What upgrades should I consider for my T61?

When Windows 7 comes out I will be doing some upgrades.. This thread is to give me ideas or suggestions on what I should consider. I have already upgraded my ram to 4GB, now I am looking at a new hard drive. I am wondering whether to get a HDD or SSD. I will be buying the drive during the summer so I am wondering if the prices of SSD will come down a lot at the summer.. Any chance of that..? I have heard that you get a drive error when you install a non-OEM drive into the Thinkpad upon each boot-up.. Is this true..??

 

There is no drive error. I have a non-OEM drive and never get notified. However, I believe Lenovo does whitelist wireless cards and that could cause a problem.

Your best bet is actually to run both an SSD an a HDD. If you don't use your optical drive frequently, you can get a SATA HDD adapter. I would then recommend a small (≈64GB) SSD for your OS and applications, and a large (can even be 5400RPM) HDD for your data files (music, video, pictures, etc). This is what I plan to do if/when anyone releases a quality SSD in an ExpressCard format.

 

How would you go about doing this? How is it possible to pick and choose locations of certain files/applications. When you install an application, during the setup there is no way to specify which hard drive to install it on right?

What do you mean a SSD in an ExpressCard format. How is that possible?

Where do I go about buying a Sata HDD adapter? Who sells them?

Will I gain a notice speed boost if I put my OS and Applications on the SSD?

Would you put the HDD or SSD in the Sata Adapter? Currently I have the HDD so how would I delete all the partions in a way that it will only be used for files such as pictures and videos?

 

You will need this adapter. You can buy it directly from Lenovo, and probably some resellers as well.

When installing Windows 7, you would pick the partition/drive [in this case the SSD] and install it there. You would also need to specify the SSD as your boot volume in BIOS.

Almost all applications allow you to choose where they are installed. Default is usally C:\Program Files\AppName\. For smaller apps, or those you use daily I would put them on an SSD. For gargantuan apps (e.g. a 12GB game) and/or those you rarely need, the HDD will be fine. Certain components of the application (e.g. DLL files) will always reside on the OS drive.

The ExpressCard bus is a dual mode bus. It can either operate as a USB host or a 1xPCI Express bridge. At the moment the only ExpressCard SSDs are a USB attached NAND flash memory (like this, this, or this). This does not yield particularly good performance. However, it is possible to build a good quality SSD uses the PCI Express bridge instead. This may not perform quite as well (or be as large) as a 1.8" SATA SSD, but it would be an upgrade over a HDD.

The whole point of buying an SSD is using it as an operating system drive. SSDs have practically no seek time (vs. 10-20ms for hard drives) and this cause performance to be much snappier (apps load faster, reduced delay, etc.). You also gain sequential write, and especially read, speeds; but this is not the primary reason for choosing an SSD.

It is also very important to do proper research. Many of the cheaper SSDs use low quality JMicron controllers and are prone to "stutter" under simultaneous random read/writes (something Vista does way too much). The Samsung SLC drive that originally shipped with the x300 or the Intel x25-M are the best of the bunch, but are priced to match.

 

How would I specify which drive to use as boot-up in my BIOS? Should I put the SSD in the normal slot or in the adapter? How would I reformat my Hard Drive in a way that it could be used for files and things like that? It currently has two partions and an OS on it. Why wouldn't I just buy a SSD for everything instead of having two drives?

Would this be a good SSD: Link

 

No its junk. It will cost you at least 300 now for a decent SSD, and those would be small.

 

What would be a very good quality 60GB SSD? Links please.

 

New Egg.......

 

There are tons of SSD's on NewEgg. I am asking which are good ones..

 

This one is fair. It uses MLC technology and is very fast for sequential transfers (especially reads). However, the controller is less than ideal and that diminishes performance (especially on simultaneous random writes of small files).

The Intel x25-M is considered to be the best currently on the market. It is MLC (hence why it's cheaper than option 3), but it has a great controller and is faster for everything except sequential writes.

The 64GB Samsung SLC drive that originally shipped with the x300 is also very good. Newegg sells the same drive rebadged as an OCZ and a G-Skill.


I would put the SSD in the main drive bay as it will be your primary OS drive. You can remove the hard drive in the Ultra-Bay (even with the computer running [as long as you eject it first) if you need the optical drive (e.g. to install an office suite, or image a disk to a file for mounting with Daemon tools as a virtual disk).

To enter the BIOS, press F12 at startup and select setup. In there you will find boot priority. Just rearrange it so the SSD is above the HDD (you can still have an optical, network, etc. above the SSD).

You can reformat the HDD within Windows (you must boot off the SSD). However, my recommendation would be to maintain the HDD as a backup with your old OS (Vista/XP?). This way you can boot to it by pressing F12 at startup in case any of your applications aren't compatible with Windows 7. You may want to re-image the old drive to factory state (will free up space), by pressing the Blue Button before startup, if you intend to make Windows 7 on the SSD your primary OS.

 

By July, will there be better SSD's but cheaper? I am not sure of whether or not I will go for the SSD. I think this HDD might just be a better option: Click Here

 

SSD's should become cheaper by July, but I'm not sure how much (I would think it depends on how much more the economy tanks).

I didn't even know that HDD existed. However, the 320GB Seagate 7200.3 was considered one of the best 7200RPM drives before, so this will probably be a good drive too. You should try and verify if it is a 2 or 3 platter design. Some 500GB drives are 3 platter designs and are too thick to fit in a ThinkPad (they will also generate slightly more noise and use more power due to the extra platter).

Edit - According to this PDF, it appears to be a 500GB 2 platter design (possibly the first 2.5" w/ 250GB per platter). It is also the standard 9.5mm height, and according to their document should be energy efficient and quiet. So, I would say this is probably a very good drive to get (the 250GB model of the same series would also be a good choice, if your space needs are more modest).

 

Are you able to check what platter that 500GB Seagate 7200.4 drive is for me please? You seem to be good at these things.. I am really bad at researching.

 

See above, I edited my post.

 

I just bought the 500GB 7200rpm HDD.

u can either do that, or get a nice SLC SSD. I posted in your other thread. This will cost more though.

 

I will go for the HDD. I do not personally believe that the SSD is at it's best yet. I will wait a year or two.

Do you think come before July, that Segate will release a bigger size 7200 RPM like 1TB?

 

Highly unlikely. I wouldn't expect a 1TB drive in a 2.5" form factor until at least 2010 (2011 is more likely).

 

How about 750GB? Also, the revision 2 of that drive should be out by July right?

 

How would I allocate my HDD to My Documents, My Pictures, My Videos if I use my SSD for the OS and Applications?

 

I would keep my Documents on the OS drive (this tends to be small and accessed frequently).

I suggest you look up Windows 7 and libraries. Microsoft has completely redesigned the way My Documents, Pictures, Videos, etc. is handled in Windows 7 and it is now very easy to spread them across multiple drives (it required registry hacks in XP).

As to your earlier question about 750GB drives. I doubt you will see a 2 platter 750GB drive by July (it takes time to boost areal density by that much). However, somebody may make a 3 platter (3x250GB) drive by that time; although this may be oF the 12mm height and too tall to fit in your T61.

 

So if you where going to upgrade the HDD, would you go with the one 500GB 7200 RPM drive or the SSD for the OS and programs and the 160GB 7200RPM for the files?

 

For maximum performance, the SSD is very hard to beat.

However, I would say the 500GB 7200RPM hard drive scores much better on a value scale, and it will give you good performance.

My intent is a 64GB SSD in ExpressCard format and my existing 320GB 5400RPM, but no one has released a quality ExpressCard SSD yet.