There is one advantage in that having one of those 16GB drives saves the 4-12GB of space that would be taken up on your primary drive when using hibernate. Considering that SSD space is still at a premium for many people, this is a worthwhile consideration.
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Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk -
Edit - yeah even now if you spec a unit with a platter drive it comes with one of the M.2's. -
Running Ubuntu on my 24GB NGFF, it's so snappy
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I mostly looked at the T440p, which I know for sure gave me the option on day 1, though I ordered the HDD (wished I could order with no drive actually) so a cache drive at least made sense on that configuration.
I think the M.2 specification looks great. I just hope it gets more popular and we get more expansion options since I make my laptops last as long as possible. I hope my T440p is still in service 7+ years from now.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk -
It seems like some people, in the long "T440s up on Lenovo Website," think that double means there is only one extra M.2 slot (other than the one for the wifi card), but it is larger and can accomodate a double sided M.2. Other people have the theory that you suggest, that it means you get an M.2 card in each slot, although it of course makes no sense that this would cost $10 less.
On the other hand, the double sided M.2 card theory seems to be based on the idea that Intel will be releasing larger 256 Gb, etc., M.2 cards that will be double sided. But it seems the Intel Pro 1500 only includes a 120 Gb 42 mm M.2 card and I see no indication about it being double sided ( Intel® SSD Pro 1500 Series). The larger sizes are 80 mm M.2 cards or other form factors. And MyDigitalSSD already has a 128 Gb M.2 card that they claim works in the T440s and does not appear to be double sided.
I do notice that if you go to the UK site for Lenovo, the pricing is more as one would expect. Touch models are more expensive than non-touch models. Also there is no "double" option for the M.2 slot. There's just "16GB M.2 Solid State Drive Single" or "No NGFF SSD." And if you select "No NGFF SSD," then the option for the 3rd M.2 slot disappears and turns into an option for a smart card reader. That makes me wonder, are the M.2 slots in the same place as the smart card reader? Either one gets M.2 slots or one gets a smart card reader? But both are not possible?
Compounding the weirdness with the pricing on the U.S. site, the non-touch $1469 model seems to differ from the non-touch $1870 model only in terms of having a 256 GB SSD instead of a 500 GB spinning disk and having neither a smart card reader nor any option for the M.2 card. That's doubly weird because usually a SSD model would be more expensive (obviously a 256 GB SSD is more expensive than a 500 GB spinning disk) not $401 cheaper and it's hard to believe that the M.2 slot and card account for what would then have to be more than a $400 price difference.
So I guess I remain confused about what the "double" options means and it seems like the pricing on the more expensive non-touch model with the M.2 card is totally screwed up (I guess they really don't want to sell non-touch models with M.2 cards).
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As far as why someone would want both an SSD and the M.2 card, I don't view the M.2 slot as an option for just cache on a spinning disk, although I recognize that's its intended use. I want to have two drives in my system in general. It lets me have more storage overall and be able to boot from two different drives, in case one fails. This is what I've always done with previous Thinkpads (X301, T61), used the ultrabay for an extra hard drive. It's one of the features I feel is most missing from the T440s (and I don't understand how they got rid of the ultrabay and still ended up with a machine heavier than the X301). So for me the M.2 is the route to having two drives. I guess I could even have three, which tempts me just for the ridiculousness of it. Maybe I could treat the two M.2 slots like a RAID on just one LVM volume. -
Agree that a two-drive system is ideal, which is why I'm still slightly annoyed at the lack of M.2 SSD options so far (at least in the 42mm size). Dell had the right idea retaining the mSATA slot in its Haswell machines - tons of mature options for SSDs and same SATA 3 speeds as Lenovo's M.2 implementation. No idea when we'll see these mythical Intel Pro 1500 drives, but for now I might just get the MyDigitalSSD version for a boot drive and, depending on how it performs over time, potentially clone it onto an Intel card if it ever appears. A 120GB SSD boot drive plus 1TB SSHD would be my ideal T440p -
And then what about the MyDigitalSSD. Their 128 GB M.2 card appears to be single sided. Am I wrong about that? If not and they can do it, when can't Intel?
Also, if it's a physical size limitation, why are they able to cram 128 GB into some pretty small flash thumb drives? -
so if I buy a msata ssd, I can not use it to boot the Windows in T440s? I am so confused, the MSATA SSD is different than M2 SSD?
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As for thumbdrive vs. SSD memory... a lot of differences, mainly down to long-term reliability and speed. I'm no expert, but from what I understand SSDs use a different type of NAND architecture (a lot of parallel chips) that makes them larger but far faster than thumbdrives. -
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Just wanted to keep this thread alive in case anyone runs into some M.2 2242 SSDs. I'm still waiting for the Sandisk U110 or the Intel Pro 1500 drives to become available - It's taking quite a bit of time for them to hit the market for some reason.
