ThinkPad t440s maximum SSD capacity and memory

Gentlemen,

After much painful research on a workhorse grade ultra-book I have decided to go for a Lenovo thinkpad t440s. I'm a full time linux user who will mostly be using the system for my R & D work where I will be running a lots of vms and etc.

The moment I get my hands on this laptop I want to replace its 500GB 7200 2.5' stock hard disk with a "Samsung EVO 840, 500GB" ssd. Well I have no experience with ssds. What I want to know is that is there anyone in this forum who has installed an EVO 840 500GB in a t440s? Mainly because I'm not sure how much SSD capacity t440s sata interface supports?

As per my other question, I have heard that it is recommended to install identical memory sticks of same capacity. In my case I have a 4GB in the base and 8GB which is not an identical combination. Would this be a problem by any mean? Or should I go ahead and order the system with 8GB instead of 12 GB(it will be 4 in the base + 4gb then), even though it wont entirely meet my ram expectations?

Please advice good people.

Many thanks in advance

/Vimuth

 

When I bought my T440s 2 months ago, it came with the 12GB RAM as the price difference from buying 8GB and install it myself was just £25. It came with the 500GB HDD which I swapped with the Samsung 850 PRO 512GB

 

Thank you very much. Please can you point me to a recommended 8GB memory module so that I can order it too.

 

I tried a Crucial M500 480GB at first, and it was only detected half the time (literally) on POST. I returned it and bought a Samsung 840 Evo 500GB, and that's been flawless.

As for RAM, I have a Crucial 8GB 1600MHz 1.35V DDR3L module installed, and it registers as dual-channel. I think there's some way Intel makes at least part of it function as dual-channel, though I don't know the details.

This is the exact RAM module: Crucial CT102464BF160B 8GB 204-pin SODIMM, DDR3 CT102464BF160B

 

You should be able to install a Samsung 840 evo 1TB. I would recommend the new Samsung 850 Pro 1TB as it has larger node size for improve endurance.

 

Bought my 8GB RAM from lenovo during configuration of my notebook for £100

 

Thank you very much for replying. I have already ordered a CT102464BF160B from amazon. However when I try to order a samsung 840 evo 500GB I realized that there are 2 kinds. KIT and Non-KIT. Can you tell me what should I order for my thinkpad t440s? Will the basic(None-KIT) version fit in or do i have to go for the KIT version where I get a ssd to usb cable, some kind of a plate and etc..?

 

All you need is the SSD itself, no kit required.

If you must buy a Samsung drive for whatever reason, I'd second the recommendation for 850 Pro against 840 EVO.

 

The 840 evo and 850 pro wont make a difference to most users. the memory in the regular 840 has one of the longest durability tests. The evo is an improvement on that.
Upgrade the ram yourself, its much cheaper. The laptop comes with 4gb and you can purchase a 8gb stick for about $60/70 on amazon.
8GB DDR3 PC3-12800 Unbuffered NON-ECC 1.35V 1024Meg x 64 | Crucial USA
Look for this or the mac version of this which tends to be cheaper for some reason. Its the same ram though.

 

I never mentioned durability in my previous post, since it's not the only concern one should have when it comes SSDs.

850 Pro is a much better drive than 840 EVO no matter where one went to school. It's really that simple.

Personally, I'd never recommend cutting costs on something as important as SSD when one is already spending a chunk of money on a decent system, but to each their own.

 

I'd also recommend getting a decent SSD with a good track record for reliability (and performance as well, if needed). That said, you don't have to limit yourself to a 500GB SSD. As mentioned previously, Samsung also sells 1TB SSDs, and really you can use any drive (SSD or HDD) you want that physically fits the laptop (2.5" drive, 9.5mm height). For example, you could get a 2TB HDD if you needed more capacity.

Anyway, for SSDs I'd also check out Crucial and Intel, as well as the SanDisk Extreme Pro lineup; those are probably the most reliable drives out there (along with the Samsungs); I suspect that livebriand's Crucial SSD was a lemon, as usually they are pretty flawless.

 

There's actually a few reports the the t440s not detecting the m500. I would say its something to do with the bios/motherboard not being 100% compatible with non samsung ssds.

@ajkula66 I was taking in to account the price difference between the 850 pro and 840 evo. If you can afford it, always go for the best

 

Ah, didn't know that. That's a pretty weird bug to have in a laptop, considering that SATA is SATA is SATA...

 

That's exactly what I was baffled by. Also, I happened to have a 120GB M500 lying around (got that one several months earlier actually). I installed that, installed a fresh copy of Win7, and ran into the exact same issue.

Also worth noting that I think Lenovo was/is shipping 840 (evo) or 840 pro drives (or the rebranded OEM ones) as some of the SSD upgrades out of the factory.

Edit: I should probably mention was the error was: 2100 detection error on HD0.

 

are you sure the 12gb of ram is enough? I've owned a t440s briefly but the difference of 4gb _16gb vs 12gb) for someone who run vms is huge. Even with all the services tuned down I usually run a win7 vm, ubuntu, osx, , xp legacy, win8.1, server 2k8, win10 preview. 12gb did not cut it for me, 16gb barely does either but 12gb I thought I could make it work. If 12gb isn't enough now, in 1 year 12gb definitely won't work. Any 1.35v 8gb ram module will work.