List of drives that are compatible with the x220

I just got my X220 and the generic mSATA SSD today from MydigitalSSD (64gb version).

I benchmarked it with CDM - I haven't installed anything on it yet, still waiting for my external dvd player to come in so I can reinstall. (Unless someone knows a better way to reinstall?)



For comparison purposes, this is the 5.4rpm HD that my x220 came installed with



I was also wondering if anyone could PM me or reply with how I can find out if my X220 has usb 3.0? I dont remember selecting an option, or if I did, i might have selected the USB 2.0 always on (doh!)... I was a little dazed out at the moment! the USB on the side of my laptop is white - and I cant find out anywhere on the shipping label or my invoice where it tells me if I upgraded it to 3.0 or whatever. Thanks! (Sorry I'm a huge newb!)

 

Don't quote me on this, but I think USB 3.0 comes with the i7 configurations.

 

If you have the I7 you have the USB 3.0. If not you have USB 2.0

 

will a Momentus XT work in a X220? will I need an adapter and if so which one? (i.e. part number)

 

A USB 3.0 port should have a blue plastic strip in it. However, a better check will be to look in the USB controllers section of Device Manager. The USB 3.0 controller will be listed there.

Not unless you can strip it down to 7mm thick. Which I doubt is feasible. The Momentus XT is 9.5mm thick. At present only the Momentus Thin (7mm thick) drives will for the X220 (or T420s).

John

 

What part of the SSD is it that I need to remove? The actual bottom plate, or the top plate?

I'm a bit confused about the "spacer mod"

Thanks in advance for any fine info you can share about this.

 

The Intel 320 has a plastic rectangle screwed to the top of the main SSD. Remove the 4 screws, remove the plastic and then use 4 M2 x 3 screws (easily found on ebay) to resecure the top plate of the SSD (the original screws are too long). Some other SSDs may have the spacer between the top and bottom in which case it is remove the screws, take off the top, remove the spacer and refix the top (probably with shorter screws probably M2 x 3).

John

 

Thanks a Bunch John

 

I ordered and just received this X25-M from amazon.co.uk:
Intel X25-M Mainstream Solid State Drive - 34nm Product Line - Solid state drive - 160 GB - internal - 2.5" - SATA-300: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

Unlike the advertisement, the drive model number that arrived ended with the letters "HP" rather than "C1". It was still new and sealed. I've yet to test it, but it came without the spacer on top, so looks like it should fit the 7mm bay without any modifications. I'll report back once I try to use it.

Petrov.

 

M4s on sale at NewEgg today:

128GB for $220, shipped.

64GB fro $115, shipped. Or $80 shipped with code HARDOCPX511C.

The 64GB is a smokin deal. I have that drive in my X220 and it works great (see my posts earlier in the thread).

 

Thanks for this ... any idea why OP hasn't updated to confirm?

 

The 128gb is $179.99 today! look on slickdeals for the coupon code.

 

Now that is getting cheap enough to have as a second SSD in the ULtrabay Caddy rather than the HDD.

The deal was too good to be true. It has been pulled due to "insufficient inventory."

Perry

 

Glad my order went through

 

Well, I paid $260 for M4 just yesterday - didn't do my usual diligence looking for cheap vouchers and deals because compared to the AU prices it was a good deal anyway. Kicking myself now though.

 

Sure, no problem. The model I got is the OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-240G 2.5" 240GB through Newegg. The only model that they offer at that size, I believe. As I said, it's a snug fit, but the connectors will match up and mine works fine. Good luck!

 

I bought the OEM version assuming it is identical.

Was there any BIOS adjustments or anything else to look out for or was the install just like any other HHD? Just worried there is something pre-install of the OS that will slow me down.

 

any body seen the Intel 320 Series 160 GB for any less than $285 on newegg?

or seen G.SKILL 8 GB memory for less than $82 on newegg?

 

How long does Newegg usually take to restock? I cancelled my order because they the CC auth keeps failing for some reason so need to redo it - might as well try to save $70 on the M4...

 

Here are my results from Crystal Disk Mark. This is on an i7/160gb Intel x25-M/6gb.

Sequential Read : 257.477 MB/s
Sequential Write : 109.546 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 186.004 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 110.631 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 20.456 MB/s [ 4994.2 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 38.974 MB/s [ 9515.2 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 163.211 MB/s [ 39846.4 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 95.297 MB/s [ 23265.9 IOPS]

Petrov.

 

No problem mate. I think OP mentioned a number of pages back that he doesn't have time to trawl through the thread for updates.

Anyway, I easily removed the spacer on my M4 (arrived with no warranty sticker) and since I had no 3mm screws, I'm using the rubber rails to hold the cover in place (seems to work fine).

