Thinkpads Forum

Does anyone have one of the new Intel 330-series SSDs working on the T60? I've read some indications of a problem in a Newegg review but other than that I don't have much to go on. LMK. TIA. Regards.

I've never tried one of these drives so wasn't going to reply, but since no one else is offering an opinion, I will offer this question...

Why would you want to pay a premium price to get a drive that supports SATA3 speeds on a computer that will only run it at SATA1? I recommend you get the 320 series which is a tried and true design and supports SATA2, so is way faster then your computer can run it. The end result will be less potential compatibility problems, no need to do multiple firmware upgrades as the bugs are worked out of a new design, less likelyhood of data loss, and more money left in your wallet that you can spend in our marketplace

In addition, if you ever decide to upgrade your T60 with a T61 system board, your 320 series will be ready to run at sata2 speeds. The only way you're going to get any benefit from something like the 330 series is to spend a couple thousand $$$ on a gaming rig that can support such speeds.

I'll also add that a T60 system will respond very well to an SSD upgrade. Since they are limited to 3gb of ram, many end up using virtual memory often, so with a good SSD your virtual memory could be much faster making the performance boost very noticeable.

TuuS wrote:The only way you're going to get any benefit from something like the 330 series is to spend a couple thousand $$$ on a gaming rig that can support such speeds.

What about *20 series (T420/T520/X220)? They support SATA-III. Maybe OP plans to upgrade in the future.

But if not then I agree.

TuuS wrote:I've never tried one of these drives so wasn't going to reply, but since no one else is offering an opinion, I will offer this question...

Why would you want to pay a premium price to get a drive that supports SATA3 speeds on a computer that will only run it at SATA1? I recommend you get the 320 series which is a tried and true design and supports SATA2, so is way faster then your computer can run it. The end result will be less potential compatibility problems, no need to do multiple firmware upgrades as the bugs are worked out of a new design, less likelyhood of data loss, and more money left in your wallet that you can spend in our marketplace

In addition, if you ever decide to upgrade your T60 with a T61 system board, your 320 series will be ready to run at sata2 speeds. The only way you're going to get any benefit from something like the 330 series is to spend a couple thousand $$$ on a gaming rig that can support such speeds.

I'll also add that a T60 system will respond very well to an SSD upgrade. Since they are limited to 3gb of ram, many end up using virtual memory often, so with a good SSD your virtual memory could be much faster making the performance boost very noticeable.

Thanks for your reply. I'm testing a 320 in a T60 at the moment - so far so good. I'm just curious about the 330s as they are substantially cheaper at the moment and I will need to upgrade 10+ T60s. We could also use 330s in the W520/530s we plan to purchase.

TuuS wrote: Why would you want to pay a premium price to get a drive that supports SATA3 speeds on a computer that will only run it at SATA1?

Because sequential reads/writes aren't everything, and the different drives have different performance characteristics for random IO.

(I happen to support the recommendation of a 320, but still...)

To answer my own question: the Intel 330 120 GB SSD works fine on a T60. I had no issues with a bare metal Win 7 Pro SP1 installation. I get a WEI "Primary hard disk" score of 6.8 (with disk compression). Regards.

You're correct that the 330 is cheaper the the 320 series, it's their "value line" I guess. I hadn't used one but assumed that it was an upgrade from a 320 since it uses the newer sata3, but seems it's more of a low end drive despite the faster sata3 standard, it also has less warranty then the 320. If you're using it on a system that cannot do sata3, then you'd probably be better with a 320 series, but it's hard to say. It's also kinda new, so we don't have a good track record of feedback yet.

There is lots to consider, but the Intel name alone should be sufficient to assure it's likely a good product.