The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Thinkpad T420 - Add Storage with mSata or ultrabay caddy

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by [email protected], May 14, 2012.

  1. rahul@RahulSharma.in

    [email protected] Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    2
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    I have T420 with i7, 8gb and 160gb ssd. I am happy with the performance and dont want to re-install or move my OS.

    So, the questions is, what you guys suggest to get more space?
    1. Add mSata SSD drive, if so which one?.
    2. Add HDD to ultrabay, if so which one? I am thinking of Hitachi Travelstar Z7K500
    ​

    Your help in this is really appreciated.
     
    [email protected], May 14, 2012
    #1
  2. Kaso

    Kaso Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    744
    Messages:
    3,546
    Likes Received:
    33
    Trophy Points:
    116
    If you're happy with the current 160GB SSD, I'd suggest keeping it as your boot/OS/app drive and adding a sizeable HDD in the Ultrabay with a caddy.

    That Hitachi 500GB HDD is good. The Samsung Spinpoint M8 HN-M101MBB 1TB and the Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD7500BPVT 750GB are possible considerations.
     
    Kaso, May 14, 2012
    #2
  3. PatchySan

    PatchySan Om Noms Kit Kat

    Reputations:
    3,971
    Messages:
    2,248
    Likes Received:
    221
    Trophy Points:
    81
    I'll go with the Ultrabay Caddy setup along with the biggest 9.5mm SATA drive you can find, the biggest drive you can get is 1TB at the moment (look around for Samsung Spinpoint M8 or Hitachi 5K1000) and it doesn't have to be the fastest drive if it's purely for storage. It will also work out a lot cheaper per GB than the mSATA solution too though of course you can always add it on later when the price becomes reasonable in the future.
     
    PatchySan, May 14, 2012
    #3
  4. rahul@RahulSharma.in

    [email protected] Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    2
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Ok, I hear you guys and will add hdd in ultrabay.

    One last thing though, can I add mSata for apps/images only? May be I am lazy but is there anything wrong keeping OS & some apps on primary internal ssd, more apps/images on mSata and data on ultrabay hdd?
     
    [email protected], May 14, 2012
    #4
  5. ZaZ

    ZaZ Super Model Super Moderator

    Reputations:
    4,982
    Messages:
    34,001
    Likes Received:
    1,415
    Trophy Points:
    581
    Sure you can, but if your current SSD is large enough to hold your stuff, I don't see what the benefit of adding a mSATA SSD would be.
     
    ZaZ, May 15, 2012
    #5
  6. Munna2002

    Munna2002 Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    4
    Messages:
    64
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Just to clarify. What is the ultrabay caddy? Is it simply the place where the DVD drive goes? The caddy is just an enclosure that plugs in a 2.5" SATA drive into the PCI (unsure) slot? Are there any considerations such as heat, noise, extra power consumption, or performance downgrades with this approach?
     
    Munna2002, May 15, 2012
    #6
  7. Kaso

    Kaso Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    744
    Messages:
    3,546
    Likes Received:
    33
    Trophy Points:
    116
    The UltraBay is where the (removable) optical drive normally sits. An Ultrabay caddy is an enclosure that allows you to (1) house a SATA HDD/SSD and (2) insert it to the SATA power/electrical connectors.

    Heat? Nope. Noise? Not really. Extra power consumption? Nope. Performance degradation? Possibly, because the connector is usually SATA 3.0Gb/s for optical drives, but this is acceptable for a HDD that spins at 5400rpm and is used mainly for storage.

    Lenovo sells UltraBay caddy as customer-replaceable product parts.
     
    Kaso, May 15, 2012
    #7