Thinkpads Forum

So just looking for what you guys are getting with you hightech SSDs speed wise. Stinks we don't have T61s that can use sata II but what are you getting with sata I and what hacks have you done?

Mine Mushkin callisto 60GB SSD T60

SEQ - 137.4 read 64.86 write
512k - 131.9 read 64.09 write
4k - 15.48 read 35.92 write
4k - QD32 96.26 read 64.18 write

I would be also interested to know the boot times (excluding the BIOS), which OS are you using?

my Kingston SSDNow V SNV425-S2/64GB on t60p with xp sp3

Sequential Read : 125.683 MB/s
Sequential Write : 61.921 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 106.057 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 47.115 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 9.551 MB/s [ 2331.9 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 8.946 MB/s [ 2184.1 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 11.226 MB/s [ 2740.7 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 11.131 MB/s [ 2717.5 IOPS]

a few seconds?

Tasurinchi wrote:I would be also interested to know the boot times (excluding the BIOS), which OS are you using?

SECONDS???

Whoaa, I never knew SSDs made THAT much of a difference.

Is this a fresh install?

OCedT60 wrote:a few seconds?

Well... errr... thanks... I don't want to sound picky but I was expecting a more precise info

Fakenjones wrote:Whoaa, I never knew SSDs made THAT much of a difference

It does, I have no experience with SSDs and T6's yet, but I get 25 seconds boot time in my desktop using Win7 Ultimate and an Intel 80GB SSD.

The last Ubuntu versions are claiming to have very fast booting times. In my T43p Ubuntu Lucid takes 35 seconds to boot using and old standard hard drive! Check other peoples' booting times here (Linux only)

Tasurinchi wrote:Well... errr... thanks... I don't want to sound picky but I was expecting a more precise info

sorry wasn't sure what you meant, never paid attention to it before. 18 seconds from post to login windows 7 64 bit ultimate

With my T61 (and the modified BIOS found else where on this forum, to gain max SATA performance) and a 40GB Intel SSD i can boot Windows 7 in 25 seconds or so. Very fast

nice have you ever benchmarked your setup? Wish the T60 had the ICH8 controller, stupid ICH7

I wonder if there is a way to run the T60 at SATA 300? According to Erik from this post:

http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-Th ... d-p/174995

"you may feel that the bridge chip is a weak excuse. you're entitled to that opinion. but, i want you to realize that engineering tested T60 and T61 systems extensively at 3 Gb/sec with the bridge chip, found the combination to be unstable, and made a cognizant, educated decision to limit bus speed to 1.5 Gb/sec based on many factors. had SSDs been both affordable and widely available back in 2006~2007, i guarantee things would have been different."

This implies that lenovo had the T60 working with sata 300 even though it has ICH7-M? Or is he just lying about testing the T60 at that speed?

Just to get the record straight. The TP60 has the ICH7RM southbridge. So it should be capable of hardware RAID but there is of course no option for this in the BIOS.
As for SATA300 capability, the cloudy area comes when we look at the data sheet. Unlike the 82801GBM chip which is purely mobile, the 82801GHM is defined in the datasheet as being a digital home version and shares some properties with the ICH7G.

Also the aopen MP945-VXR uses the same southbridge and is advertised as sata II

My goal is to findout what is involved to enable the hardware RAID and look for more information about possibly enabling sata300.

With modified bios: Speed as pic.

Not a T60, but my T61 has a fresh Ubuntu Maverick install and it boots in 18 seconds (including BIOS) . It has no SATA II Mode yet. If someone knows about a good benchmark software under Linux please let me know so that I can post a benchmark here.

Tasurinchi wrote: If someone knows about a good benchmark software under Linux please let me know so that I can post a benchmark here.

bonnie++ should do what you want. I don't recall whether it's available in the Ubuntu repos.

I'd like to post info for my Crucial SSD but I do not know what software to use. Please advise.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 138.316 MB/s
Sequential Write : 80.561 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 127.350 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 83.802 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 16.400 MB/s [ 4004.0 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 27.307 MB/s [ 6666.7 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 95.400 MB/s [ 23291.0 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 74.225 MB/s [ 18121.2 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [C: 57.6% (42.9/74.4 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2010/11/04 7:16:02
OS : Windows 7 SP1, v.721 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)

what drive do you have?

donatellojones wrote:-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 138.316 MB/s
Sequential Write : 80.561 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 127.350 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 83.802 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 16.400 MB/s [ 4004.0 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 27.307 MB/s [ 6666.7 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 95.400 MB/s [ 23291.0 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 74.225 MB/s [ 18121.2 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [C: 57.6% (42.9/74.4 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2010/11/04 7:16:02
OS : Windows 7 SP1, v.721 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)

From the printscreen looks like an Intel X25-M

Good day,

I have been running an OLD Samsung SSD RBX M ATA drive for a few years now... it works great but is not TRIM capable and from a quick review of the results in this topic, it may be a bit on the slow side.

