Is this intel SSD any good for a t410?

https://www.pricelover.com/product/..._Mobile_Systems_(Retail_Box)/SSDSA2MP040G2R5/

Its only 40GB, but i dont really need too much! I just wondered performance-wise how does it compare to the intel x-18?

 

It's fairly close performance wise. I'm of the opinion that the best SSD purchase right now remains whichever Intel drive you can afford. So, I'd say go for it.

Though, I think you're going to find 40GB being pretty tight on storage space.

 

40GB is plenty for your OS and main applications. However, you may want to consider a second HDD in the UltraBay (or a large SD card) if you have a fair amount of media (especially video).

From what I understand the 40GB is effectively the same as the 80GB one. However, because it has only half as many NAND chips, it isn't quite as fast (the controller reads/writes to all the chips in parallel), but is still blows any hard drive and the vast majority of other SSDs away.

 

Could you elaborate on the ultrabay? What is that exactly?

Ive just missed the t410 i was going to get on ebay, probably stick with getting my x201 now.

Thats interesting you talk about the 80GB being faster. Whats the technical reason for this? I know a fair amount about NANDs etc so feel free to use whatever vocab!

 

The UltraBay is the optical drive slot. You can remove the optical drive, buy an adapter, and put an HDD in it's place. As long as you keep your OS on the main HDD/SSD you can even hot-swap these while the system is running.

The Intel SSDs basically operate like a self contained RAID 0 array. Files are divided between all the available chips (assuming the file is larger than the minimum block size). The file is then written to or read from all of these chips at the same time. Therefore, because the 80GB model has twice as many physical chips as the 40GB (this isn't true of the 160GB model that just uses denser chips) it can write to more of them at once and get higher speeds.

 

Thanks, I never knew the explanation behind the speed difference in the X25V and X25M and lack of speed difference between the X25M 80gb and 160gb, I thought the X25V used an inferior controller or lower quality nand chips or something.

 

that said, with the latest firmware the x25-m g2 160gb has a higher write speed than the x25-m g2 80gb model

 

As an (visual, easier to understand) example:

Look at the X25-M as a Raid0.
And llok at the X25-V as a single HDD (or better SSD ).

Since in the X25-M has twice as many NANDs, it can write in parallel on the NANDs on the front and the back of the PCB.

The X25-V has its Flash only on one side, so it cannot write in parallel, which makes it slower.

Thus my comparison to the Raid0.

 

The Intel ssd's are not the fastest drives any more (except for the enterprise X25-E SLC drive), but they are still amongst the top.

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/

Precisely which SSD is best for you depends on many factors, including $$$ and desired workload.