Thinkpads Forum

Hi,

I bought T61 4:3 Intel GPU form one of forum members. Recently upgraded RAM (current 4GB) and CPU (T9300) and now is time for SSD (with my current HDD [some WD] I get lags in Win XP). Can you recommend some models and brands, please? The capacity between 128 and 256GB is the only one factor for me now. From what I know Samsung and Intel SSDs are okey...

Thanks
Paweł

There's really only one company to consider at the moment: Samsung.
The 830 is being replaced by the 840 series, so you may get a good deal on a Samsung 830 in a computer shop, rather than on the web.

Everybody is super high on Samsung and Intel. I've used many other brands and, unusual for me, was an early adopter of SSD. I've never had any problem with any of my SSD. Personally, I'd look for sales and get the cheapest for the capacity that you want.

Recommend fresh install once you get it, especially for XP. You don't have to do this but it's just a big hassle to clone and the partition the drive. Consider upgrading to Win 7 as it is much more SSD friendly and will run on that machine without and difficulty.

+1.

Although, I'm not sure I'd rule out the Samsung 470 series entirely, since you can't fully realize the SATA III capabilities of the 830 or 840 models.

It's very unlikely you'd ever notice a difference between SATA II and III or even I for that matter. The real benefit of a SSD is the latency, which won't change much from one drive to the next. Personally, I'd buy on price as they're all fast and the failure rates for all SSDs are pretty low.

I faced the same thing six weeks or a month ago. While many makers had happy customers, I did a fair amount of research and saw too many user problems with OCZ units, though. Price vs. satisfaction from consumers, I have to think RBS is right - the Samsung units have the edge. He originally steered me in that direction a while back and lots of research verified his suggestion.

I did find a great deal on a 128gb Samsung 830 from Amazon ($70) thanks to a tip from a thread on this forum. Right now prices on it and other units are firmed up a bit pre-Holiday, but sales will come back pretty soon. In a T61p, T9300 and 4gb, the performance is a real treat and I highly recommend it; this is the first one I've ever used.

The problem with your methodology is that it's all anecdotal and people with an issue tend to be much more vocal than those who do not. Having spent some time on forums like this, there tends to be a bit of bandwagon mentality too. One person says they're bad so then other people sort of line up behind and repeat that. Then it sort of becomes fact in peoples minds. I can say I've had 9-10 OCZ SSDs and all have performed flawlessly except the original Core SSD, which stuttered badly, but SSDs were so new then. Failure rates for all SSDs are pretty low. Chances are if the OP purchases a SSD, it'll perform great and last a long time, regardless of the brand.

The early Sandforce 22xx controlled SSD were prone to random BSOD. A lot of people suffered this error. I had a Corsair Force 3 128 GB SSD that suffered from this at SATA III speed. At SATA II it was fine. There was really no fix for this until Sandforce fixed the firmware. Fortunately, thankfully, they did. Now that very same SSD is all good but at the time it sucked. Four Sandforce controlled SSD bought after that have been working great.

As for premature failure. I've never experience any failure (knock on wood). With my current usage patterns, I don't expect any of my SSD or HDD to fail anytime soon. But S**T happens, if it does no problem. With regards to data, everything of value is backed up at least 3 times. Amongst the data, I still have all my Pascal programming codes from high school (1987-90). Which was transferred from various media to HDD over the years. Programs on the other hand are nothing but commodity. So long as my Win 7 and other license keys have not been burnt or stolen I can always download new media.

ZaZ wrote:The problem with your methodology is that it's all anecdotal and people with an issue tend to be much more vocal than those who do not.

Actually, it's not anecdotal. It would be if it were based on "someone on a forum said..." But for the thorough mind, there's much better ways to approach judging these things and looking at a fair amount of user-provided data. Vendors have open - albeit self-reporting - reviews that now stretch back years and often have hundreds of reviews. You can see defective products, failures, and in some cases physical drive dimensions that don't fit standard 2.5" drive carriers (!). What you can argue is that the impression may be left that defects are more common than they are in reality. But these review forums have become more sophisticated, and often in them you can see the purchase is indeed verified by the vendor, and in some cases even the warranty action and replacement. Very far from anecdotal. You just have to be willing to go look it up and sit and sift through some data.

