SSD drive for ThinkPad R500

Hello gents,

I have a R500 that I am trying to find some info regarding replacing the current HDD which has started to fail, with an appropriate SSD drive, preferably 250/256 GB. Does anyone know which SSD's will fit and which wont? I am in Europe and I'm guessing that the tech support arent really educated/comfortable (no offense meant) yet around the workings of these drives, and have not been successful in getting any info even after 2 days of trying to track down an answer for this poor guy. After getting him pumped about the benefits of SSD, I have been unsuccessful in tracking one down for him. Although of course they are available, I dont want to spend his money on something that wont work and put him through the nightmare of RMA. plus he would really like to get his LT back...

Anyone know how I can track down some info regarding which SSD will fit & be suitable for this user who doesn't really care about the speed, but is more looking to the SSD for reliability as downtime due to disk fail scares the hell out of him..

any help would be greatly appreciated...

 

I'm not familiar with that system, but do you know if it takes a normal 9.5mm 2.5" hard drive? If so, then any 2.5" SSD will fit. If it is a 7mm hard drive, then you need an SSD where the spacer is removable. Intel 320 definitely has this, the 510 probably does, and I can't recall if the Crucial M4 does or not.

Others will know which drives are 7mm capable, but like I said if the laptop takes a normal sized 2.5" drive, then you are golden. Pick up an Intel, Crucial, or Samsung drive.

 

Thanks for the quick response!

Yes it does, but the drive fits in the slot snug, so unless the std SSD is the same size, I foresee a problem. I see you have one yourself, are they the same size as a HDD?

 

Most all 2.5" SSDs are exactly the same size as a standard notebook hard drive, yes ( or 9.5mm high, I can't recall which the number is). I did a 1-for-1 swap of a normal 9mm hard drive with the Crucial SSD in my sig, it fits exactly the same as expected.

This is done on purpose of course, otherwise laptop users would have problems. The only other 2.5" drives are 7mm high and these are fairly rare and usually only seen in very small systems (think netbook-like, and even then those can be 9mm too).

I took a quick look about the R500 and it is a 15.4" notebook, of the Vista vintage. You will only have SATA 2 ports, but don't let that limit your SSD selection as a SATA 3 drive will work fine in it, albeit at reduced sequential speeds. A 15" laptop should have no issues with a normal-sized 2.5" drive.

I suggest any of the 3 brand drives I mentioned. A SATA 3 version (Intel 510, Crucial M4, or Samsung 830) will net you the full speed potential on a new system down the road. Note that the random read/write performance will not be hurt much on your laptop, and will be nice and speedy for you!

EDIT: I just found a link for a replacement hard drive for your system, listed as a 9.5mm drive. Crucial's compatibility tool also says the M4 is 100% compatible, so that confirms that. You're good to go with any 2.5" SSD in that case!

 

For the highest reliability (along with the highest cost) I recommend the Intel 510 Series 250GB model.

Along with Win7 (much better optimized for SSD's) and the Intel SSD ToolBox, the system should still be ticking for normal workloads until the user gets tired of using it.

Good luck.

 

You guys are the greatest. Thank you so much for your time + your effort in furnishing data to back it up. I really, really appreciate this and I know the user will be happy to hear that we are making the right decisions.

Thanks again, hope I can return the favor sometime.

 

Also, the Crucial SSD tool tip is golden...Ive already passed it on to a vendor here, told him to cough up 5% royalties on all SSD sales henceforth...

 

They have one for RAM too. Another 5% for you?