Internal vs Ultrabay speed?

[Quicklite]

Can anyone tell me how much faster, the internal ide drive is in T4x, than sata drive (through the sata bridge) on a ultrabay? (benchmark would be great)

I still haven't decided whether to opt for a SSD for primary drive in a T43p or not; but I definitely will use a big drive in the ultra bay...

[Yariv]

Well, you asked a good question.
I believe I understood what you are talking about and will try to give my best answer.

Using the Ultrabay or any other means of additional storage capacity is always a good thing for people that actually need that space and options available.

But when it comes down to the rat-race, dont forget the harddrive can spin only that fast (Usually 5600RPM).
So you are a little dependend on the speed of the harddrive it self.
I suggest you do some additional research before purchasing the Ultrabay and look in to high RPM harddrives.

Final advice:
If you are still going to use the Ultrabay and go ahead with it, make sure to obtain a energy saving harddrive, because more harddrive, less battery time.
New harddrives have power save options, if not accessed for like 30 seconds, turn off or spin down to 2400 RPM to save a little more battery power.

I hope I helped, if you need any more advice, feel free to ask.
Have a great day

[Quicklite]

Cheers for the tips; I'd probably want as big a secondary drive as possible, and 7200rpm is a bit excessive imo, as I'll be keeping mainly media on the second drive, also from the view of battery.

I've my eyes set on a WD Scorpio Blue WD5000BEVT 500GB. The average transfer rate is 61.6mb on that in HD Tune, and its probably the best of the current 500gb generation; 500gb increases the data density as well per platter, so there ought not be that much difference between 5400 and 7200 rpm.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=307430

However my only concern is the reported slow sata>pata bridge on those aftermarket caddy, and think its best to know what to expect before I get it; that whether the bridge is really so slow; I'd be happy with anything more than 40mb averaged transfer rate.

I'll move to SSD in the short future for primary drive, but until then 40gb HDD can do the trick.

[sojourner]

Can anyone tell me how much faster, the internal ide drive is in T4x, than sata drive (through the sata bridge) on a ultrabay? (benchmark would be great)

I still haven't decided whether to opt for a SSD for primary drive in a T43p or not; but I definitely will use a big drive in the ultra bay...

If this helps, here's a test on my T41 (see sig.)
software used: HD Tach v2.70, OS = Win98SE

WD2500BEVE (IDE drive bay)
Western Digital PATA 250GB drive
random access time = 11.3ms
read max. = 63.2 MB/s
read min. = 37.8
avg. = 59.6
read burst = 85.3
CPU utilization = 7.6%

WD3200BEVT (SATA in Ultrabay)
Western Digital SATA 320GB drive
random access time = 11.9ms
read max. = 61.9 MB/s
read min. = 37.5
avg. = 58.9
read burst = 85.2
CPU utilization = 6.5%

and just for further comparison, here's spec.'s for the CF card in a PCMCIA slot:

RiDATA 8GB 233X CF card, Delkin CardBus32 UDMA Adapter
formated FAT32
random access time = 1.6ms
read max. = 23.0 MB/s
read min. = 22.1
avg. = 23.0
read burst = 23.7
CPU utilization = 3.3%

BTW, if CF is formated in NTFS performance is much better!

Also, many times I've run with no drive in the IDE bay and simply choose the boot device on start, then run from the Ultrabay. Have not tried booting from an SSD and run the OS from Ultrabay, but you may want to consider just choosing your boot device on boot and running from the Ultrabay with a fast SATA drive!

[Quicklite]

WOW so basically the extra data density on the 5400rpm 320gb actually makes up for the existence of the bridge.

Also there is no space for a sata>pata converter for the primary drive is there?.

[Paul Pennington]

sojourner;

Which bay adapter for SATA hard drives are you using?

[sojourner]

sojourner;
Which bay adapter for SATA hard drives are you using?

Bought it a while back so don't remember the specifics, but the adapter says:

Serial ATA 1.5Gb/s
THINKPAD
FRU 26R9246
P/N 26R9247

Don't know if it's a genuine Thinkpad part or knock-off but they (have two) work quite well!

Hope that helps

BTW, to quicklite's last question:
The primary IDE HDD bay is made so the HDD fits quite snugly. PERHAPS it's possible to adapt an SATA drive to interface with the existing PATA connector, but it will take quite a lot of thought and engineering ... there just sooo little room!

[Quicklite]

sojourner, you mentioned it the two parts fit quite well, but are there any significant gap or instability for the caddy while fitted on a T4X?

[sojourner]

sojourner, you mentioned it the two parts fit quite well, but are there any significant gap or instability for the caddy while fitted on a T4X?

Just looked at a disassembled T41 (14" model, not sure if there is a 15" model in which case the primary drive bay may be longer) and the space between a HDD (in its caddy) and the bay itself varies from approx. 1-3mm, not much space!

If you'd like to see the free-space for yourself, remove the palmrest and take a view. That will give you a better indication.