SSD choice advice for T60 upgrade

[baraider]

I have a T60 2623-D6U machine that is still going strong after 6 years. I have upgraded the CPU to T7400, ram to 4GB.
I'm planning to replace the HD with a SSD drive and upgrade OS to Win 7 64bit. I will use the current SATA HD on the optical bay as second HD.

Can anyone advice on which SSD drive I should target? I hear Intel has good drive.
My criteria would be at least 120GB and at most $200 in cost.
I'm open to buying used, on ebay, etc or new from newegg, etc.

Is OCZ a reliable brand?

[underclocker]

This is a great drive, my top pick - I use one in my Z61m --> http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=101822

[Brian10161]

I'd second the Intel. I have a 40gb Intel drive and it rocks. (I'm pretty cheap so I went with the small one )

I can also vouch for the OCz Vertex/Agility series. My brother has the Agility series and he's happy. I have the Vertex series which suites me fine in my desktop

Good luck man!

[Johan]

Upgrading your current mechanical HDD to a SSD is no doubt going to make your T60 feel a lot snappier, so I'd highly recommend it. Windows 7 support TRIM which is an advantage when using a SSD, so make sure your new SDD will support TRIM. Also, beware that the speed in T60/p's is limited to SATA-I so you won't benefit from getting an e.g. SATA-III SSD (but, of course, if you buy a SATA-II or -III SSD, you can re-use it if you ever upgrade to another laptop). Another thing to consider is the advantage of a 64-bit OS on a T60; recall that T60's will only support approx. 3.2 GB RAM owing to the HW... this goes for XP as well for Win7. Search the forum for user-experience with 32-bit Win 7 versus 64-bit Win 7; is there any benefit of any kind?

My personal choice of SSD's has been, and still is: Intel - I have configured a number of ThinkPad's with X-25M's and more recently their -320's. The latter are on sale from time to time; recently Newegg offered the 80 GB version for as little as $80,- after mail-in rebate (see $80, 80gb Intel 320 SSD is back at Newegg through 1/14). Notice the industry-leading five-year warranty on new Intel 320 SSD's. If buying an used SSD, check the remaining warranty (and also beware that the 1st generation Intel X-25M's, their 50 nm devices with a "G1" in the model name, did not support TRIM; only their newer 34nm "G2" [2nd generation] did).

See Intel 320 Series SSDSA2CW120G3K5 2.5" 120GB SATA SSD. Also, keep an eye out at Slickdeals - try search for "Intel SSD" there to see how cheap they sell from time to time (the Intel 320-series 160 GB e.g. recently sold for $165; see --> this post). Finally, consider posting a "WTB" (Want To Buy) of "LF" (Looking For) advertisement in the forum.thinkpads.com Marketplace.

I don't now much about OCZ SSD's other than having heard of many problems with them... at least in the past. I'd suggest you search for user-feedback about OCZ SSD's; see e.g. at Newegg.com or Amazon.com (lots of user feedback there!), and/or see the OCZ forum... many people with problems meet there... By the way, Lenovo deliver several of their ThinkPad's with Intel SSD's - and there's probably a reason for this!

Johan

[Brian10161]

I don't now much about OCZ SSD's other than having heard of many problems with them... at least in the past. I'd suggest you search for user-feedback about OCZ SSD's; see e.g. at Newegg.com or Amazon.com (lots of user feedback there!), and/or see the OCZ forum... many people with problems meet there... By the way, Lenovo deliver several of their ThinkPad's with Intel SSD's - and there's probably a reason for this!

Johan

This I can confirm is true, the earlier SSDs by OCz were pretty bad. I had a first generation Solid series that failed within 2 months, but they were good on the warranty for me. I sent in the original drive, and within 2 weeks I had a brand new Vertex series with TRIM support. So far, I'm going on 18 months of pretty solid use with it. Still works great.

Definitely read the reviews on Newegg, they're great help

[ThinkRob]

Shameless plug: I'm selling both an Intel X25-M (which has a great reliability track record), and the even-faster Crucial RealSSD 300 (also reliable).

I'd recommend the former over the latter unless speed is your main concern. If it is, you should know the C300 smokes the G2 on a number of benchmarks.

I can also recommend the Samsung 830, which I recently added to my T61. It's got great random read/write performance and seems to be reliable thus far (although it's still quite new.) Samsung has a good track record with SSDs, as they've been in the business the longest (or at least close to it) of the major manufacturers.

[baraider]

Thanks guys.
I sent HarryC a PM about his drive on sale. There isn't any sale/promotion on Intel drive at the moment that I can find.

[RealBlackStuff]

There was one a week ago at Newegg, the 80GB Intel SSD from $189.- for $149.-, minus a $20.- promo-discount minus $50.- mail-in rebate, ending with $79.99 net.
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=101615

They seem to crop up every 3 weeks or so.

[baraider]

I just bought the Intel 120GB drive posted by HarryC.
Now, just have to pick the Win 7 version that will rock on my T60.

Any advice on any potential issues with drivers?

[smw6230]

I too echo the sentiments w/r/t Intel 320 SSD. I have a 80gb Intel (SSDSA2CW080G3K5) serving as my boot drive and a 750gb Hitachi in the Ultrabay for space. Boot time is about 25 seconds from a cold start and shutdowns are 10 seconds if that. Programs that took a while to open like Libra Office now open instantly with the SSD. I'm only a month in with this SSD but so far I have had zero problems.

Two things to note if you decide on an Intel.

1. Get the K5 drives. Other series have a higher failure rate. The K5 series has been rock solid.

2. Make sure that you get the Intel with the 5 year warranty.

[ZaZ]

If you need a little more space you might want to consider the Momentus XT. It's a hard drive with a flash drive attached. Once it figures your usage patterns, it offers near SSD performance.

I've have three OCZ Agility/Vertex 2 SSDs in my desktops and I've had three others as well. None has given me a lick of trouble.

I also just upgraded my R60e from a Kingston 16GB s100 drive to the 80GB Intel G2 drive. I can't tell a difference between them.