Well, I am in the process with poor results.

The SSD I have is the KingSpec SSD 1.8 (PATA 64GB), P/N KSD-PA18.1-64MJ.

Problems:

1: I was not able to boot via generic USB CD-ROM and the USB attached external disk. I have two IDE/SATA to USB 2.0 conversion adapters. The internal BIOS is Phoenix BIOS 2.06 and it is the most current from IBM/Lenovo website. I did a quick search and it appears that there are more current BIOS levels available. I beleieve the BIOS should be upgraded. I will need to research this topic further.

I used my desktop PC to perform the Clone.
After the clone, i inspected the disk via my notebook, and by all appearances it was OK.

2: When i reconnected it to the X41, there was a failure to boot. Reattaching back the SSD to my notebook, the disk revealed only a 4 GB unformatted partition. So, i will be contacting KingSpec for a replacement.

PS: I converted my two Z60m and my two T61's to SATA-SSD and they all work excellent.

That's not encouraging at all. I keep playing with the idea of keeping my X40 and slapping an SSD in there to give me a few more years of service. The original HD is so slow and noisy.

But every time I start to pull the trigger on a Kingspec I read something like this. And when I look at cost of the ZIF alternatives versus the speedbump I'm just not convinced.

The new HDD/SSD need to be in the HDD slot to write the MBR properly.
Have you set the BIOS boot device order correctly, USB CD before ATA?

i'm using a 60 gig ssd drive that lenovo is now selling in my x41. i didn't get it from lenovo but on ebay for less than 200.00. it doesn't give any bios errors and it really speeded up this machine. no more hard drive noise. pt#41WO736.

I also bought one of these Lenovo SSDs on eBay last week for my X41, and it's been wonderful so far.

Hello Mofotech, was wondering how your 8GB Supertalent SSD test results worked. I'm interested in buying one of these as well but wanted to wait for your results. I'm currently using a Ridata 8GB 233X CompactFlash card (new one I brought from newegg) and its pretty slow in writes, but quick for reads -- which matches what other state, but am having some issues with when programs would hang temporarily while the HD LED light stays solid for a long time but eventually program would resume again --- am playing around with disabling the virtual memory page file for now.... I have 512MB of memory with Windows XP Pro SP2 but have ordered up a 1GB SODIMM memory module to see if that helps.. Already disabled file indexing as well as the disk write-ahead caching option.
Thanks
----

There are several versions of these that went into Acer Aspire. I tested the intel and Sandisk versions and they seem to have similar performance. There is a 32GB Super Talent in this format but quite expensive.

It seems the RiDATA 233x CF card may have dirty free space and need cleaning (garbage collection in TRIM speak).

Hi, All!

In the fifth year of using I decide to improve my X41.

Please recommend me, what is better for speed and reliability:
1. KingSpec 1.8" IDE PATA SSD MLC 64GB (http://cgi.ebay.com/KingSpec-1-8-IDE-PATA-SSD-MLC-64GB-f-IBM-X40-X41-X41T-/160345668815?pt=AU_Laptop_Accessories)
or
2. CF to 44 pin 1.8" IDE HDD Adapter Case (http://cgi.ebay.com/CF-44-pin-1-8-IDE-IBM-X40-X41-SSD-HDD-Adapter-Case-/260641589487?pt=AU_Laptop_Accessories) with CF?

Thank's a lot.

I think what is locally supported is probably best. There are a few stories having something returned to foreign countries and costing arm and a leg.
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=86707

Most advertised CF speeds are read while write speed is most important when used as SSD. The RiDATA 233x CF cards continued to be good value with acceptable write performance.

in case you're interested :

viewtopic.php?p=588453#p588453 ( link to mod the x41 for sata drives )

Got my kingspec 32G for a while from ebay($13x). I feel it is well worth for the upgrade for my x40. My thinkpad is with the low voltage 1G cpu and 1G+256M only. Now it takes around 40 sec to boot from hibernation instead of more than 5min before.

The upgrade wasnt smooth. My windows xp installation usb key doesnt work. The usb drive I made can boot up the lappy and start the installation process, but wrote out the system files back to the usb key itself instead of the SSD drive. So I borrowed a usb-dvdrw drive and installed the windows. Took around 15min and the new system up and running in the new drive.

The upgrade might enable the x40 to serve me for some more years.

Having succesfully bought 3 KingSpec MLC SSD-s from eBay and looking for another one I stumbled upon a new offering - an SLC 1.8" SSD:

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-1-8-SLC-SSD-PATA-IDE-32GB-Hard-Solid-State-Drive-/290468913083?pt=UK_Computing_HardDrives_RL&hash=item43a14bdfbb#ht_1710wt_654

If the information posted underneath isn't entirely incorrect, it should be using Samsung K9WAG08U1A chips (from 2006??).