Anyone else have any luck? -
There's a reason this thread is about M.2 SSDs, because that's the option if one wants to expand the T440s with a second SSD or if one wants a caching drive for booting faster and then a high capacity cheaper 2.5 inch spinning disk for data. There's no sensible reason to find overly complicated ways to jerry rig an mSATA SSD into the T440s. -
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MyDigitalSSD Company Representative
All this talk about so many ways to configure a 2.5" SSD or 2 mSATA... is giving me a headache. Here is a link to our benchmarks (towards bottom) done in a y510p. SATA M.2 SSD | Solid State Drives | MyDigitalSSD.com They are blazing fast.
Virtually no one is going to notice a difference between these SSD's and the most expensive MLC 2.5" SSD. While you will notice a huge difference from using the HDD. The upgrade could not be more simple with an M.2. You plug it in turn on legacy boot install or clone your OS reformat your HDD leave in legacy boot or change back to UEFI and done you are now running on SSD. You will get extended battery life, SSD speed, keep your HDD in place for data and all with very little money, effort, or time. -
Is it possible to have 256gb SSD on a M2 with only 42mm length? I only saw 128gb on the MyDigitalSSD site.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk -
One the bright side, Intel's next gen SSD's will come in M.2 format. -
Having only one choice for a high-capacity 42mm M.2 SSD sucks and I see few signs that's gonna change any time soon. I curse Lenovo for not offering a better expansion option than 42mm M.2 slots in its non-ultrabook laptops (Tx40P and Yx10p).
Every manufacturer that has, or plans, M.2 drives seems to be focusing on the 80mm size. Intel's 42mm Pro1500 one stands out as an anomaly -- every other Intel M.2 SSD in both the 530 Series and Pro1500 series is 80mm -
But as MyDigitalSSD said, it seems like splitting hairs (or milliseconds). The point of the SSD upgrade is for the speed over a spinning hard disk. Does the average laptop user really need an SSD RAID on top of that? Or if redundancy is the goal (as it is for me) you already get this by having a M.2 SSD and another drive in the 2.5 inch bay. As noted, you even have the potential for three drives (redundant redundancy?) with the already existing two M.2 slots. Does one really need yet a fourth drive, by jerry rigging mSATA cards in a 2.5 inch enclosure, for that extra fourth level of redudancy (as opposed to the much greater potential benefit of a large inexpensive spinning hard disk for data)?
The T440s is designed to use M.2 cards, focusing on that seems like the better solution for T440s users. -
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Can you install Linux on the m2 drive, keep Windows on the main drive, and select what drive to boot in the BIOS boot menu of the T440s? This is how I select from 3 different drives on my desktop (By hitting the F10 key during the BIOS startup and selecting the drive to load). I prefer this to multibooting a single drive because I am frequently experimenting and changing Linux OS's, while I never change the Windows install. And, no I don't want to do virtualization either , as I want the full speed of direct hardware access.
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Can the 128GB MyDigitalSSDm.2 drive be used strictly as a backup storage drive, incase I want to keep a disk image and some really important files on a secondary drive? In other words will the 128GB show up in Windows under my drives in My Computer? -
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Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD -
Sooo...if feels like it's been like 6 months.
Is this NGFF M.2 thing just an urban myth? Is there anything from tier 1 vendors coming up anytime soon?
I find it hard to believe that M.2 is the next best thing if you can't even get your hands on one. -
Maybe in 2015! -
Here's one - bought an HDD laptop (what the store had in stock in my spec, i7 touch) and the store made a good offer on an SSD upgrade so it's now fitted with a 512GB SSD.
Is the msata drive even being used? I see it in diskpart but can't tell if anything is using it.
What's the best use for it? Keep it for cache or is that useless with the SSD? (Space is not an issue)
Alternatively; tempted to install Ubuntu/Backtrack on it so I have the tools already onboard should I ever need them.
Any input appreciated,
Cheers -
Do you think battery life can be increased with the combo m.2 SSD for OS and HDD for Data in comparison to an HDD only?
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You could theoretically do the same for a single main HDD, but it will constantly be spinning up and down and performance will be shocking. -
I'm super confused about which T440s models have the M.2 slot and how many.
On Lenovo's site if you configure the base non-touch model, headed "ThinkPad T440s Ultrabook," with a spinning disk, then you see that it's pre-fonfigured with a, "Micro Hard Drive:16GB M.2 Solid State Drive Single," and there's a, "3rd M.2 SSD slot" listed under "System Expansion Slots."
But as soon as you choose an SSD instead, for the main hard drive, the Micro Hard Drive M.2 option and the 3rd M.2 slot option disappear and there's just an option for a smart card reader or no smart card reader.
Similarly, if on Lenovo's site you choose instead to configure the higher end non-touch model, headed "ThinkPad T440s Ultrabook with Solid State Drive," there there are no options for a M.2 micro drive or 3rd M.2 slot, but rather just the option for a smart card reader or no smart card reader. Even if you switch the main drive to a spinning disk, you still only see the smartcard reader options.
