally connect to the internal SCSI port. I did the retro fit on the 4000, however I ended up removing it and just buying (4) 16 gigs micro usb keys.
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By richie Fri Feb 02, 2018 5:37 pm
CharlesRandolph wrote:Also the hotswappable drive normally connect to the internal SCSI port. I did the retro fit on the 4000, however I ended up removing it and just buying (4) 16 gigs micro usb keys.


Well SCSI is hot swappable by design so that is true. There are however hotswappable IDE card readers but they are not as widely available and when they are for sale, it's some dick asking $250 for it when you can cop a sd2scsi for $70, get hot swap and actual firmware update support.
By CharlesRandolph Fri Feb 02, 2018 7:58 pm
richie wrote:
CharlesRandolph wrote:Also the hotswappable drive normally connect to the internal SCSI port. I did the retro fit on the 4000, however I ended up removing it and just buying (4) 16 gigs micro usb keys.


Well SCSI is hot swappable by design so that is true. There are however hotswappable IDE card readers but they are not as widely available and when they are for sale, it's some dick asking $250 for it when you can cop a sd2scsi for $70, get hot swap and actual firmware update support.


Yes, that is the internet world for used gear. The internet use to be a price safe haven for older gear parts. Now they sale MPC 4000 button for 7 dollars each and the adat card for 500 dollar.

I never done the SD card because, I have run aksys on XP Netbooks with a SSD drive inside. It's pretty much an aksys machine after I disable every program/process that is humanly possible.
By wavejockey Sun Feb 18, 2018 8:32 pm
with the help from previous post(ers), and startech CF IDE card reader & startech IDE-SATA bridge and some OCZ 128 GB SSD i had lying around, i installed this duo in to the mighty MPC4k
1 days slow work, but forfilling
-works only if you insert a CF card into the reader, otherwise both disks don't show


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