Thinkpads Forum

A small question regarding SSD drives… If the maximum transfer speed for x61s is limited to 100 MB/s, is there any point to buy (except size difference) the faster Intel X25-M G2 80GB (250MB/s) over the Intel X25-V G2 40GB (170MB/s)? Anybody know about the TRIM support? or if it is possible that some kind of new driver in the future will make over 100MB/s possible?

Thank you in advance / David

Tanks!

OrdoZ wrote:A small question regarding SSD drives… If the maximum transfer speed for x61s is limited to 100 MB/s, is there any point to buy (except size difference) the faster Intel X25-M G2 80GB (250MB/s) over the Intel X25-V G2 40GB (170MB/s)? Anybody know about the TRIM support? or if it is possible that some kind of new driver in the future will make over 100MB/s possible?

Depends. As I recall, there's a slight difference in random R/W between the two, and that's gonna be a lot more important than the sequential speeds (which you'll seldom hit in practice.)

If I understand correctly (after a lot of reading) there will not be an update for this issue. So read speed will be around 100MB/s even if I buy the faster 80 gb version…, But now to another question. Will there be any notable difference in day to day work performance (not file transfer) regarding the difference in write speed (35 MB/s VS 70 Mb/s? or is it the average asses speed that are the important thing here?

Best regards David

OrdoZ wrote:Will there be any notable difference in day to day work performance (not file transfer) regarding the difference in write speed (35 MB/s VS 70 Mb/s? or is it the average asses speed that are the important thing here?

Barring large file copies you simply *will not* notice differences in sequential speeds. It just doesn't come up for most users.

What you will notice is random read/write performance. I don't remember offhand whether the X-25V and X-25M differ in this regard -- I suspect they do, as the former is only operating with half the available channels, IIRC -- but I sincerely doubt you'll notice the difference in sequential speeds.

Between the two, personally I'd go with whichever one fits your budget better.

Can anybody comment on power efficiency of those drives. I have encountered two opinions so far. Some say that there are no big changes in battery life after upgrading from HDD to SSD. But some say that the is considerable difference between those drives as far as battery life goes. Has anybody some first hand knowledge about this issue?

Maby the best thing to do is to wait 6 more months

Eudoxus wrote:Can anybody comment on power efficiency of those drives. I have encountered two opinions so far. Some say that there are no big changes in battery life after upgrading from HDD to SSD. But some say that the is considerable difference between those drives as far as battery life goes. Has anybody some first hand knowledge about this issue?

Depends on the drive. I went from a 500GB WD Scorpio to an X-25M in my X61s, and there was a battery life increase of about 30 minutes. It depends wildly on the drive and how you use it though, so short of looking at the spec sheet, I'm afraid there's no good way to get a concrete answer.

Maby the best thing to do is to wait 6 more months

That's *always* the best thing to do when it comes to technology. Never upgrade before you have to unless you've got money to burn.

I took the plunge on a X25-M G2 (or a few of them in my case) despite the SATA1 limitation and was very happy with the result.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaronliao/3883634708/

I run the 8cell battery when I travel and noticed probably a 20 minute increase in battery life over the 7.2krpm 100gb drive that came with the machine. For me, just about everything is faster on the machine from boot to application loading to sleep.

Removing ThinkVantage Active Protection System also gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling inside ;]

aaron