Which SSD or HDD in my Lenovo X220??

Hello everyone.

I just bought a nice Lenovo X220 with a 5400rpm HDD.

I want something faster but I am not familiar with SSD, just hybrids. Also, I want somthing fast, but reliable and less power hungry than HDDs.

So, I need a SSD that is 7mm height, because it is the maximum from the laptop drive bay. Max $$ is about 250$. I need something between 100-160gb. Of course, if I go mSATA way, 80gb is enough.

I have four options that I see from reading forums:

1) Crucial C300 128gb or C400 128gb (without spacer) - 240$
2) Intel 320 120gb (without spacer) - 240$
3) Intel 310 mSATA 80gb + my 5400rpm HDD - 190$ (not in stock)
4) Keep the 5400rpm HDD and wait for new SSD at the end of the year.
5) Other

What do you suggest??

Thanks a lot!

 

I would go with x25m/470/320 and replace the HDD as x220 is a very nice machine on the road(almost bought it when it was on promotion last week or so) and deserve to pair with a no moving part setup which has low idle power consumption. Such setup almost rival a tablet in terms of daily usage pattern.

 

Also, Could you tell me if the Crucial C400 is 7mm without spacer (with pictures on newegg, it seems to have the same spacer than the C300)? Is it a better choice over the C300 also?

Thanks for the answer.

Can you tell me why those chioces before other SSD?
Also, Does the Samsung 470 is 7mm??

 

For about the same price as the first 2 ssd's you could go with the 310 mSata and a WD Black. SSD for os and programs, Black for data storage.

 

but that means weight, burning more fuel and moving parts. personally I doubt one needs that much storage in x220.

 

Yes that is true. After a lot of reading, I have see that it is a better idea (for now) to use an SSD only. I was leaning to the C300/C400, but after a night of reading, they like to be not reliable... nota good thing for me.

SO, I will buy a Intel 320 160gb for 295$ tonight.

Thanks!!

 

C300/M4 are fine on reliability, right up there with Intel. The M4 actually uses almost the exact same hardware as the Intel 510, down to the same Marvell controller. Basically, in terms of reliability, it is Intel, Crucial, Samsung (from what I have heard at least) at the top and then everyone else well behind (Sandforce...). But the Intel 320 is a great drive, you will be happy with it.

 

I voted for the mSATA option because I think you'll get the best battery life from that. Only if the hard drive is powered down most of the time though.

Intel 320 has quite a few failures on Newegg already and some complains about battery life.

Crucial C300 uses more power than C400/M4.

 

I think you made a good choice. Frankly I am very happy with the Intel X25-M that came with the laptop. It is easily as fast (benchmarks by AS SSD and CDM as my C300s) and faster (PCMarks 7 and PCMarkVantage) on tests than the C300s in my W520.

I did see a 7mm consumer version up as available on Newegg a week ago. I have no idea if it is still up or not, but you would not have to modify that by removing the spacer.

However I do understand the "need" to get a newer model for that expensive a purchase.

I do think it would be very instructive to poll SSD owners to see how many have had to reinstall their OS/Programs/Data from backup and how many times. I bet that the older Samsung and Intel SSDs would win that poll hands down. I have had to reinstall my Crucial SSDs from backup 3 times and have never had to do anything to the Intel X25 but use it. After a while that becomes an important factor.

In fact as an indication of my thoughts on that, I backup my X220 1/week and my C300s 3 x week.

 

Your X25-M is faster than a C300? Sounds like something is wrong. Would like to see the benchmarks.

Ps. don't know if you're aware but you're using the slower C300 as your OS drive and the faster as the data drive.

 

Seems as it should be that way. But it is not. The 256 GB benchmarks slower in the same system than the 128 GB. That is why one is the OS and the other is a data drive.

My Optical drive by also benchmarks faster than the main drive bay by 10-15%. All sorts of interesting things out there happening.

A male horse is supposed to be faster than a filly but sometimes that filly can just flat run.

 

Very interesting what you say. Do you boot from the Intel X25-M in your X220 or the mSATA? What's the PCMark then?

I am thinking of getting the x220 with the default Intel X25-M SATAII like you if performance is good, and change it in the future for a spacier SATAIII drive.

Thanks

 

anargyr, keep in mind that when a synthetic benchmark shows a drive to be faster it doesn't automatically mean the drive is faster. Especially when you're comparing between different laptops.

If one would test the C300 and X25-M in exactly the same settings the C300 will beat the X25-m in every aspect, as shown by Laptopmag.

The only thing that would be better on the X25-M is power consumption.

 

My vote goes to Intel cause it's form factor, size and warranty even though I do not know how to vote for the thread.

But on the other hand Samsung has some pretty good mSATA's too, just not available at retailers and the warranty is questionable:

Samsung PM800 128GB mSATA SSD Review – Samsung Quietly Releases another Top Tier SSD | The SSD Review

Another mSATA Example: Samsung MZMPA064 : Hands-On: A Second mSATA-Based SSD Emerges

 

I agree Phil. Its just that the synthetic benchmark gives you an idea of the user-perceived application performance.

I am considering getting the default 160GB SSD for my x220 and get a SATA III SSD later. Then I think the performance would be more visible.

 

Not when power saving features are distorting the picture for synthetic benchmarks, as they often do. Example:

Only true real world benchmarks will tell you which drive is really the fastest.

 

I would take a 80GB intel 310 + a 1TB WD blue. A fast small drive + a big slow drive has always been a killer combo.

 

im hoping they release a black version of that 1tb drive

 

Me too. And a new Seagate XT 1TB with 8GB cache would be nice too.

Sure 16GB cache would be better but I want it to be affordable too.

 

yea a refreshed momentus xt would be nice. but i already got my intel 310 so i figure i dont need to spend on that. contemplating getting a hybrid drive/ssd for my thinkpad though. since i can only put one drive in

 

Imho it comes down to 3

-C300 / M4 (great performance / reliability with new firmware)
-Intel 310 mSATA 80GB good performance for form factor

Maybe Samsung ?( not sure about these)

Avoid 320 till bugs are fixed.

 

The x220 I just bought and configured for my bother came with a C300. Wasn't expecting it to however, but does save hacking around with modding an aftermarket ssd drive. Its hilariously fast. Also bought lower spec one for my mother to skype on. I'm running an intel x25-m in a X120e and its fast but the x220 i7 with 8GB Ram is just awesome. IPS screen is amazing also

Cheers

D.

 

Did you buy the laptop from Lenovo and they used a C300? I thought the default one is the Intel X25.