What is the SSD in the T420s (128GB)?

Is it Sata 2.5'' or mSata?
Is it Intel or some other brand?
How is the performance of the SSD vs. say normal Sata3 2.5'' 128GB SSD running at Sata2 speeds?
I'm considering buying a new T420s with the 128GB for around a grand. Is it worth the price?

 

I would advise against the purchase. Apparently the T420s has a fan speed defect that is driving people crazy.

Regarding the 128GB SSD, it's probably a SATA II Samsung. I don't believe Lenovo has certified any SATA III SSD drives. Yea that's lame, too.

 

Oh I see, I didn't know about the fan defect. I really like the look and weight of this laptop verses the regular T420, even though I know the battery life is not as great. However, noise levels are definitely a major concern.

I found this website that does a full, complete througuh review of the T420s, pretty much everything you'd ever want to know. According to the site, the 128GB SSD is a Toshiba Sata2 drive with avg 190MB/s read/write. They also tested a Crucial M4 256GB Sata3 drive and got 380MB/s read, 235MB/s write speeds, meaning the laptop has a Sata3 capable bus.

 

Lenovo has been known to use both Toshiba and Samsung SSDs for the 128GB SSD option. You can't choose exactly what SSD you will receive, which is one reason why I recommend doing the SSD upgrade aftermarket.

 

The only defect I've noticed is the basic fan control rules so I've been running TPFanControl for nearly as long as I've had my T420s.

John

 

I'm inclined to believe the community and that there is some credence in the monster thread on the subject at Re: T420s Fan noise Issue - Page 99 - Lenovo Community which Lenovo seems unable to resolve.

I stand by my recommendation. Avoid a purchase until Lenovo resolves the matter. It's been 10 months which is plenty of time.

 

they have certified SATA III drives just not available for the current machines, it will be available for the new laptops refresh.

 

It seems that I will stay clear of the T420s for the time being due to the fan issues.
Much thanks for answering my SSD questions.

 

The T420S should come with a Samsung PM810 (i.e. OEM version of Samsung 470). It is one of the most reliable SSD.

For ThinkPad, stay away from the Crucial M4 (especially the 256GB and the 512GB models), if you don't want high risk of BSOD / loss of data.

 

Dell uses Samsungs, they won't support anything else so I know. Lots of problems with my Alienware and M4 not using SataIII.

Now as for the M4, they are awesome, I have 2 and no problems!
As far as my T420s, the Intel 160gb is my fav, even if the M4 is a little faster!

 

I just got one about a month ago. What fan issue are you guys referring to? I can barely hear the fan most of the time.

 

Don't change anything.

 

Mine came with 128GB Samsung SSD (PM810); when I bought it I was offered to choose between two setups: one with LG LCD, NMB keyboard, Micron! 128GB SSD (most probably C300) and Sanyo battery (product date: 09.2011) - and the other one with Samsung LCD, Chicony keyboard, Samsung 128GB SSD and Panasonic battery (product date: 06.2011). I got the latter one, because of this issue - 09.2011-12.2011.

Regarding the fan issue - after tracking it for a while and founding that after it reaches 4000rpm rarely fallback to 2000-3000rpm, I stopped doing this because I realize that I can barely hear the fan. So, this is how I learned to stop worrying and like the laptop.

 

From what I read, people seem to be having issues when they have the discrete gpu more so? I have only the HD3000. The fan spinning up more makes sense to me considering most thing laptops with discrete would have these problems.

Tried out an x220 a few months back but was too small for my needs. The fan noise issue that came up with that model was much more annoying than any fan noise I've heard from the T420s and sometimes I do hear the fan spin up and down. Are all of you guys living in super quiet suburbs?

One thing I did notice is the Turbo+ boost only on some Lenovo thinkpads will force max fan speed to give you even higher max turbo than Intel defaults. That did cause a lot of noise but I turned that off in the power options immediately and never had a problem since.

 

So what is the consensus? Is there a fan problem or not? Is it only a problem for those T420s' with Nvidia GPU?
As far as the 128GB SSD and judging from the above discussion, it seems that there is 3 manufacturers: Samsung, Toshiba and Crucial.

 

I have the Intel graphics and have been using TPFanControl ( W520 version) since early days because I didn't like the over-agressive fan activity. My CPU is currently at 54C and if I switch TPFanControl from Smart to BIOS model then the fan speed shoots up from 1800 to 4000rpm and the temperature will drop to about 49C. I'm sure that the problem didn't used to be this bad and TPFancontrol makes it manageable. I have seen posts saying that TPFC doesn't play nicely with Lenovo Power Manager but I haven't encountered any specific problems.

John

 

I have one with the NVidia 4200M and have used TPfancontrol from day one and have never noticed the fan to the extent I would think there was some sort of an issue.

 

We have about 10 T420s laptops with iGPUs in our company right now. No complaints or issues regarding the fan. Most have SSD drives.

We just picked up 2 T420s models with dGPUs. Neither have been deployed to an end user yet, in configuration though, I have not had any fan issue.

These are all using factory images with factory defaults.

12 laptops is just a drop in the bucket though, so YMMV.

 

I have an i7 based T420 with the Optimus graphics chipset (both Intel and NVIDIA gpus).

It runs a little hotter lid down in the dock because the NVIDIA gpu is always driving the DisplayPort attached LCD panel. The fan rpm at the moment is 3100 and most of the components in the machine are 39-48C. Even at 3100 I can barely hear it in the dock off to the side of my desk.

Out of the dock the normal fan rpm is much lower. It drops to about 1900-2000 and runs about the same temp.

Obviously the case is different. The fans probably are, too.