mSata for W520

I just wanted to quickly confirm....is this the mSata SSD that will fit inside the W520 in the WWAN slot?

Newegg.com - Intel 310 Series (Soda Creek) SSDMAEMC080G2C1 mSATA 80GB mSATA (mini PCIe form factor) MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - SSD

 

Yes. There is no other mSATA drive around other than the 40GB version.

 

I opened up my W520 just to take a look (I ordered mine without the WWAN option), and there is a little piece of placeholder material and the leads for the WWAN sitting there with covering on the ends.

If I didn't know better, it's almost as if Lenovo is wanting us to buy those Intel 310s and put them in our W520s.

 

At $190, it appears that the 128 GB C300 SSD at $200 and about $40 for the ultrabay caddy is a far better deal unless you need the optical drive a lot.

Well maybe not. You get 2/3rds of the C300s space, fast boot times, get to keep your HDD in the Slot 0 and can keep the optical drive in the machine at very little increased cost/GB over the C300/Ultrabay Caddy combo.

Perry

 

Where do u get the ultrabay for $40? I thought it was $60.

Also, what's a good price for a 320GB (or 500GB) 7200rpm HDD?

 

^^^ The Ultrabay Hard Drive Adapter III is $60. 320GB 7200rpm HDD around $55, maybe less if your watch for daily deals on Newegg.

 

So, I just bought an mSata 80GB as my boot up drive. Currently I have Windows which came with the laptop and I installed a dual boot Ubuntu 11.04 beta.

Can anyone help me out with what I need to do to make the mSata my boot up drive for Windows and Ubuntu (and my applications like Matlab, ...) and then partition the 500GB HDD correctly (I guess I should ask whether I actually need to do that in the first place)?

 

There may potentially be 3 bootable drive: mSATA, main drive, Ultrabay drive. You edit the boot sequence in BIOS to set the mSATA as the first. With F12 on ThinkPad start-up, you can select another boot drive other than the default.

One idea: How about putting Ubuntu on (a partition of) the main drive?

 

What's the install order? Windows 7 first or linux? Does the Windows BDE thingy understand linux?

 

Traditionally you'd install windows first, because linux always was a much better "neighbour" and respects other OS already installed.

It's possible that the windows installer has finally cought up though...

 

RE: "There is no other mSATA drive around other than the 40GB version."

There is a 64GB Super Talent.

 

That is not a mSATA drive. Could potentially work though.

 

came across this through searching - advertised to work with W520:

Renice Technology | Solid State Drive SSD

more info on this thread in the tablet forum:
renice 120 gb msata ssd review.

 

I got the ultrabay adapter for $42 from the Lenovo rep through whom I ordered my W520. So if you contact your rep you could get a deal on it.

 

Those who already got their mSata installed, what did you do with the two wires/leads for the WWAN?

 

Wow - what a find ! I wonder where they sell it at. I never heard of it.

 

Its cool they even have 240GB models

 

Another review of it here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...sf1222-msata-ssd-user-review.html#post7389868

 

Has anyone tried enabling UEFI-only mode in their new ThinkPad's BIOS, and attempting to install Windows 7 in EFI mode on their new mSATA SSD?

I'm just curious. It's what I'll try when my system arrives, so I wanted to know how the experience has gone for others. I understand that I'll have to use a GPT partitioning scheme for best results, so that will be interesting too.

I did note that the second-most recent ThinkPad T420 BIOS has this in the changelog:

UEFI: 1.21 / ECP: 1.07

* (New) Added support for the mSATA preload model.
* (New) Added support for the function to configure Boot Priority Order via WMI interface.
* (Fix) Fixed an issue where OS boot might fail from the CD.

 

What's the advantage? As I understand it, you might want to think about this for a desktop machine and large disk support. Why bother on a laptop until drives larger than 2.2GB come out?

 

I just put them to the side where there was some space and they didn't interfere with the mSata. As their connectors have protective caps, I didn't see a problem.

 

RE: "What's the advantage? As I understand it, you might want to think about this for a desktop machine and large disk support. Why bother on a laptop until drives larger than 2.2GB come out?"

The major advantage would be booting with the UEFI, instead of BIOS.

So, has anyone attempted GPT formatting of their mStata? Will GPT hurt the SSD?

 

I know there is no benefit from a large-disk standpoint.

However, from what I've read so far, assuming you want to attempt to replicate Lenovo's Enhanced Experience 2.0, you may need a UEFI boot to a GPT partition.

The Lenovo Files The “Secret Sauce Recipe” to Our 10-Second PC Boot

 

I left mine taped to the black plastic below. The mSATA installed right on top of it, and there was no noticable pressure when I screwed the mSATA down.

 

Thanks Deleau. Did the screws come with the drive?

 

What happened to the 80gb version?

 

There is a screw in the laptop for the bottom (closest to the palmrest) hole; there is a small star-like protrusion that the top hole of the mSATA drive seats.

I just looked and there was no screw included with my drive, but like I said, there was a screw already in the W520 that I just removed prior to installing the card (I have a hard time calling it a "drive"...it's barely bigger than an SD card )

 

Any conclusion which mSata is the best? I want to use 80-120G mSata, 120G Intel 510 as a main drive and 500G HDD in a ultrabay.
I want to have 500G for multimedia, one SSD for OS and one SSD for my big graphic work files.
Is it better to put the OS on mSata and work files put to Intel510, or should I install the OS on Intel510 (I think it will be faster than any mSata) and work files to mSata?

 

What 120GB mSATA?

Intel makes a 40GB and an 80GB mSATA drive. While it appears that third parties are looking into or have limited releases of larger drives, at this point they're not widely available, and I'd probably stick with Intel. They have proven longevity, and Lenovo's ThinkPads have been engineered around the Intel mSATA drives.

 

Amazon.com: MyDigitalSSD 128GB 50mm Bulletproof mSATA (Mini SATA PCI-e) SSD - MDMS-50128: Electronics

or

Renice Technology | Solid State Drive SSD

or

Super Talent Announces New JEDEC MO-300V Standard Compliant mSATA SSD | techPowerUp

But I agree the Intel way is probably the safest way.

 

Hi All,

Will this mSata drive fit in W520? SSD 320 SERIES 160GB 5MM - 1.8IN MSATA3 3GB/S MLC IN | Ebuyer.com

 

That looks like a 2.5" SATA SSD. It will fit in the W520 primary bay. But I suppose that is not your intent.

The mSATA SSD (that is installed in the WWAN slot of the W520) looks like this:

 

Which intel ssd MSATA drive should I buy for my W520?

Also, can I get a 160gb msata drive?

 

The largest mSATA drive from Intel would be the 80GB version of the Intel 310. The largest mSATA drive overall is 128GB (at the moment) but they would be from other vendors such as MyDigitalSSD and Renice instead.