Best 120 GB SSD for T60 6371-6mu

[slam5]

Can any recommend a 120 GB SSD for a T60 15". After Christmas I bought a OCZ vertex 2 120 gb ssd and found it physically incompatible. I am using a 64GB Kingston SSDNow and it sort of works. I can't warm boot with it as it give me a drive only ready error. Also, I need more space too. Speed isn't too important but size and cost is. thx

[billp117]

I just don't get it...SSD's are really great and cool. But you can buy a 7200 rpm, 500 GB hard drive with a three year warranty starting at $65.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... 7200%20RPM

A 120 GB Intel X25-M SSD will run you about $230. I hear nothing but good reports about this drive. I realize this is all US pricing. I am sure some of the forum members can help point you in the right direction...maybe even sell you what you are looking for.

If speed is not important and cost is...go with a hard drive.

[slam5]

Well, speed is paramount to me. I don't need much space but 64GB is just too small. I'm approaching 50% full on my drive and I have to keep looking over my shoulder to make sure I've not load a program that takes up 10GB. This machine doesn't leave home. I work with it on my sofa so it bounces around a lot. My T60 is 3+ yrs old but runs win 7 very well with a SSD in there. I just like to use it for 1/2 yrs more. I have a few network drives around so I don't need much storage for my data. The price is pretty close as our dollar is at par right now. Brothel, WA? Just down i5 from me. Come to think of it, I can probably get by with a 80GB. Thanks for the hints!

[RealBlackStuff]

Brothel, WA?

Not quite a ...hell

[slam5]

My apologies!

[IvanAndreevich]

I just don't get it...SSD's are really great and cool. But you can buy a 7200 rpm, 500 GB hard drive with a three year warranty starting at $65.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... 7200%20RPM

A 120 GB Intel X25-M SSD will run you about $230. I hear nothing but good reports about this drive. I realize this is all US pricing. I am sure some of the forum members can help point you in the right direction...maybe even sell you what you are looking for.

If speed is not important and cost is...go with a hard drive.

A Ferrari is great and cool, but you can buy a Kia with a 10 year warranty starting at $9995. But there is a difference which is MUCH more significant than between the fastest Ferrari and the slowest Kia

A SATA drive physically incompatible - what gives? How?

[ThinkPadophile]

I'm quite satisfied with my 120GB Samsung SSD. It's fast, supports Trim under Windows 7, and a new one will only cost around $175-185 on eBay. Intel SSDs perform slightly faster, but are more expensive. The T60 lineup is limited to SATA I speeds so the extra performance from the Intel drive will be barely noticeable and not worth the extra expense, in my opinion.

[billp117]

I just picked up a 500GB Seagate Momentus 7200 rpm HD with a five year warranty...$68. It will be installed in my T61 with a fresh install of Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate.

[slam5]

you are right but the trouble is from what i had research so far, x25-m is the only drive that is compatible with my t60 for sure. i rather not get another drive that may not be compatible and i have to waste $$ and time to have to return it. which thinkpad do you have? to be honest, i never could imagine a drive not physically compatible. i have a Kingston SSDNow 64gb and it definitely not compatible as i can't warm boot machine. I got a 2100 error and refuse to boot.

[billp117]

I have a T61...but have installed a similar drive in one of my T60's. I just finished the Win7 installation and scored a 5.9 for the hard drive using Windows 7, 64 bit and 4 gb of memory. Just about any hard drive will work in the T60...but I cannot speak for the SSD's. As I mentioned before the Intel has a good reputation.

[Brad]

I suggest an Intel, Toshiba or Samsung. These brands are the three brands that Lenovo sells with their ThinkPads. Most are of the 1.8" form factor that are native to the X30x and T4X0s. With their storage converter though will work in any SATA based ThinkPad. I have been using a Toshiba in my main T60p since November 2009 and have had zero issues. For me adding the SSD was the most significant performace upgrade.

