'09 4G/Tech to '13 SHAWD/Advance
03-22-2013, 07:08 PM
#1
! deadmau5 !
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'09 4G/Tech to '13 SHAWD/Advance
As in the title; yesterday we traded our 2009 Royal Blue Tech for a 2013 Black + Umber, SHAWD+Tech+Advance. Should have it soon ... with the new nose job, or rather new to us, anyways. 
But... about that word Tech: Any car selling with GPS has a 15 GB hard drive, (True across all Acura models.) Wow! That's so 2009!
I've scanned threads here and no one has yet brought it up: how hard is it to replace the OEM hard drive with an SSD? Standard SATA link and power connector? Can the Navteq map install OK -- or is this too fast?
We don't play many discs any more, preferring a thumb drive or the AUX input hooked to a Cowon Z2 mp3 player. (That's like the Apple i-thingie, only grown up. It would be nice to have a core music library neatly laid out, on something like a Samsung Pro 240GB SSD. [One of us likes Elvis, and I like Deadmau5.]
If anyone's bothered to do the upgrade, I'd appreciate hearing about your experiences. Thanks!
But... about that word Tech: Any car selling with GPS has a 15 GB hard drive, (True across all Acura models.) Wow! That's so 2009!
I've scanned threads here and no one has yet brought it up: how hard is it to replace the OEM hard drive with an SSD? Standard SATA link and power connector? Can the Navteq map install OK -- or is this too fast?
We don't play many discs any more, preferring a thumb drive or the AUX input hooked to a Cowon Z2 mp3 player. (That's like the Apple i-thingie, only grown up.
It would be nice to have a core music library neatly laid out, on something like a Samsung Pro 240GB SSD. [One of us likes Elvis, and I like Deadmau5.]If anyone's bothered to do the upgrade, I'd appreciate hearing about your experiences. Thanks!
03-22-2013, 07:26 PM
#3
! deadmau5 !
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The Umber interior made the sale. My wife's always been attracted to the Persimmon (orange) seats in my 370Z. So: now she has the masculine car, I drive the one they call "Fair Lady" in Japan.
That extra 20HP on the SHAWD might make a more even match.
If no one's dealt with the hard drive yet, I'll poke around and see if I can find a second SATA port. It would be near-criminal if Acura made these as exclusively proprietary systems, particularly since they feature "tech" so much in their marketing.
03-22-2013, 10:04 PM
#5
6G TLX-S
Congrats on getting the 2013 TL.
03-23-2013, 09:29 AM
#7
Congrats on your 13' Advance! As far as your tech question - you may as well be speaking a foreign language. Sorry - I'm a tech dummy, lol.
Just curious is deadmau5 a band? Thx!
for pics
Just curious is deadmau5 a band? Thx!
for pics
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03-23-2013, 10:13 AM
#8
Suzuka Master
Actually I thought it was a 60GB drive with 15 available for music. Now I have ripped my CDs to every car, but that s over. I jus use a 32GB thumb drive and play them from there or stream from my phone.
03-23-2013, 12:59 PM
#9
Burning Brakes
KeithL is correct, it is a 60 GB HDD. I do not know the details of how it's partitioned but I do understand the database for the Navi is in the HDD along with other data. So you would need to get a copy of the Navi if you're doing a swap. If you can find an extra SATA port, that would be nice. SSDs are getting cheaper but still expensive though. I would leave it alone and do what KeithL is doing using a thumb drive to store your music.
03-25-2013, 11:00 PM
#10
! deadmau5 !
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Thanks everyone for the replies ... I'll try to answer everyone in this 1 message.
1. The dealer's getting it Tuesday so we should pick it up this Thursday.
2. Deadmau5? Try searching Youtube. A whole wave called EDM, or Electronic Dance Music, and he's one of the hottest producer/performers.
3. Ride difference -- this will be tricky because in 2009 we immediately replaced the Michelin HXM4M with Michelin Pilots, stock size 245/50/17. Lower profile 19s will feel different, but Acura/Honda still puts crap OEM tires on everything. So it'll probably wait until we get Continental Extreme Contact DWS (UHPAS, per tirerack.com) installed before we really find out how good the ride is.
I have Contis on my Z in 1" wider oversize, front and back (staggered), and this is the best thing you can do to a car.