So characterizing it as purely anecdotal isn't accurate. And these aren't problems from years ago, they are happening now, and from a look at the data, much more often to some makers than to others.

You guys (and gals) should have a look at this recent posting about SSD life expectations: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 55#p693655
(The - for SSD link)
OCZ seems to be one of the worst...

I agree with RBS, I'd never buy an OCZ. I use primarily only Intel SSD, but have recently tried some Samsung as they have had good reviews. Performance isn't even an issue with me, it could be the fastest drive in the world, but if it blows out like a lightbulb taking all my data with it every few months, then I don't care if it has a lifetime warranty or is free, even "free" is to expensive if I have to go through that. I want something I can rely on first, performance is a secondary concern, cost is third.

That's how I see it, and Intel wins every time in my book. The 320 series is my preferred model, it has a proven track record and the only real major problem it ever had was fixed quickly and long ago.

Thank you for all your statements. All words / opinions put above are very helpful and informative. I guess I'll turn towards Samsung 830 series available in local computer shops

Oro wrote:there's much better ways to approach judging these things and looking at a fair amount of user-provided data. Vendors have open - albeit self-reporting - reviews that now stretch back years and often have hundreds of reviews.

User provided data and vendor reviews would seem to be anecdotal to me. As I said people with a problem are far more likely to post or give a bad review, but are dwarfed by the number of buyers who get the product and are happy campers. It tends to skew the perspective negatively.

I just bought the Samsung SSD 830 256 gb for my T61


Sent from my GT-S5830 using Tapatalk 2

The Samsung is a nice drive, but if one can get something else for less, it's worth considering.

ZaZ wrote:User provided data and vendor reviews would seem to be anecdotal to me. As I said people with a problem are far more likely to post or give a bad review, but are dwarfed by the number of buyers who get the product and are happy campers. It tends to skew the perspective negatively.

If one were to rely on a very few accounts, then sure, that's anecdotal. But the concentration of large sellers means you don't have to rely on ONE differing acount - one anecdote.. When you see 40 comments among hundreds about a specific problem, you can draw a conclusion that the problem exists - and you have a sample size that is no longer anecdotal. You can't say with what frequency the problem really exists, of course, and with that point it is possible to quibble. But when data starts to collect in meaningful sizes, some assertions can be made. "Anecdotal" means using one or two instances and arguing from that tiny specific to the general. And that is not at all what we are talking about.

I take all reviews (user, blog, websites, etc) with a grain of salt as it's nothing more than 1 person's opinion. What I do look for is patterns and sources. The random BSOD of early Sandforce 22xx controllers was something I and, IMO, an unusual number of other owners experienced. Was a common and hot thread on OCZ, Corsair, Patriot, and other SSD manufacturer's forums. After hours of reading, the common consensus was that there's nothing to be done until Sandforce releases an updated firmware to fix this. Which eventually they did. I had the privilege of paying Sandforce to iron out the bugs for them. Unfortunately this is common for early adopters these days.

Having said that I have not heard a lot of people screaming that their SSD have been failing prematurely or Armageddon is coming because they don't have Intel or Samsung. The hype and marketing (by two company with large marketing budget) is that Samsung or Intel otherwise you will suffer catastrophic failures. Oh BTW Samsung/Intel SSD come at a premium too.....premium $$$ must mean it's better right? However in my experience, all 8 SSD, bought on sale are humming along just fine. My often abused OCZ Vertex of 2009 is still chugging along.

Buy, use, abuse and enjoy.

Oro wrote:When you see 40 comments among hundreds about a specific problem, you can draw a conclusion that the problem exists

I disagree. If you have 40 people who post a problem, that is again a very small sample of the 1,000s of people who bought the product. That's not say there's no problems, but my point is if the OP buys a SSD, regardless of the brand, the most likely outcome by far is it'll work fine for years to come.