Upgrading on a Lenovo S440 - SSD 400GB+ options worth considering?

Just pulled the trigger on a Lenovo S440, could only upgrade to a 256GB SSD from factory and my requirement demand a little more.

Can anyone help with some advice on an SSD upgrade here please? 400GB minimum, buying in the UK.

Thanking you.

 

Here is the service manual:

http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/s440_hmm_en_sp40a25326.pdf

There are two drive options in there. A standard 2.5" sata and a mSata connector.

I would recommend a Samsung 840 EVO. They are also 7.5mm so they fit in anything.
Here is a performance review of the line: AnandTech | Samsung SSD 840 EVO Review: 120GB, 250GB, 500GB, 750GB & 1TB Models Tested

They are available on Amazon have sizes all the way up to 1TB. They are relatively new models from a top tier manufacturer.

 

Depends on what you're willing to spend. Samsung 840 EVO or Samsung 840 Pro or Crucial M500 or Intel are all good choices.

 

I'm going to answer your "400GB minimum" question a bit differently than what you are expecting.

Your laptop has an mSATA slot and a 2.5" SATA slot. Your best bet is to put a 256GB SSD on your mSATA slot (approximately ~$200 USD), and a mechanical HDD in your 2.5" SATA slot.




Your 256GB mSATA SSD should contain your OS, applications, games. That type of content has load times, and will greatly benefit from SSD speeds. And 256GB is more than enough capacity for those purposes.

Your 2.5" SATA mechanical HDD should be as high capacity as you can get. If you already have an existing mechanical HDD (e.g. the one that came with the laptop), then leave it in there. If you are buying new hardware, buy a 5400rpm ( not 7200rpm) drive in as high of a capacity as you can afford. Ballpark prices are around $70 - $130 USD for 1TB - 1.5TB in size. Your mechanical HDD should contain your bulk media content (photos, videos, music, pr0n, etc). This type of content eats tons of space, and does not depend on speed or load times at all. I'm guessing that this is where most of your "400GB minimum" requirement comes from.



If you truly do need 400GB+ on a single drive for some other purpose (e.g. large databases or virtual machines), then just buy a Samsung 840 EVO 500GB or 750GB ($350 - $500 USD) and call it a day.

 

Just a related question, as opposed to starting a new thread....

Was about to buy a S440, would my best option then (based upon kent's reply) be to buy it with the cheap 500GB HDD in it, then purchase an mSATA SSD and install that? If i do that and install it after purchase, how can i change it so Windows will be booting from the mSATA SSD, is that even possible?

Thanks

 

You are correct on both points.

When you configure your Lenovo S440, configure it with the cheapest storage option you can find. It will always be cheaper to ugprade storage yourself using aftermarket parts, rather than buy upgraded storage directly from the manufacturer.

Once you get your laptop, buy and install an mSATA SSD into the laptop. You will need to go into your computer BIOS and configure it to boot off of the mSATA SSD as the primary boot device. And then you will need to reinstall Windows onto your mSATA SSD. You should expect to do a completely clean install of Windows (and NOT try to restore an existing disk image).



Note: Please confirm that your laptop has an mSATA slot (and not NGFF or M.2). There are plenty of aftermarket high-capacity mSATA SSDs. But NGFF / M.2 is a form factor that is so new, that we are just beginning to see aftermarket NGFF SSDs begin to trickle out.

Edit: One more note... it otherwise doesn't matter if your machine supports mSATA or NGFF. For your purposes, it's just a matter of being able to find an aftermarket SSD with the correct physical connector compatibility.

 

Wow thanks for the information, thats great.

From the service manual posted in this thread it appears that it actually has an NGFF slot. This also tallies with their site - if I downgrade to a HDD I can chose a 16GB NGFF card as well. So the upshot from that would still be to go for the HDD and nothing else, but that finding an NGFF will be slightly more difficult/there will be less choice?

Also, being relatively technically illiterate, would changing the BIOS and a clean install of Window be relatively easy? I'm sure guides are available online.

Thanks

 

Hrm. Well, this all depends on how much you want to tinker with your machine, and how much storage space you need.

