SSD and W500

So I'm pretty much set on a W500 for my new laptop and I was thinking I might put an SSD in at some point.

I was looking at SSDs on Newegg and see lots of (physical) dimension differences etc. I was just wondering what info I'd need to ensure an SDD would fit in my W500. Or if I can even put one in at all.

Specifically I was looking at a Patriot PE64GS25SSDR 2.5" 64GB SATA II Internal Solid state disk (SSD) from a quick browse on Newegg.

Would that SSD work in a W500?

 

Any Serial ATA SSD will work. The w500 (and all other current Thinkpads except the x300/x301) use 2.5" SATA drives. There are some 1.8" SSD (like the x300/x301 uses) but they usually come with a 2.5" adapter and work fine.

Before you buy an SSD make sure you research Single Level Cell vs. Multi Level Cell and check out real world benchmarks for sequential speed, simultaneous reads/writes, and power usage. All SSD are not created equal and some of the cheaper ones (OCZ core in particular) function very poorly when working with lots of small files.

The best drives currently available are the 64GB Samsung SLC (or the 64 GB OCZ that is identical) or the 80 GB Intel MLC drive. However, both of those carry very large price premiums (>$600) right now. I plan on popping an SSD into my x200 tablet if/when the price on good drives becomes reasonable.

You may also want to consider getting the SATA ultrabay adapter. That will allow you to use a small/fast SSD for your operating system (lots of small random writes), and a large cheap hard drive in the bay for data storage (limited random writes). This would give you great performance and good storage size (although it would be louder and less resilient than going all SSD).

 

I just now started looking at them as an option for a possible upgrade so I've definately not made any decision I added the ultrabay to my configuration so I could have a 2nd HDD so I've got that thought out already. Definately a good choice.

I'll be working primarily in Maya, Photoshop, Premiere, After Effects and some other graphics packages. I like the idea of a 32gb SSD for OS (Vista 64 more than likely for now) and the rest on a regular SATA drive.

I don't think I'll be working in any intensely large scenes any time too soon, but that could change within a year so I am kind of thinking ahead at possible upgrades that might help performance.

 

If that is your workload, then I would say either a 32 or 64 GB Single Level Cell SSD for the OS/applications and a 320GB 7200RPM Drive in the bay for your data.

The big advantage of SSD is that they have no access times. This substantially improves application loads and random writes (two things that Windows does a lot of). But a 7200RPM drive is actually very good for sequential writes (large file transfers, uncompressed media, etc.) and should be fine for data from Maya, Premiere, etc.

 

Yeah thats what I was thinking. I think I'm going to get the laptop and an SSD, install the OS on the SSD and use the 5400rpm that comes with and later get a 7200rpm so I'm not spending $2000 at once lol

But something like that patriot drive would be a good solution for the Single Cell SSD right?

Oh and right now it can be had for $180 after $50 MIR that expires 10/31. Do you think there will be any decent sales on SSDs between now and December or a drop in pricing? I can buy the HDD now and have it ready for when I order the W500...or I could wait for a better deal.

 

yea... for performance, don't get any non-Intel MLC SSD drive. You will regret

Two best options are
1. 32GB/64GB SATA II Samsung SLC drive (also rebranded as A-DATA, OCZ, G.Skill)
2. Intel X25-M

 

if you are referring to the 64GB Patriot ssd on newegg it is NOT SLC. So it might still have some stuttering.

just search Patriot warp 2 here in the forums and there is a discussion about it.

 

I just ordered a Hitachi 5k320 from Newegg an hour ago. They are currently going for $70 - $20 mail in rebate (must order by Friday 31 Oct 2008). It is only a 5400 RPM drive and therefore a little bit slower than a 7200 RPM drive, but its price cannot be beat right now. I think it would make a fantastic choice as a secondary data drive in the ultrabay because it will be more than fast enough for that (I am going to use it as my primary drive in my x200 tablet at least until large SLC SSD become reasonable in price).

 

Basically the cheapest no-stuttering high-performance SSD drive is the SATA II Samsung SLC drive (also rebranded as A-DATA, OCZ, G.Skill). The A-DATA rebrand is the cheapest on newegg for $265+shipping

You can also try ebay but DO NOT END UP GETTING the SATA 1 version. Some sellers try to confuse between the two. The sata 1 version and sata II version are far apart in terms of performance.

 

I'll wait for a while, it's still too expensive.

For me I have decided to get 2 seagate momentus 7200.3 320GB for now... it has a decent performance, and for safety will join them in a raid1.. good thing that thinkpad supports 2nd hdd.

 

2nd disk in the ultrabay ?

 

Do your SSD research very carefully or you will regret your purchase.

Most semi-affordable SSDs on the market right now have much worse real-world write performance than typical notebook hard drives. For example, write performance for flash SSDs based on JMicron controller chips can under certain circumstances be twenty times slower than that of Seagate 7200.2 SATA drives.

Be advised that is a lot of Bogu S information about SSDs floating around on review sites and forums (including NBR) that aren't focused on storage. Start with these links to get a handle on the current pros and cons of SSD performance:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3403&p=8
http://forums.storagereview.net/index.php?showtopic=27190
http://forums.storagereview.net/index.php?showtopic=27032

 

yes, i ordered an external enclosure for optical drive.