Does this mean the only way to get the two extra M.2 slots is to order the base model with the spinning disk selected as the main drive? -
As for the extra M.2 slots, it seems that the only way to get both the M.2 slots, you need to get an HDD with 16GB M.2 SSD (i.e. you can't buy it with 2 empty M.2 slots). I'm curious as to whether the first M.2 slot is included if I choose to not purchase a 16GB M.2 SSD and possibly get one on my own (don't really care about the second slot).
EDIT:
I contacted a sales rep and asked and she said that the first M.2 slot is included even if you do not purchase the 16GB M.2 SSD. I bought mine in this configuration so I'll report back on whether this is true or not. -
Thanks Phasee. I'll be curious to hear the results of your order and how many M.2 slots you have.
I guess I don't really need two M.2 slots, but it seems silly to just have an empty space there. Maybe I'll want to use it for something. I guess like you said, one has to get the included 16 GB M.2 SSD to get the second slot.
I don't really care about the smart card reader or the touch screen. But I wish the non-touch came with an option for the higher resolution. As long as they're making these configure to order systems, they may as well just let people configure them however they like. Doesn't make sense to have M.2 slots possible on some machines and not others. -
Doesn't the non-touch come in either 1600x900 HD+ or 1920x1080 FHD? -
I thought it was the opposite. You have a choice of either the 16GB M.2 slot (and the 3rd M.2 slot) or the smart card reader, but you could not have both. I thought they actually physically occupy the same space, so it's really one or the other. On Lenovo's site it looks like there is no way to configure the non-touch version with both options. And the touch version actually seems to have no option at all to have a smart card reader.
You're definitely right about the resolution, looking at the Lenovo website again, in the non-touch version you can get HD+ or FHD. I think I was just confusing it with the X1 Carbon, where the non-touch version only comes in HD+ and the touch version is WQHD. -
I'm not entirely sure. I ordered my T440s without a 16GB M.2 SSD and it automatically took off the 3rd expansion slot from the customization options. What I didn't know is that it also means I don't get a Smart Card Reader. I called a Sales Rep because I thought the Smart Card Reader came standard with the laptop, and they said that I could add it on for an additional $10 if I wanted to. I decided to not add it though because they would have to re-do the entire order and send another pending charge, which would likely delay the order. I've heard that the 3rd expansion slot is under the battery though (dunno if it's under the internal or external) and the Smart Card Reader goes where the internal battery is, so you may be correct in saying it's not possible to have all 3 in one T440s.
Actually, you can also get the X1 Carbon in non-touch WQHD. When you select the "Thinkpad X1 Carbon Ultrabook" as the starting point and look at the display options, you'll see the option for "14.0WQHD300nitIPSn-touchWWAN". The "n-touch" likely means "non-touch" because when you select the "Thinkpad X1 Carbon Touch Ultrabook" as the starting point, the display option doesn't have a "n" in it ("14.0WQHD260nitIPS touch WWAN"). The Product Specifications Reference also lists 3 different dimensions and weights for the X1 Carbon: HD+, WQHD, and WQHD Touch. -
It does seem like they have almost too many different confusing options with the T440s. Or they really need to lay out the website in a way that is more clear. If the smart card reader and the M.2 SSDs are mutually exclusive, group them together in a category and just say that you can't have both together.
Thanks for pointing that out about the X1 Carbon. I hadn't notice the "n-" before touch. It does look like they clearly list a WQHD version without multi-touch in the tabook. Curiously, on the website, under specs, they very clearly only show an HD+ non-touch version and a WQHD touch version (no matter which model you click on, the specs tab shows the same display options). I guess that website is just a mess. What's the point of having a product that consumers don't realize exists? It's going to be hard to sell. -
Yep, their website really is a mess. Another example is the Fingerprint Reader. Although the website gives you no option to not include it, you can actually call Lenovo to take it out and knock the cost down by $20 (the scanner will still be there, it just won't do anything). I'm sure there are other customizations you can do that aren't on the website but possible through a phone call/chat.
*Actually seems like you CAN have both the 3rd expansion slot and a Smart Card Reader.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo/734969-t440s-owner-s-thread-180.html#post9618213 -
Hi Guys,
I'm planning to buy E440 and installing OS on M.2 slot. Reading this thread, based on jobine's explanation it is possible to have the M.2 slot as primary partition and install OS on it. I was wondering if there's any tutorial/guide to achieve this?
Thanks. -
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MyDigitalSSD Announces World's First 256GB SATA M.2 2242 SSD -- Computex 2014 Update | The SSD Review
MyDigitalSSD now has a 256GB M.2 SSD in 2242 config! -
What would happen if I order the T440s and replaced the 5400rpm hdd with my own SSD drive? Will the m.2 drive still work?
Questions regarding the M.2 SSDs and the T440s (And other new Haswell Lenovos)
Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by LYuan, Nov 2, 2013.