4. Upgrading the HD. The largest available 3 1/2"SATA drive is 4TB. i would go a size smaller, something like the Western Digital Red series (designed for NAS) in 2TB or 3TB flavors, for $130-160-ish. (See Amazon.com or Newegg.com)
What that would do would allow all your music (and vids) to be stored in lossless format, like FLAC. "Better" would be if Acura designed the next generation cars to take "hot-swappable" hard drives, meaning you just plug them in or unplug them while everything's running -- and nothing crashes. If you wanted to devote most to the GPS, you could probably get all of Google's domestic Streetview for your state in there.
Or ... Smaller? The Cowon Z2 I mentioned before is an Android mp3 player with 32GB internal storage for music, pix, movies, Android downloads incl. games. There's also a microSD slot taking 64GB cards. Both my Cowons are maxed out storage-wise, but I really only use them for music.
Another thing you can use Big Storage for is HD quality realtime monitoring all around the car. Cameras have dropped to $20-40, so in addition to the best one you have for forward motion, you can also record in 360 degrees. Useful for city parking (and in the next generation they'll have an app to call your phone with live vid if someone bumps your car.) 40GB devoted to this, stored in h264 format, would save weeks of recorded activity.
I think Acura needs to move to free lifetime updates for a $2-3K GPS of Acura's quality level. TomTom and Garmin models already offer lifetime udates for select models in the $100-and-up range.
1. The dealer's getting it Tuesday so we should pick it up this Thursday.
2. Deadmau5? Try searching Youtube. A whole wave called EDM, or Electronic Dance Music, and he's one of the hottest producer/performers.
3. Ride difference -- this will be tricky because in 2009 we immediately replaced the Michelin HXM4M with Michelin Pilots, stock size 245/50/17. Lower profile 19s will feel different, but Acura/Honda still puts crap OEM tires on everything. So it'll probably wait until we get Continental Extreme Contact DWS (UHPAS, per tirerack.com) installed before we really find out how good the ride is.
I have Contis on my Z in 1" wider oversize, front and back (staggered), and this is the best thing you can do to a car.
4. Upgrading the HD. The largest available 3 1/2"SATA drive is 4TB. i would go a size smaller, something like the Western Digital Red series (designed for NAS) in 2TB or 3TB flavors, for $130-160-ish. (See Amazon.com or Newegg.com)
What that would do would allow all your music (and vids) to be stored in lossless format, like FLAC. "Better" would be if Acura designed the next generation cars to take "hot-swappable" hard drives, meaning you just plug them in or unplug them while everything's running -- and nothing crashes. If you wanted to devote most to the GPS, you could probably get all of Google's domestic Streetview for your state in there.
Or ... Smaller? The Cowon Z2 I mentioned before is an Android mp3 player with 32GB internal storage for music, pix, movies, Android downloads incl. games. There's also a microSD slot taking 64GB cards. Both my Cowons are maxed out storage-wise, but I really only use them for music.
Another thing you can use Big Storage for is HD quality realtime monitoring all around the car. Cameras have dropped to $20-40, so in addition to the best one you have for forward motion, you can also record in 360 degrees. Useful for city parking (and in the next generation they'll have an app to call your phone with live vid if someone bumps your car.) 40GB devoted to this, stored in h264 format, would save weeks of recorded activity.
I think Acura needs to move to free lifetime updates for a $2-3K GPS of Acura's quality level. TomTom and Garmin models already offer lifetime udates for select models in the $100-and-up range.
03-28-2013, 09:30 AM
#11
! deadmau5 !
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An update!
We were told the car was ready yesterday (Wednesday 27th), so we assembled our stuff and headed to the dealer.
Had the plates off the old car, were zeroing out the Address Book and stored music on the HD... and I noticed something. The car we were about to hand the check over for was equipped with Goodyear Eagle RS-A rubber (on the fancy 19"rims). HOLD IT! HOLD EVERYTHING!!
OK, our salesman didn't know this was the OEM rubber. They didn't get many Advance models there, apparently. And even though I repeatedly asked him to check on the tires, he had just as repeatedly forgotten to do so. (He kept telling us these were Michelins, and in 245/40-19, both available Michelin models would be acceptable to us.)
But the Goodyear Eagle RS-A, a "high performance all-season" with treadwear rating of only 260 and a lot of negative comments on tirerack.com, was definitely not.