If you think that all you'll ever need is 500GB storage, then I'd say just buy a 2.5" SATA SSD and call it a day. Something like a Samsung 840 EVO 500GB or 750GB will run you $340 to $450 USD. That's not a bad deal at all. The advantage there is that the parts are cheap, readily available, and will be compatible with the "system recovery" method that Lenovo will provide you to reload your system. It is going to be the most painless way to upgrade your storage, if you're not super-techy.

 

Ok. Well I run most of my files from external hard drives, or will temporarily copy them to my laptop to use them, so may go for the option you suggest. So would changing hard drives and loading Windows on a SSD be relatively pain free - using the "system recovery" method?

Thanks a lot

 

It would be relatively pain-free, as long as you can create recovery media (DVD discs) for your system.

Some laptops allow you to burn recovery media (DVD discs). Other laptops only allow you to do system recovery from your existing factory-supplied storage drive. I would do some research, and see if your system allows you to create recovery discs. If yes, it should be pretty simple to swap out for an SSD (although you will need an external DVD burner to do this).

Otherwise, I'd start researching cloning software, to clone your existing hard drive to an SSD. That's the second easiest method to do it. You do not need a DVD burner, but will need a USB flash drive (to load the cloning software) and an external USB enclosure / caddy so you can connect both HDD and SSD to one machine and do the cloning process.

The 3rd, and least convenient option, is to do a clean re-install of Windows from scratch. This method will give you the "cleanest" install without Lenovo bloatware, and give you the most control over exactly what does/not get loaded onto your system. But it will also be the most inconvenient if you are unfamiliar with re-installing Windows from scratch, re-installing drivers, and migrating your existing data over.

 

Hi everyone,

I think this thread is also suitable for my case, looking for opinions. I also just bought a s440 and still waiting for it to come. I left the 500gb hdd and no 16gb ngff initially so I can configure them myself. There's not much on the internet about S440, but from what I could find there's only an M.2 port and no mSATA, so anyone correct me if I'm wrong. I want to put an SSD in my laptop, and possibly a 3g or lte module, but of course since I'm a student I don't want to spend a lot, and the 3g module is optional.
So I cannot decide between three alternatives:
1. I replace the hdd with an ssd (120-256gb at most, but more towards 128 since I don't really need a lot of space on the laptop), use the hdd externally with an usb case or smth, and leave the m.2 slot empty for occasionally a 3g module.
Problems for 3g: there's not many M.2 3g modules and some are still expensive. But the biggest problem is, I'm not sure if there needs to be an antenna built in the laptop for the module to work, or can it work by itself. Since the S440 doesn't have any 3g options, hence no antenna, I'm not sure if I can put a working 3g module at all. I would have to work with a usb 3g stick, it's just that I wanted it integrated, or at least a small usb 3g stick, since they are normally big and come out a lot and are not practical for mobility. So if anyone knows any small 3g usb, please also let me know.
2. I leave the hdd and add an ssd in the m.2 slot.
I was thinking crucial m500 m.2 version with 120gb, since it has a good price, however writing speed is not very high compared to others, 130MB/s I think.

So is it better to replace the hdd with a ssd with higher writing speed and leave the m.2 slot free, or add an ssd in the m.2 but lower writing speed (Intel 530 also has an m.2 80gb but its more expensive than crucial 120gb, so not for my budget I think).

Thanks for reading, I know its long, but please any opinions?

 

Crucial M500 960GB 2.5" 7mm $449.99 shipped from Amazon

Sent from my XT1049 using Tapatalk

 

Hey - just adding to this rather than starting a new thread.
I recently had a S440 purchased on my behalf so didn't have any of the customisation options. A Crucial scan has indicated that it's the S3-S440 model; it has an 128 SSD (Samsung MZ7TD128HAFV-000L1). I'd like more memory so was looking to add an M.2 ssd - after a friend took it apart we can confirm that there isn't room for a mSATA.

Any recommendations for the M.2 slot? Does anyone know it's size - I think it could be 42mm but am unsure. I'd like at least 128GB but have limited funds...

Cheers

 

hey guys how is the keyboard on s440 is there any flex anywhere while typing and how is the hd+ 1600x900 screen is it little grainy colours?