Results of CDI/CDM is here,

http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/572243-list-drives-compatible-x220-25.html#post7485438

 

So I removed the spacer on my X25-M 2nd gen, but used the original screws to hold it in place and using the rubber rail as well... well this was a bad idea as it made the drive be stuck inside of the cage (it was working until I decided to remove it and it would not), and it took lot of tries and move the drive in all directions while pulling out gently and eventually it came out. So as you described, I am using the rubber rails to hold it in place which works fine as well.

 

That's fantastic... Been curious, and am glad someone tried it. Do you get the impression it would be fine to instead use a 9.5mm hard drive instead of SSD? Wondering mostly about if it seems to exert too much physical pressure on the top/bottom of the drive.

 

I picked up those screws on ebay that fit. they work perfectly. Before I got them I first used some tape. after taping the drive I realized that I didn't need the tape as you mentioned the rubber rails will hold the drive.

 

It's probably best to use screws, which ebay user did you use that sells them if I may ask ?

 

hey all, this might be a dumb question but if I purchased an mSATA, would I be able to have someone (like Best Buy or some tech/computer store) install it for me? It sounds complicated, being under the keyboard and such

 

I have 2 sets of M2x3 screws that I'll happily mail to anyone who needs them. They work in my M4 fine. PM me with your address if you're interested; I'll update this post if/when they're gone. Just don't put them in too tightly or bad things will happen (the SSD won't be detected).

 

I'm sure a local tech place would do it for you but it would probably be relatively expensive. It really isn't hard at all. Remove 2 screws, slide the keyboard 1/2" and lift. Pull out the connector. Remove 5 screws for the palm rest and slide the mSATA card in the slot. If you know anyone with even a small amount of computer fiddling skills, they could help you.

 

you can find detailed videos here:

Lenovo Service and Support Training

 

I am getting an X220T (42962YU) from costcentral and it is finally shipping...

So, I did some research regarding SSDs by reading through this thread:

* Most of the brands does not support intel LPM except 310, 320 and 510 and might cause some freeze at boot-up time.
* Intel is more reliable, but their 4KB random r/w sucks (which is still twice better than my original Vertex 120GB I'm using now)
* Power consumption
- Intel says 320 consumes 0.1-0.15 watt, 510 consumes 0.1-0.38 watt
- Anandtech says 320 consumes 0.65-2.9 watt
- I don't trust either but I do like Intel's numbers than Anandtech's (since Anand didn't even mention how they tested this).
* 510 can fit without top, and might fit without caddy+rubber (same as Vertex 3), but has SATA3, 34nm, meaning possibly a longer lifespan
* 310 can fit correctly, cheaper (get 50GB out of the same price at newegg), but no SATA3 (not to say X220T can do anything that requires SATA3, e.g., video editing), slightly less power, 25nm tech
- if I throw X220T away I might still be able to use 510...
- does correctly fitness or correctness fit matter?

* Crucial M4 says they would void the warranty if modded, but there are no warranty stickers
* Crucial still says M4 is compatible with X220T, despite they "were going to modify the web page" a couple of days ago
* Crucial's official power consumption is much higher (1-3 watt)
- According to Anandtech, the power consumptions are all about the same.
-- Should I bite on that? I didn't even notice their reference system (or did they mention?)
- My vertex generates a warm feeling of not cool, just FYI.
- Dual HDD generates more heat (mSATA+bay).
- Mechanical HDD uses a lot of power.

To throw in a little bit power information:
* Average Lenovo X220T power consumption = 63Wh battery / 6.5hrs Usage = <10 watt power consumption.
* The CPU alone was rated 35watt, lol. If you draw in photoshop your battery mught run down fast.

Regardless, during "regular" usage, if you cut down 1 watt, you get 11% theoretical battery life, which is about 40 minutes, and it is >7hr usage time. If you increase 1 watt, you get 10% less, which is <6hr usage time.

If you draw do a lot of photoshoping the difference would be within 10 minutes.

I think I might go with 320 300GB in the end... Not for the battery life but just for a sense of correctness and coolness... Intel anyways has the best bytes/watt according to their own data. Or I would just pop one of my vertex in it and see how it goes (if I can still get it out).

Someone help me decide... Thanks. The delivery would be on Monday and I'll probably miss it and Tuesday is my best bet.

P.s.: I wanted a tablet PC with multi-touch + multi pen + optimus + quad-core + dedicated 6970m/GTX 560M GPU dock + 3D glassless, but no, there's no such a thing, not even remotely.

 

The SSD charts at Tom's Hardware include power consumption measurements. However, while the Intel 320 is there, neither the Intel 510 or the Crucial M4 are on those charts yet but there is a comparative review.

John

 

I had no problems installing.

