Thinkpads Forum

Hi All,

I purchased my T60p in 2007 - 2613-CTO as follows:

* 2Ghz CORE 2DUO PROC T7200 w/ 2GB Ram (2 x 1GB)
* 14.1/SXGA+ TFT w/ATI RADEON X1400 128MB
* Lenovo stock 100GB 7200RPM HDD and DVD/CD-RW
* Thinklight, Fingerprint reader, stock LAN/Wireless/Bluetooth etc.
* Vista 32bit Ultimate

Nice machine for my moderate to heavy business needs (mostly office type applications) - haven't had much troubles, just had to oil the fan recently and frustrations with Thinkpad Wireless 3945 drivers over the years.
Vista Windows Experience ratings:
* Processor: 4.9
* Ram: 4.5
* Graphics Aero: 4.6
* Graphics Gaming: 4.0
* Hard Disk: 5.0

I am pretty close to pulling the trigger on these upgrades:

* Win7 32bit Ultimate (already on order) - Vista has got to go - Picked up Win7 at a good price.

* Upgrade RAM to 3GB (replace one of the 1GB with a 2GB DIMM) - 2GB DIMM is going for ~$55 - figure why not?

* Intel X-25M SSD 160GB - going for ~$450 and is a debatable expenditure

Current ratings on my HDD (granted, I am fragmented and 63% disk in use)
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CrystalDiskMark 3.0 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
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* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]
Test : 1000 MB [C: 63.0% (54.6/86.7 GB)] (x5)
Sequential Read : 40.962 MB/s
Sequential Write : 39.914 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 20.537 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 21.744 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 0.326 MB/s [ 79.6 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 0.528 MB/s [ 128.9 IOPS]

These fall in the fair category imo, not bad and not great. SSD in comparison licking my lips. My goal is mostly speed and not waiting for start-up, shutdown, and loading apps, etc. That and setting the stage to last another 3+ years with better performance.

These seem mostly reasonable based on some of the forum posts I have read. Any better/other options to consider?

Next questions relate to Think applications and recovery. To date, I have never had cause to rescue or recover. Often seems like some ThinkVantage applications are more headache than benefit, but some are OK I guess. Is there an advantage to TP utilities in a Win7 on T60p? Which ones do you like?

Starting with a blank SSD and a new O/S (and loading everything from scratch), is it worth having a recovery partition, and if so, how would I set it up?

Thanks in advance for chiming in.

I just personally don't find Windows 7 to be that much better than Vista that I'd spend an extra $100 to get it. Now if you got a really good deal, then perhaps so.

If you're looking for a performance bump, the Intel drive is the way to go. The T60 is a SATA I machine, but that will only matter if you're putting a heavy load on the controller. You just got to watch it. As it starts to fill up performance will degrade.

I think you're right that the Thinkvantage tools all have their place, but no one uses them all. You might want to pick the ones you use and dump the rest. I only use the power manager and easy eject myself.

I prefer a clean install and always delete the recovery partition after making the recovery discs. If you've not use the restore partition so far, I think it's likely you won't in the future. What I like to do is a clean install, then use imaging software, I use true image, to make a image. You can easily put the image back if need be.

I Think all those upgrades are a good idea and worth the money, Win7 is faster than vista especially at start up.
The Ram will give you a nice speed increase and the SSD will make the T60 feel like a new computer. I had a Intel SSD in my T60 for a while and it was great, I only switched it out because my main machine is a T61 now.
Clean install is the way to go, recovery partitions just take up extra disk space and if you have the Win7 DVD you can always re-install.
The only Lenovo tools i use are the power manager and the hotkey display.
Check this forum for instructions on SSD twaeaks and install tips.
Have fun that's going to be a nice Laptop.

Your upgrades make sense, and I would definitely go with the SSD. I recently upgraded my T60p with an SSD and Windows 7 (I was running Vista Ultimate 32-bit previously). What a difference! It was probably a combination of the SSD, the better performance of Windows 7 over Vista, and a fresh installation, but it cut my boot and launch times by 2/3. If you get an X25-M drive, be sure to get one of the second generation drives. The Gen 2 drives support Trim command under Windows 7, the Gen 1 drives do not. As Fred Garvin wrote, without Trim the performance of the drive will degrade over time. Incidentally, you can probably pick up a drive a lot cheaper on eBay.

Thank you for the quick feedback everyone. Thanks for the tips.

I checked ebay, and found a few 80GB X-25m drives listed, but no 160GB drives.

PM sent.

RAM and SSD will make the most difference performance wise. If you use SSD, definitely use Windows 7 or other OS that supports TRIM command. If you can live with a 128GB SSD, Newegg has a sale on WD SiliconEdge right now.

I would only use a recovery partition if it matches the running OS. If you install Windows 7 to a blank, unpartitioned disk, it will create its own recovery partition. This recovery partition can launch startup repair, system restore and complete pc restore if you can't get to the desktop.