Does the t540p have an m2 or mSATA slot?

Title pretty much explains it all.

 

It most definitely does NOT have a mSATA slot. That one died with the *30 lineup.

 

It just seems like sometimes when Lenovo gets a great idea, it lasts a generation or two, but then fizzles out without an explanation or idea why. The custom installation option for the T61 era ThinkPads would be an example of this. I believe the T540p does have the M.2 SSD. I don't know much about them, but heard it's hard to get them above 128GB. Perhaps that's changed. There's a good thread here about the M.2 SSDs and the T440 you might want to brush up on.

 

mSATA is a old formfactor - M.2 is more future proove, and the modules are much smaller.

Lenovo mainly used mSATA for Cache SSDs, not for boot-drives - they still do that with M.2.

256 GB M.2 SSDs are starting to become available very soon:
MyDigitalSSD Announces World's First 256GB SATA M.2 2242 SSD -- Computex 2014 Update | The SSD Review
Transcend Introduces Newest M.2 SSD Series

 

So, to confirm, the t540p does have an M2? Can this drive be used for cache?

 

No one... really said if ithas it or not, just that M2 is better. :|

 

Did I say otherwise? The nice thing about mSATA is you can get them in larger sizes for the time being.

The tabook says some T540s have M.2 SSDs and that it's exclusive with WWAN, which I'd assume means they share the same slot and you can't have both. Perhaps the other slot is for WLAN, but I don't know much about it. Did you check the other thread I linked? There's lots of good info in there.

 

Debatable, since my X220T sports a Lenovo-issued Intel 80GB mSATA SSD (added by myself), FRU 42N8259. I doubt that the SSD in question was released with an idea of being used as a cache drive.

That's all fine and well, I'd just like to see a *serious* manufacturer (Crucial/Micron, Samsung, Intel, Toshiba...) unleash a SSD in the M2 form that would be compatible with *40 series...

 

Well, that was very short lived and the exception from the rule. The stopped doing this with the Ivy-Bridge models.

I don´t really see why thats so important, I have the 128 GB SSD from MyDigital SSD and it is a "serious" SSD, but there are some more manufacturers (I don´t know how serious you take them):
Plextor Shows off M6G Line of M.2 SSDs | techPowerUp
ADATA Announces Premier Pro SP900 M.2 2242, M.2 2282, and SP910 2.5" SSDs | The SSD Review
http://www.transcend-info.com/Products/No-645
ARK | Intel® SSD Pro 1500 Series (120GB, M.2 42mm SATA 6Gb/s, 20nm, MLC)
The last one is announced, but not yet available.

 

Obviously, since none of the Haswell-based ThinkPads has a mSATA slot.

Well, being someone who has paid the price for being an early adopter of the SSD technology, I maintain my doubts but that's a subject for a different thread.

Intel coming to the M2 market is definitely good news.

Plextor - unless I'm reading something wrong from the link that you've included - is in the "incorrect" format for the *40 series, which I believe feature a 42mm slot. Feel free to correct me, since you have a T440s and I don't.

Transcend...thanks, but no thanks.

ADATA is another welcome addition.

Thanks for sharing the news. Things are definitely starting to look better in this respect.

 

I was reffering to T430/X230/W530, in which they used the mSATA capability only for Cache SSDs. The 80 GB Intel 320 SSD was used in the Sandy-Bridge gen (X220/T420/W520).

The correct name for the 42mm M.2 formfactor is "2242" (since the cards are 22mm x 42mm) - these are mentioned in this link ("The lineup consists of the M6G-2242, which comes in capacities of 64 GB and 128 GB..."). This picture also shows a 42mm M.2 SSD: http://www.techpowerup.com/img/14-06-03/53a.jpg

 

So does anyone actually have the computer and know if it has the M2?

 

All new ThinkPads come with a 42mm M.2 slot - that includes of course the T540p.

 

Excellent, thank you very much.

 

Yes, and my wwan module occupies the slot so no m2 ssd for me.