Are there any drives known to use those chips and performance/issues they might have? What about the controller, what could it be using...

If shopping KingSpec off of ebay, try a worldwide search for whatever you want. The item will come up in multiple currencies, and you can select whichever has the best conversion rate for that day. Usually free shipping, so doesn't matter which ebay country site it's ordered from.

hi i have 2 X x41 with kingspec 1,8" 64 GB
These machines are working just fine but i will like to know if is possible to remove / bypass the bootup delay ( Error Message) because of an unrecognized drive.
King regards
Ovi

You cannot remove the error message, there's an option in the BIOS menu where it continues booting after the message, so no more need to press ESC. You can find that option under "Startup" (from the initial BIOS screen).

Hope this helps...

hi Tasurinchi
thx for you reply
it works
Regards
Ovi

quick question.

KingSpec SSD-s are both 3,3V and 5V tolerant,
but could Lenovo 60GB SSD also be used in regular
2,5" hard drive bay (5V)?
For example in T4x-series

If I'm not mistaken those Samsung-rebranded SSD are specified for 3.3V operations.

See also this... viewtopic.php?f=3&t=80773

Cheers.

I threw in a 64GB Runcore Pro IV (RCP-IV-P1864-MCNV) into my X41 Tablet. 3.3 Volts on the label. Windows 7 blazes. The metal guide inside the drive bay next to the PATA plug needs to be bent back a little accommodate the RunCore to allow it to seat completely. The video speaks for itself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCl5Qxj8yuE

Donald

@ Tasurinchi, Ovi
I'm French, as my english !
To remove the Dos 2010 error when you use a non IBM disk such as the Kingspec, you juste have to flash the bios :
X41 non tablet, Version: 2.09 (74ET64WW). Release Date: 2006/12/25
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/thread ... ENOVO-(IBM)-Bioses-especially-Thinkpad.?p=344779#post344779

Oups !
Bad link

The good one is :
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/thread ... ENOVO-(IBM)-Bioses-especially-Thinkpad.?p=344779#post344779

I know that BIOS, but if I remember correctly it was released after my post above. Luckily this silly error is history. (btw I tried it already in my T43p and it works great)

i just picked up a 32GB kingspec for 72 dollars on ebay, but i regret the purchase. the stutter makes multitasking unuseable. i tried all sorts of tweaks with no real improvements.

has anyone tried the jmicron firmware update on these drives? I have seen good reports of eliminating the stutter at a little cost of throughput. this was an update provided by supertalent, but has been tested on other vendors' drives. there is an xp based tool, but that's for flashing through usb (not on the kingspec, unless there is a usb connector on the pcb). there is also a dos based tool that is for flashing through sata interface.

http://www.daffodilistic.com/2009/08/21 ... e-mystery/
http://www.supertalent.com/support/down ... 90508s.rar
http://www.supertalent.com/support/down ... 90508s.doc
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum ... or-Core-V2

Benchmarks of the Kingspec 1.8" 16GB PATA SSD that i bought for my X41 Tablet:

Crystal Disk Mark:
http://tweakers.net/ext/f/so9ZLbfISXo7d ... 8/full.png

HD Tune:
http://tweakers.net/ext/f/ME9XEDuo2rHmb ... p/full.png

Modelnumber: KSD-PA18.1-016MJ

Tried FlashFire (http://flashfire.org/)...? I haven't used it for some time and it was kind of unstable back then. Maybe things have improved and you may see if it helps through.

Cheers.

uuh, that's pretty bad.
As it's a small drive, I can understand why you'd be using WinXP, but still, I suggest you partition the drive on windows 7 setup and install winxp on the 2nd partition (1st is 100MB) or just move the start position further up. Idea is to align the partitions properly and put the start offset to 1024k instead of 31k.

Definitely improves performance:
pic

Then it's just as fast under WinXP than in Windows 7 and no third-party soft is necessary.

Read more about partition alignment

Where did you read that i am using Windows XP ?

I am running Windows 7 on it

But i will try the partition aligning, it sounds interesting

P.S Your imageshack link is not working, maybe try another host like TinyPic ?

then you just managed to royally f'ck up

16GB KingSpec on WinXP:

Seq 81.45 / 27.39
512K 78.33 / 20.00
4K 12.23 / 2.296
4K QD 32 14.20 / 2.249

Just reinstall windows 7, delete all partitions on setup and let windows make its own. Problem easily solved and numbers are going to skyrocket.

But yeah, for some reason the chinese sellers on eBay have the SSD-s pre-partitioned and pre-formatted and not the "right way".

Found in Ebay an offering for an Sandisk 64GB: (click). Does anyone knows the performance compared to his smaller brother Sandisk SDU5B? I've only found benchmarks for the latter here in the forum.

Thanks in advance!

Have you aligned your partitions to match erase block size? That should get rid of performance hiccups.