But it appears that my write speed is not optimal. Is this normal to be so low?

I also installed an extra 4 GB of RAM. Here is my WEI score with a secondary display attached to Display port (and DVI adapter).

 

You mean to say that you made the vertex 3 fit without taking part of the case off or modding it in any way? I got my x220 today and I had this same ssd waiting to be installed but it seemed like it would not fit. Did you just force it in by pushing from the back? Did you have to life the outer shell of the case to slide it in? Did you put it in through the small door to the hard drive case or did you remove the entire back of the case?
Thanks for sharing!

 

Mine slid in with a slight bit of help making the mouth opening wider. In other words I slightly pulled on the bottom of the laptop shell to slide it in. It fits like a glove and was not forced.

I did a clean install of Win 7 Pro followed by driver update tool. Only issue I have had so far was a couple of complete system freezes that cleared up after a few moments. Not sure if it was attributable to the SSD or something else.

Now I am trying to make sure my drivers are correct.

 

Hitachi Z5Kxxx and Z7Kxxx work as well. I'm waiting for the Z5K500 to become available which is listed in various stores, but still unavailable.

 

Hi all,
I just got c300 the other day. I ve read somewhere in this post that crucial c300 is modifiable to fit 7mm drive. Well, i did take the spacer off and hold the drive with rubber rails. It does snug fit in the slot and it is very fast with sata3. However, i want to let you know that it has caused me some headache as when u put it to sleep and take it around, it simply shutdown and i cannot even turn it on again! First, i thought it is power supply problem and about to send it back to lenovo. However, after i changed it back to original HDD, it worked fine again. I found out that to holding the c300 without spacer is a bad idea and i trust it is the same for M4. When you shake the drive without spacer, you can hear some rattling sound against its case and i am pretty sure that this cause the problem especially when you carry it around. It didnt show any sign when you just work on the desk. BTW, mine is T420s. If any of you who use c300 or M4 and didnt find such problem, please share how you work it around. I doubt that simply find a shorter screw would not help too. Without spacer, it is still loose! Now i guess i have to think about 310 or 320 instead to avoid uncertainty from mod.

 

When you remove the spacer, you need to put the top back on with shorter screws. I used M2x3 that I bought on eBay for a couple of dollars. If you use the original screws (or don't screw it back on but just use the rubber rails), it will rattle and not be secure.

I put the metal cage from my original hard drive (screwed it on) to my SSD and then put the rubber rails on the sides and installed it. Mine has no movement at all and has been put to sleep many times.

 

Anybody else getting lag with the M4? I'll be fine for 30 minutes or so then, get about a 30-second lock up. I did some googling and it has something to do with the latest Intel RST and LPM (whatever that is). Should I just use the stock Windows driver instead?

 

Disabling Intel LPM did the trick for me. There is a list of registry settings floating around the internet that you should change.

 

Had the exact same problem with the M4, and this solved the issue for me completely (even though it was written for the C300).

Solution: C300 Disk Freeze-ups in Windows 7 solved... - Crucial Community

 

Thanks. I tried again and I got it to fit. It is pretty much exactly as tall and long as it can be while still fitting.

So to add my confirmation to the others on this thread: The vertex 3 240GB ssd will fit in the X220 laptop without modification (don't use the caddy or rubber things though).

 

I am having freezes too with my OCZ Vortex 3 SSD. I wonder if the same fix will help. I am not technical enough to understand everything in the above Crucial post. Can't research now, but wanted to alert others 30 sec - 1 min freeze happens on OCZ Vortex 3 SSD.

 

Hi Duffin, in my personal opinion there's no harm trying the above fix on your OCZ. It simply disables the Intel Link Power Management (?) feature.

If it doesn't help, just reenable the LPM.

 

I ran the registry fix and also uninstalled/deleted the Intel AHCI driver (thus reverting to the MS driver) and haven't had a freeze since.

 

What do I have to name the "reg" file to get it to run?

 

Oh, is that so?
Thank you for your suggestion. I have read somewhere that rubber rail is enough. Almost throw away big bucks.

 

Where do I find the Intel AHCI driver to uninstall?

 

In the very thread you quoted a few posts up, there are instructions.

 

First post, so here goes nothing. I ordered the x220t through my school and want to completely replace the oem hard drive it came with. Easy, right? Well apparently after reading all 35! pages of comments its not. But by doing so i think i now know what i should buy, which is great. However no one has seemed to mention doing a two ssd build, one with the msata and another in the regular drive bay. i was thinking running the OS off of the msata drive and have a 240-260 2.5 in drive for "mass" storage. Does this sound like a decent idea?

 

In that case, consider buying a mSATA SSD and leave the 7mm 2.5" HDD where it is. See this X220 mSATA SSD installation guide..