X61 and SSD

Much to my surprise, my TP X61 shipped a mere 4 days after I placed the order. Hopefully the screen won't be too dim.

Anyway, I am looking at slapping a decent SSD into this thing and was wondering if it's possible. I know the notebook's regular HD is 2.5", and 2.5" SSDs are abundant. Is there any reason why it would not accept one?

I got the XP version btw.

 

It should work with the X61. It uses a standard 2.5'' notebook hard disk.

 

I thought I read somewhere I need a 2.5" SATA interface SSD. I'm guessing 16GB should be enough for XP plus some important docs and apps?

Not really sure where to actually buy a 16GB SSD.

 

make sure u read reviews for some of the SSD. Some are cheap but got slower write speed than a 4200 rpm hd.

Oya newegg sells some.

 

I read about the Mtron SSDs on this forum and the prices are actually reasonable. $400 / 16GB - the fastest SSD available. Get it here:

neostore

 

There is no reason why a SSD should not work on a X61. You might want to consider getting a unit from either Samsung or Sandisk. Both are showing impressive performance results. Sure Mtron makes some extremely fast SSDs, but they are also still very expensive.

Keep us updated when/if you get one. The X61 is already a very powerful ultraportable. With a SSD the performance will be amazing, I'm sure.

 

That is actually a very good one

 

UPS should deliver my Mtron MOBI 2.5" 16GB on Monday or Tuesday. I'll report on my experience with it in my X61s. I'll be installing Fedora 8 64-bit on it.

 

Unfortunately a 16GB drive will be too small for most people. In a X61 you only have room for 1 hard drive and with Vista installed, it doesn't leave much room for files. But for those who can live with the small (by today's standards) capacity, the 16GB Mtron will be a real performer.

 

I know that you can drastically reduce the size of XP by using nlite (or other similar programs) and I believe I've read that you can do the same with Vista. If true, one could probably greatly reduce the size of vista also so that it would take up a minimum amount of space on a small SSD.

I installed XP (after nlite) and several programs plus map data on a 1GB compact flash card. I wonder how small Vista can be made?

 

Sure you can make the OS more compact, but even if the X61 is an ultraportable many people tend to want to use it for more than just browsing and office applications. I personally thought I would be fine with the 32GB SSD I had in my Sony Vaio TZ90. But soon I realized that with Vista, a few capacity hungry applications, all my work files and a bunch of MP3s, I suddenly didn't have much room left after all.

I like to rip DVDs to my HDD so I can watch movies when I travel, and unfortunately these take up a lot of space, if you want them to be high quality.

I am personally planning to get a 128GB (or above) SSD when the price comes further down. It is not that I cannot afford the current price level, but compared to high speed/capacity 7200 RPM drives, I simply find the value for money too low at the moment.

But to each his own. And thank God for that

 

Mtron SSD + WD Passport (or other bus-powered drives) FTW

 

I personally don't like carrying around an external hard drive all the time. But again, to each his own.

What I would consider would be a SSD with at least 64 GB and then add maybe a 32 GB SDHC card (coming soon). The only issue is that by the time these come down to a price level which I find reasonable, I will probably have bought a new notebook with a nice big SSD by default.

 

I received my Mtron MOBI 16GB 2.5" SSD a little over a week from RocketDisk. I swapped out the old Momentus in my X61s with the new drive and installed Fedora 8 64-bit without any problems.

If you can live without a large system partition I highly recommend the Mtron drives. I also recommend RocketDisk. They have the lowest prices on Mtrons and great service.

 

16gb is way to small and $400 is way too much for something that small, could vista even fit on a 16gb?. I would rather get a 64gb samsung SSD

 

If anyone is thinking about purchasing a SSD in the next bit, pls pm me and I may be able to assist. I won't lie...I can't steal a SSD for you but you may find what you want.