Brad

[slam5]

Come to think of it, have you seen a t61 w/a ssd on win7? I had that on my t60(it is one of those with c2d instead of core duo) and it convinced me that i don't need a new machine for a while. I have a much more powerful core 2 quad with 2 drive RAID 0 (faster way to access the drives) and I haven't use it for weeks. With a conventional drive, the performance of the drive degrade quickly and if you a out of the box experience, you have to reformat the drive. I had my SSD in my T60 for 9 months and it almost as fast as the day I first install it. It still boots in under a minute, etc.

I just picked up a 500GB Seagate Momentus 7200 rpm HD with a five year warranty...$68. It will be installed in my T61 with a fresh install of Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate.

[slam5]

Oh, I didn't know that X300 or T400 series uses 1.8" drives. Good to know that as I was thinking of transferring this drive to an one of above once I have save some money. Now I have change my plan. Where are I get those storage converter? Do they make difference at all? tx

I suggest an Intel, Toshiba or Samsung. These brands are the three brands that Lenovo sells with their ThinkPads. Most are of the 1.8" form factor that are native to the X30x and T4X0s. With their storage converter though will work in any SATA based ThinkPad. I have been using a Toshiba in my main T60p since November 2009 and have had zero issues. For me adding the SSD was the most significant performace upgrade.

Brad

[andre#4]

I have had 2 ssd's in my t60p. they were not 120gb, (because I am planning on a 750gb drive in the ultrabay for my files and the SSD for my OS's and main programs). I will review the two ssd's after my little note here:

I think maybe more important than the drive you choose is that you properly format it and set the alignment on the partition. These drives barely work if the partition is not set right. You have to use diskpar to do it right. You can't let the os cd handle it. And it has to be set for 4kb writes. I tried my first ssd without doing this. I tried it by cloning my disk image, and also with a clean install of xp, and the thing barely ran. I couldn't even scroll down. People have noticed a 300% performance increase with a t60 after doing the alignment right. Here is a link which taught me to do it.

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum ... rking-life.

Intel 40gb X25-V This is a "value" model, which has very slow write speeds and modest read speeds.

170MB/s read and 35MB/s write

I returned this to the store because I realized how overpriced it was at $100.00, and how slow it was compared to other ssd's. (although after the proper partition alignment, it felt lightning fast in the machine. 20 second boot time for XP and instant loading of MS office 2007. It felt lightning fast, but I still wanted to try a faster bigger one for about the same money...)

I replaced it with a OCZ Vertex 2 60Gb @ $130. The fastest ssd I could find at any price. I love it, and it outruns the computer by a decent margin. I believe a bios hack could cure that (system limitation to 1.5 Gbps), but it runs so fast without it. * Max Read: up to 285MB/s
* Max Write: up to 275MB/s
* Sustained Write: up to 250MB/s
* Random Write 4KB (Aligned): 50,000 IOPS



This one was made with the latest technology (a sandforce controller) and has speeds that were way way better than the Intel drive. Write speeds about 8 times as fast as the Intel. Of course, the 40GB intel has worse performance than the 80gb intel, which has worse performance than the 160gb. But that seems to be unique to Intel. Other brands have fast drives in all sizes. OCZ has about the same performance in all sizes.

[slam5]

well, I am win 7 so the alignment and partition thing is not an issue with me. i am sad that the vertex 2 drive didn't work for me. i some how can fit it in. maybe i have to jiggle it a bit. maybe i will get a used one and see. i only am looking for space and compatibility. speed is nice but not essential. after all, my machine is only a 1.66 Ghz c2d. has anybody install a vertex 2 into a thinkpad t60 with the model i mentioned above. i absolutely will love if it works.

[slam5]

Some news, I bought a 80 GB x25-m off Craigslist. Very happy with it. Much faster than my kingston ssdnow. hopefully, this will keep me happy until i'm getting a t400 or t500 series. to be honest, i don't have much reason for upgrading my hardware unless it fails. once again, thanks for the tips!

well, I am win 7 so the alignment and partition thing is not an issue with me. i am sad that the vertex 2 drive didn't work for me. i some how can fit it in. maybe i have to jiggle it a bit. maybe i will get a used one and see. i only am looking for space and compatibility. speed is nice but not essential. after all, my machine is only a 1.66 Ghz c2d. has anybody install a vertex 2 into a thinkpad t60 with the model i mentioned above. i absolutely will love if it works.