T500 switch to SSD - which and how?

Hi,

I would like a SSD for my new T500. I would like at least 120Gb.
Could you recommend any brands/models for me to look at?

Then theres the "how" - is it as simple as creating the Product Recovery Media DVD's, take out the HDD and insert the SSD (as per manual) and then I can recreate the Lenovo base installation using the recovery DVD's on my new SSD?

Thanks.

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SSD linky
all the info you may never have wanted to know...

i have a samsung 128g ssd in my unit. i luv it. i have not had any issues to date with it. just for your info.

 

Yes, you should be able to boot from the recovery DVDs you burned in Vista, and set your laptop up to factory specifications.

 

That's a very long (over 1000 posts) albeit good guide.

The short version:

The best SSD currently on the market is the Intel x-25M. The most common size for this is 80GB, but there is supposed to be a 160GB model as well. The downside of the Intel x-25M is price.

At a lower price point, there is a very wide variety of MLC drives. Most of these are paired with a lower quality J-Micron controller. This controller is fine unless you hit it with small simultaneous random writes, in which case it is prone to studder. However, these drives perform quite well for sequential activity (especially reads).

The most interesting new drive is the OCZ Apex. This uses the same JMicron controller, but it uses two of them in parallel to support internal RAID 0 striping. This normally trades performance for reliability, but due to the ruggedness of SSDs it seems like a solid idea with little downside. The benchmarks I have seen show that this drive compares favorably to the Intel x-25M and comes at a much more attractive price point

As far as how:

There are two methods, clean restore to factory, or drive clone. The clean restore is more effective, but the drive clone is much faster and easier if you already have spent time setting up your T500 on your HDD.

If you have done very little with your machine, just make the recovery DVD's (double click on the recovery [U:] partition, and follow the wizard). Then swap drives (should only need a Philips screwdriver). Boot up your system with the recovery DVD in your optical drive and follow the wizard for a factory restore. That should be all you have to do.

If you would like to do a drive clone, you will need a SATA enclosure (either USB or UltraBay). You would then use software like Acronis or Self-Image to copy raw sectors from your HDD to your SSD. You would then swap drives, and boot up with the SSD.

 

There are also the gskill drives that employ the method jon mentioned with two jmicron controllers.

 

Also, corsair ssd which is basically a samsung mlc ssd. Slower max read/writes but appears to be a solid drive. Also try mtron 3500 which are good slc drives

 

You might want to read this article on SSD performance degradation over time http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=669

It explains why SSD performance decreases with time. But hey if you got the money and you want to be an early adopter go for it

 

Ya the articles about the intel ssd (MLC) started to pop up today...we will have to see if there is an issue with SLCs.

 

if there are finite number of erasures for any SSD, does nt that mean it would be better to get a 500GB 7200rpmin terms of price, performance and long life of the hard drive?

how does any one know that the 10,000 erasure limit is almost up? does the drive die after that?

 

Performance-wise, the SSD is better, since the performance degradation is small. All flash memory does have finite erasures, so they will eventually fail (although, by that reasoning, hard disks will fail as well).

In terms of price and performance, it is, and always has been a better idea to get a high-density 7200RPM hard drive. It will take a while for SSDs to be economically viable for a large segment.

 

Thanks for your replies all - much appreciated!

I have read the article about SSD fragmentation. Whats I'm missing in that article is the impact on a "regular" installation. All the technical stuff doesnt give me an idea of what it would mean in everyday usage (of course this is relative but some average conclusion must apply). Does this mean that an ordinary user (Internet, Office) could see his/hers SSD drive fail after 1 year? 2 years? 2 months? This is totally unclear after reading that article...

?

 

i don't believe so, since you are only writing small files. if you have enough ram just make a small ramdisk(200mbs) and put your internet cache there.

another recommendation is the samsung 128gb. It is mlc but a lot better than any other(upset intel x25 m). Samsung has very good battery life and no stuttering for being an mlc. The peak performance might not be as high compared to others but it I don't think you will be reaching 200mb/s speeds much

 

My work usually revolves around working with large datasets in the order of TB. does this mean, if i get SSD, that it will fail eventually if i keep writing and erasing it? i am using a 5400rpm drive, so far it has handled everything that i have thrown at it, but it is a pain when transferring files regularly

 

Could you recommend a Ramdisk? Seems like theres no ramdisk included in Vista. What do you use?

EDIT:
This looks promising, I will try it at once: http://www.superspeed.com/desktop/ramdisk.php

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The OCZ forums are an excellent source of info on SSDs, including optimization on XP or Vista installs. Just about all if it can apply to SSDs from competing manufacturers (though naturally they don't allow discussion on those).

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=186

 

All drives (SSD and HDD) will eventually fail. I wouldn't worry too much, but nobody really knows the "actual" shelf life of an SSD. They're estimated to last a long time though. In any case, periodically backup your data as you always do and you have nothing to worry about.

 

I have my eyes on this SSD from OCZ:

http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/flash_drives/ocz_core_series_v2_sata_ii_2_5-ssd

But the shop here in Denmark where I purchased the T500 says that I have to contact Lenovo to be sure that it fits with my laptop.