At any rate, here are my results:

It's a T7200 core2duo running in OS defined 'high performance' mode.

And indeed it's an Intel X-25m 80GB generation 2.


[quote="OCedT60"]what drive do you have?

[quote="donatellojones"]-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 138.316 MB/s
Sequential Write : 80.561 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 127.350 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 83.802 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 16.400 MB/s [ 4004.0 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 27.307 MB/s [ 6666.7 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 95.400 MB/s [ 23291.0 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 74.225 MB/s [ 18121.2 IOPS]

CP-Geek wrote:With modified bios: Speed as pic.

That looks very good... where did you obtain the modified bios?

In HERE. (You also have the url in PM)

CP-Geek wrote:In HERE. (You also have the url in PM)

Super... but I have a T60p so it doesn't look like the bios trick will work for me.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 139.740 MB/s
Sequential Write : 132.167 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 135.862 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 128.980 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 20.371 MB/s [ 4973.4 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 31.291 MB/s [ 7639.3 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 103.635 MB/s [ 25301.4 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 94.145 MB/s [ 22984.5 IOPS]

Test : 50 MB [C: 47.6% (113.6/238.5 GB)] (x1)
Date : 2010/11/13 22:35:37
OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition [6.1 Build 7600] (x86)

I can't wait to put an SSD in my T60! I have an Intel G2 80GB in my Desktop and it is the best upgrade (with the biggest improvement) of the past 5 years.

However, I find the SATA1/2/3 discussions rather pointless, especially concerning notebooks. How often do you copy large files from one 150+MB/s drive to another? I never do, and work with large files all the time. What matters most for system speed with an installed SSD is IOPS, since SSDs are fast enough that the other components are slowing the system now (as opposed to traditional hard drives, where the HDs would slow the system down, even if they spin at 15k rpm).

I very much doubt that 99.9% of the users can tell a difference if their SSD is running at SATA1, 2 or 3.

My boot time (self defined as full desktop visible, WiFi connected, IE8 open with Yahoo Home Page & linked clicked on and that page open) with a clean load of Win 7 went from 2 minutes with a 7200 RPM HDD to one minute with the SSD.

I did not do any other HDD to SSD measurements but anecdotally the programs open faster and run faster. Yes, you will love it!! To me it was a worth while purchase AND when I get another Thinkpad (probably the T510 or T410) in 12 to 18 mos I can use the SSD in that machine.

mdclow wrote:My boot time (self defined as full desktop visible, WiFi connected, IE8 open with Yahoo Home Page & linked clicked on and that page open) with a clean load of Win 7 went from 2 minutes with a 7200 RPM HDD to one minute with the SSD.

I did not do any other HDD to SSD measurements but anecdotally the programs open faster and run faster. Yes, you will love it!! To me it was a worth while purchase AND when I get another Thinkpad (probably the T510 or T410) in 12 to 18 mos I can use the SSD in that machine.

Hi Mike,

What storage controller driver are you running (ICH7 Family Ultra ATA?)

Thanks

I am going to take a "stab" at what you are asking. I have opened Device Manager and expanded IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers and there are the following three lines underneath

ATA Channel 0
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) Ultra ATA Storage Controllers - 27DF
Intel(R) ICH7M/MDH SATA AHCI Controller

So I would speculate that the answer to your question is "yes".


If you are refering to the controller on the SSD then I did locate what appears to be a pretty good reveiw at: http://hardwarelogic.com/articles.php?id=10992&page=1 where there many specs that are listed. And there was mention of a Marvel Controller on the SSD.

mdclow wrote:I am going to take a "stab" at what you are asking. I have opened Device Manager and expanded IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers and there are the following three lines underneath

ATA Channel 0
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) Ultra ATA Storage Controllers - 27DF
Intel(R) ICH7M/MDH SATA AHCI Controller

So I would speculate that the answer to your question is "yes".


If you are refering to the controller on the SSD then I did locate what appears to be a pretty good reveiw at: http://hardwarelogic.com/articles.php?id=10992&page=1 where there many specs that are listed. And there was mention of a Marvel Controller on the SSD.

Super.. that is what I was looking for... thank you!!

Does anyone have experience with the expresscard to sata II adapter? Evidently the one to get is the SIL3132 chipset that uses the mini pci express bus.
I'm thinking about getting one because they are cheap (20 bucks) and hardwiring it to my primary SSD harddisk and maybe down the road running a 1.8" SSD in the bottom pcmcia slot to do a raid 0 or 1 setup. RAID is built into the functionality of the SIL3132 chip.