thinkpad w700, use my own ssd?

I'm thinking of buying the w700 with this 20% off deal. When I configure it, apparently it offers space for two drives. I've read that the SSD option is a crap drive, so I would just buy the one basic HDD and install my own SSD.

1. is this possible? what size SSD do i need? 2.5" or 1.8" ?

2. how can i retain the rescue and recovery partition ? i like lenovos backup and restore software. ill want to keep it. can i just remove the stock drive, install the SSD, and "recover" everything to the new drive?

thanks for any help

 

1.- Yes, it's possible. You'll need either a 2.5" drive, or a 1.8" one and an adapter.

2.- When you boot your computer, log in and then burn the set of recovery disks (1 CD + 2 DVDs). Then, remove your hard drive and install the SSD in its place, moving the hard drive to the secondary drive slot. Insert the recovery disks and follow directions, which will put everything that was on the hard drive onto the SSD (restoring to factory settings), including the Rescue & Recovery partition.

 

thanks! also, i'm reading that there is a SATA 1 vs SATA 2 limitation.. will i have that with a new w700? iow, is it worth it to upgrade to ssd?

 

Even with the SATA1 vs SATA2 limitation, it is worth it. The SATA channel bandwidth only applies when you're saturating the channel i.e. when doing something like transferring huge video files. Even in this case, although you'll get a little less bandwidth, you still get higher transfer speed than a regular HDD. Plus the superfast access time.

 

That was an issue on the previous generation of Thinkpads (_61-series), where the SATAII speeds were capped to less than the maximum specifications. However, this is not an issue with the new Thinkpads, including your W700.

 

Well everything is relative. I think you need to define what you mean by a crap drive. I have the old Samsung 128GB SSD option in my X200 and it is far from "crap". If Benchmarks are what you use as the only measurement, then you would probably want to go for the Intels. Otherwise, my SSD is spectacular and the newer generation Samsungs used in ThinkPads are supposed to be even better.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=439217

 

my apologies. i shouldnt speak in hyperbole. i was just relaying what i read on the net, not to get the oem option for SSDs.

anyway, i just ordered my w700, took the 250gb hdd option. i dont know if i should just remove it entirely or somehow have a dual drive setup.

open to any opinions as to which SSD to get now to put in this thing shouldnt need more than 128gb in size. any ideas?

 

I really think it depends on your needs. A W700 indicates you are a power user, but even so, unless you want the best synthetic performance numbers, I would consider the relatively low priced (at least in my country) Kingston V+ series or even the slower V series. You can for instance get it with the External case and install your 250GB harddrive in the case and use it as an USB backup drive.

For dual drive setup you could consider one of the options below:

- SSD and HDD
- RAID config with dual SSDs (expensive but VERY fast)

 

Are there hw RAID options on Thinkpads? How is this normally done on a laptop?

 

Not on ThinkPads in general, but yes, the W700 offers RAID 0 or RAID 1 options.

 

Is it hardware raid or software raid?