Does anyone here know for sure that it fits?

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(I will post answer for xpost: http://forums.lenovo.com/lnv/board/message?board.id=T400_series_ThinkPads&thread.id=8406)

 

It will fit, but that drive has the famous "Stuttering" problem due to the JMicron controller. This is why it's one of the cheapest SSDs currently available.

 

The current crop of SSD's are rated about 1.0 to 1.5 million MTBF. There's no reason to worry any more about them failing than regular mechanical drives.

 

Well, being a Raid0, J-Micron I thought that it was the same type as the one you mentioned earlier. But it isnt?

 

Only OCZ Apex and Gskill Titan drives are raided jmicrons drives. Core v2 is just a single jmicron and is prone to stuttering

 

As I understand it, the stuttering problem isn't the controller's fault but rather the fault of the OS. Current OSes are optimized for disks; SSDs are a completely different technology and must be treated differently if you want full performance.

In other words, there's really no problem with low end controllers; it's just that high-end controllers can better compensate for the lack of appropriate OS optimizations.

It's not a guarantee, but even the 'budget' JMicron-based SSDs should perform quite well if you tweak your OS.

 

Just get this right - the JMicrons you mention here are still suffering from stuttering as much as any other JMicron right?

Is the Intel x-25 (or any MLC) free from stuttering?

Lastly, as I read Intels docs, the x-18 is for 1.8" and x-25 is for 2.5" - other than that they are the same? But for my T500 I will require a 2.5" device right?

Thanks...

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Well, I really dont care that much about performance since any SSD will outperform a traditional HDD. Any small performance gain SSD drives in between isnt important to me. To begin with Im not after SSD for performance - thats just a good sideeffect of the SSD. To me, the quiet, cool operation is more important...

And I have 4Gb RAM and have found a really good Ramdisk software (superspeed ramdisk) that can use the memory between 3.2Gb - 4Gb for a ramdisk. So I can minimize the frequent small file usage patterns running on the SSD itself...

All in all - if there were no stuttering using a standard JMicron drive I would grab one of those right away. However soundness is one of the top priorities so I might end up with a MLC drive for that reason.

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The apex and the titan (raided jmicrons) perform a lot better than the single jmicrons. There are some reports of stuttering but the problem seems to be greatly reduced compared to the older drives. However, if i remember correctly the apex and titan are not good on power savings and heat (might want to look up more info on this).

The intels don't stutter, and the t500 requires a 2.5" device.

The corsair and samsung drives are supposedly very good with power consumption and heat, but again have overall slower read/writes, but will still be faster than a HDD.

 

I think I'm leaning towards the Intel x-25 M at the moment. Only problem is that I havent found any 160G drives here in Denmark yet. Only the 80Gb which is too small for a standard installation as the only storage.

Thanks for your advices...

 

I was under the impression that 1.8" drives were compatible with 2.5" bays/enclosures. Is that not correct? Is some sort of caddy/bracket required?

@ITemplate - FWIW, in what research I've done, the Corsair looks like a very good option, if your top priority isn't getting the fastest drive.

 

Hi, well if the 1.8" can fit in my Lenovo I will be VERY happy since I actually can get the 160Gb SSD here in Denmark. Can anyone confirm this??

Corsair - well I havent found a single one in all my searching on the danish websites. But I will keep it in mind - should I find one.

 

The 1.8" drive will fit, you just need a simple 1.8" to 2.5" adapter (goes around the drive to increase its physical size).

 

Thanks all, for your suggestions and advices. I think I'm going for the Intel device. My only convern now is that 80Gb is too small for ordinary usage.

 

Just get ultrabay adapter and put your old drive in there

 

Agreed, hybrid storage really is the way to go. I am looking into doing this on my x200, but am not sure whether an ExpressCard SSD is bootable.

 

Your options for a 12.1" is a lot less. ExpressCard SSDs are typically much slower than even regular hard drives due to lack of development (low interest).

 

That is generally true. However, I have found a very high quality MTron 16GB SLC SSD in a 34mm ExpressCard. The specs on this (100MB/s read, 80MB/s write) are equivalent to the 64GB Samsung SLC drive that originally shipped with the x300. The only question I have (and the reason I haven't yet ordered it), is whether or not I can boot from it on an x200.

 

Hi ITemplate,
You seem to have been in my exact situation: I want an extremely quiet laptop for home office use. I'm considering the Lenovo Thinkpad T500 with a SDD drive. Silence and reliability is more important for me than price.

Did everything work out the way you intended after you bought this combo? Are you happy with your choice? Judging from your threads you seem to have had a number of problems.

I was thinking of adding an additional HDD for my 400GB uncompressed music collection (this should only spin when music is playing), keeping all system files on the SSD drive. It occurs to me that I might place the system SSD in the bay of the computer and set up the T500 to start from that. That way, if I have a hardware problem I'll just pop my SSD into the bay of another T500 and be up and running in minutes.

I live in Denmark, like you, and was planning on shopping in www.laptops.dk but they don't carry all the T500 configurations.