SSD in Thinkpad T42p

[Greefus]

Hello,

I am intereste in replacing my primary drive with an SSD drive.
these are my oem specs:
http://www1.shopping.com/xPF-IBM-Thinkpad-T42p
and this is the drive I have now:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822146046

I'm not sure which SSD will work. I find these selling on ebay saying they are specifically for t4p:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0043358360
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0386265886

I'd like to shop around and see what else is available but I'm not quite sure what else is compatible. Not sure how this will affect performance but I think if it makes my thinkpad quieter or cooler it is worth it. I think I might get one of those ebay drives but I just want to make sure there isn't something better or better priced at newegg or somewhere else. Seems like from the ebay drives that IDE ATA is what I need but I don't seem to find a lot of those types of SSD selling on newegg or other places like that.

Any tips are greatly appreciated.

[dsvochak]

For some information on SSDs see the discussion (and links) here:
http://www.thinkpads.com/forum/viewtopi ... =2&t=75717

[Greefus]

Thank you. Of all those threads it's this one that has the info I need:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=75468

It's mostly my understanding of the drive types I'm having trouble with. And I was A+ Certified many years ago! According to the thread I need a PATA drive. According to wikipedia PATA is also known as IDE, ATA, ATAPI, & UDMA. I think in simpler terms everything was ATA, now everything is SATA, but older ATA is often called PATA now. All I knew years ago was that SCSI was very different.

It seems for example if I'm shopping on newegg, these are my choices:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... &name=PATA

I've seen people posting here or maybe elsewhere using a relatively cheap converter for drives smaller than 2.5" which might also work, I guess since those are so popular with netbooks they are quite common.

If I get one I'll post my results. I've had problems with my T42p overheating about six months after I got it. Luckily it was under warranty at the time. I did have to send it back twice, but they finally fixed it. Other than the fact the DVD burner has never worked, It's been very trouble free. 99% of the reason I got a laptop is I can't tolerate the noise of any desktop machine. I could see using it for several more years if I could make it a little bit quieter and cooler. It is still plenty fast enough for everything I need it to do.

[dsvochak]

I could see using it for several more years if I could make it a little bit quieter and cooler.

If that's the case, you may want to consider NHC http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 43#p317643 and/or the TP Fan Control Utility http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=18067

[sjthinkpader]

....
It seems for example if I'm shopping on newegg, these are my choices:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... &name=PATA

I've seen people posting here or maybe elsewhere using a relatively cheap converter for drives smaller than 2.5" which might also work, I guess since those are so popular with netbooks they are quite common.

If I get one I'll post my results. I've had problems with my T42p overheating about six months after I got it. Luckily it was under warranty at the time. I did have to send it back twice, but they finally fixed it. Other than the fact the DVD burner has never worked, It's been very trouble free. 99% of the reason I got a laptop is I can't tolerate the noise of any desktop machine. I could see using it for several more years if I could make it a little bit quieter and cooler. It is still plenty fast enough for everything I need it to do.

The 2.5 inch MLC PATA SSD are pretty reasonable today ranging from $95 for 32GB to $150 for 64GB. SLC are too expensive for these 3-4 years old T4x.

1.8 inch SSD of any type are still expensive and unless you own a X4x, there is no need to go there.

If you want a very quiet T42p, set the Power Manager CPU settings to "Adaptive" and not "Performance". Some advertising in web pages will cause the CPU to kick into high usage so you want to close those pages once you are done. You will know quickly which ones tend to do that.

I have a X30 with a Transcend MLC SSD and CPU set to "Low". It is a completely quiet machine.

[Greefus]

Well I got the big 128 GB Transcend. I followed this guide for most of the stuff to make it more suitable for XP.

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum ... hp?t=43460

My Thinkpad still gets pretty much just as warm as it did. It is much quieter though which is great. Probably uses less juice. I think my older 60 GB 7200 rpm HDD actually performed a little better, but it is not very noticeable. I needed a bigger drive anyway. And I was getting a little sick of defragging - ever. Fun experiment.