Cutting the story short, I should be able to pick the car up later today with Michelin Pilot Sport Plus (UHPAS) on it. That's acceptable, even though recently I've learned Michelins have a propensity for dry rotting. I'll just have to keep the shiny spray on the outside rubber more often (Armorall, plus various shine products). Dry rot usually only affects surfaces that get the sun's rays.
For my negotiating -- I'll pay mounting and balancing, and also the OEM mud flaps in Crystal Black Pearl. ($165 list plus maybe an hour labor, easy to do when the car's on a lift and tires off.) That's $400 more out-of-pocket to have a tire I know is safe and long-lasting, versus the OEM Goodyear.
People who scan my old posts here will know I've had issues with all three TLs and Acura's choice of OEM rubber. At least we won't have to throw out the crap tires in a year and spend a thousand extra on what we should have right from the start.
We were told the car was ready yesterday (Wednesday 27th), so we assembled our stuff and headed to the dealer.
Had the plates off the old car, were zeroing out the Address Book and stored music on the HD... and I noticed something. The car we were about to hand the check over for was equipped with Goodyear Eagle RS-A rubber (on the fancy 19"rims). HOLD IT! HOLD EVERYTHING!!
OK, our salesman didn't know this was the OEM rubber. They didn't get many Advance models there, apparently. And even though I repeatedly asked him to check on the tires, he had just as repeatedly forgotten to do so. (He kept telling us these were Michelins, and in 245/40-19, both available Michelin models would be acceptable to us.)
But the Goodyear Eagle RS-A, a "high performance all-season" with treadwear rating of only 260 and a lot of negative comments on tirerack.com, was definitely not.
Cutting the story short, I should be able to pick the car up later today with Michelin Pilot Sport Plus (UHPAS) on it. That's acceptable, even though recently I've learned Michelins have a propensity for dry rotting. I'll just have to keep the shiny spray on the outside rubber more often (Armorall, plus various shine products). Dry rot usually only affects surfaces that get the sun's rays.
For my negotiating -- I'll pay mounting and balancing, and also the OEM mud flaps in Crystal Black Pearl. ($165 list plus maybe an hour labor, easy to do when the car's on a lift and tires off.) That's $400 more out-of-pocket to have a tire I know is safe and long-lasting, versus the OEM Goodyear.
People who scan my old posts here will know I've had issues with all three TLs and Acura's choice of OEM rubber. At least we won't have to throw out the crap tires in a year and spend a thousand extra on what we should have right from the start.
03-28-2013, 11:12 AM
#13
Suzuka Master
I understand The reason for moving to the RS-A, but do not agree with it. Acura got crap for putting Summer tires on the 19 inch wheels originally and settled on a high performance all season tire. The Michelin HP All Season retails for $70 more per tire, so I assume with the cost cutting at Acura and the limited number of Advance cars being sold they decided to keep the price point rather than put Michelins on. I prefer Michelin myself.
03-28-2013, 03:11 PM
#14
6G TLX-S
For every cars I have owned so far, I always have the crappy OEM tires swapped out for some high performance ones, except for those that I had ordered with custom high performance tire option.
Because I always tell people this.
No matter how good it is the factory suspension tuning and how advance it is the torque-vectoring AWD system, it all comes down to the four small patches of tire rubber that come in contact with the roads.
Never skimp on tires.
Because I always tell people this.
No matter how good it is the factory suspension tuning and how advance it is the torque-vectoring AWD system, it all comes down to the four small patches of tire rubber that come in contact with the roads.
Never skimp on tires.
03-29-2013, 08:37 AM
#15
Pro
I would go with SSD. Theoretically you should be able to just pull the hard drive and use a disk imaging tool to create an exact image of the current HD and then just plug the new one in. Its not rocket science.... haha its computer science. If the drive its self has some sort of firmware on it you may have to get inventive. Don't use a non SSD though, I think acura uses like a rugged drive not a standard HDD.
Where you may run into issues is the firmware on the actual system it's self. If it has some sort of control in there that scans to ensure that the partitions are suppose to be a specific size it may not work.
I have thought about doing this before but.... I don't really have a need.
Where you may run into issues is the firmware on the actual system it's self. If it has some sort of control in there that scans to ensure that the partitions are suppose to be a specific size it may not work.
I have thought about doing this before but.... I don't really have a need.
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