SSD Recommendations for T400?

I am pretty sure my Recertified Western Digital Scorpio Black has died on me. I will attempt to fix it this weekend. If I cannot fix it I will be putting in an SSD to my computer. I have been waiting for an excuse to do this so I might not try real hard to fix it.

I will most likely be getting a 120/128GB.

Any recommendations?

I have looked at the Crucial M4, Intel 320 Series, and the Mushkin Enhanced Chronos.

I know some about SSD's but not much about how to take care of them. Any SSD 101 pages would also be helpful.

Is SATA III backwards compatible with SATA II?

 

SATA 3 is backwards compatible with SATA 2, the only difference is that SATA 3 carries more bandwidth. For regular use with an SSD, you probably won't notice anyway.

I have an Intel 320 in both of the computers that I own. I prefer Intel because they have this very handy "SSD toolbox" utility for their drives.

 

Tested and true, Intel 320 series SSD. I just purchased my 7th one, never had an issue. Samsung is also good, PM830 can be found around M4 pricing. I would avoid any SandForce/OCZ SSDs.

 

I know that some things are different with SSD's. Harder to clean up? Etc.

Also, I have read that with a T400, you have to disable the turbo cache memory before installing the SSD?

 

SSDs work best with Windows 7 so extra tweaking may be required if you use an older Windows. I have also got the Intel 320 and it has caused me no worries. The toolbox includes a System Tuner function:

John

 

Any thoughts on the Crucial M4? I have read that it is one of the more reliable drives in addition to great performance.

Newegg.com - Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

 

There's little reason to chose one drive over another for performance reasons. The real benefit of a SSD for most uses is the near instantaneous seeks times. Since they're all .1ms, there's little difference between them. Reliability probably comes down to dumb luck more than anything else. People here like to rag on OCZ drives, but I have them in all of three my desktops. None has given me a lick of trouble. Buy the one you like and make the best of it. That's about all you can do.

 

This.

I would definitely concur that this is the "proper" way to approach this, but like Tsunade, I'm an Intel/Sammy fanboy and would have to recommend one of those

 

I'd go with Intel, nothing cons so far.

 

Retailer return rates indicate otherwise. Amongst drives that use identical reference designs you're probably right, but one only needs to compare first-gen Sandforce drives to drives with the X25 controller to realize that there are differences in reliability.

 

So the smart money is on the Intel Series 320?

 

What I'm saying is even if the OCZ return rate is 3% and another manufacturer is 1% with either drive the chance is low that you'll need to send it back. Whether you get a bad one comes down to dumb luck more than anything else.

 

I've purchased 5 of those since last summer. I'm happy with them, as are some colleagues. I'd recommend Crucial M4 drives without hesitation.

 

I think I am going to go with the Crucial M4. What would be a good price? They are $165 all over the web right now. I presume I might be able to wait for it to go down to $130ish?

Also, how does one go about updating the firmware once I have the SSD in hand and I am ready to do my clean install?

 

Crucial M4 128GB SSD. I have one.

 

Read this ----> http://forum.notebookreview.com/win...r-windows-7-sp1-13-languages.html#post7822528

 

Is doing this better than installing via the Windows Disk? I have the disk and my key. Just need to buy an SSD and figure out the basics before I go through with it.

Also, I know that when installing an SSD you need to turn on AHCI support in the BIOS. Do I do that before putting it in, when installing, etc.? When do I go into the BIOS and change the AHCI settings?