Thinkpads Forum

SSD storage that is compatible with an X220

Hello fellow Thinkpadolytes,

Although my new X220 (4290-2VM) has a 320 GB 7200 RPM, traditional spindle hard-drive, I've decided to hang the incremental expense and install an SSD; an SSD and 16 GB of RAM should blow my mind, after working with my main machine, the old faithful T40, this last decade or so.

Though, like the T420s, the X220 requires a 'slim form' 7mm depth 2.5" SSD.

The existing spindle HD is a 7mm 'slim form' one (FRU 42T1159):

http://support.lenovo.com/en_AU/product ... MIGR-76754

Correspondingly I have been on the hunt for a 'slim form' 7mm SSD compatible with the X220 and ideally the existing mounting cage.

This is an existing thread:

OCZ Agility / Solid 3
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=98867

And some other threads of interest in other fora:

List of drives that are compatible with the x220
http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo/ ... -x220.html

Vertex 3 + X220 compability
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum ... ompability

There is discussions of the abandonment of caddies and the squeezing in of 9.5mm drives.

The latter brought my attention to these OCZ 7mm 'slim form's:

OCZ Vertex 3 Low Profile 7mm SATA III 2.5" SSD
http://www.ocztechnology.com/ocz-vertex ... 5-ssd.html

OCZ Vector Series SATA III 2.5" SSD
http://www.ocztechnology.com/ocz-vector ... 5-ssd.html

Before I commit to anything, my main question is whether a 7mm 'slim form' SSD can be placed properly and easily within the existing X220 HD caddy?

I'd rather not engage in masterful hacks.

Any assistance or reflection on this matter most gratefully apprised!

Thank you.

As far as I know, any SSD with a 7mm body should fit with the caddy like any normal 7mm hard drive.
Just be careful with things like some of the Intel SSDs. The 520 that I put in my X220t had a 7mm body but came out of the box with a 9.5mm bracket attached. It says on the sticker that removing screws and such will void the warranty so keep it in mind. After removing the caddy, the screws were too long and I had to cut them (or otherwise tape up the lid if one didn't want to do that. Still, both crude solutions).
Otherwise yeah, it should fit just like a hard drive will

Any 7mm drive should fit. I currently have a Samsung 830 256GB SSD in my X220 which I will upgrade to the 840 Pro once the prices fall a little (with the 830 cascaded down to my X200s).

The Samsung 840 is 7mm, they had them on sale at Microcenter across from where I work, had one in my hand until I realized most drives were on sale, picked up a lonely 750G Momentus XT (9.5mm) instead for a few $ more.(Have a X200 T, made more sense as an "only" drive, ignoring the base, no msata option)

I wish Seagate would make a "thin" hybrid like the XT, is solved ~all of the "filled with molasses" speed issues I was having with the original WD Blue, and after a few reboots win8 comes up in ~15 seconds vs. ~60, everything launches ~instantly, even some Java apps I have.

The Momentus thin 320 (5400) I stuffed in my X300 surpisingly keeps up with the original SSD pretty well.
Original plan was to pick up an MSATA 128M and a couple adapters do do some comparative tests, but deals on msata drives are still like hens teeth.

Hopefully Samsung will start shipping the doped glass phase change flash sooner than later, speed and reliabilty will be better than SLC, and prices/GB should plummet as it's cheaper/easier to make.

The Samsung 830 (predecessor to the 840) also fits and has worked very well.

Core Share wrote:Any assistance or reflection on this matter most gratefully apprised!

I would suggest if you're not using WWAN, perhaps looking at getting a mSATA SSD instead of a drive for the bay. mSATA SSDs can be had up to 500GB. The mSATA plugs into a miniPCI slot located under the palm rest. Once installed, it's seen as another hard drive by Windows. The benefit fit of going this route is it would allow you to keep the platter drive in the main bay for storage, where speed is not as critical. You can install the OS on the mSATA to make your X220 snappy. I have this setup on my X220i. It's quite slick.

Thank you very much to everyone who responded, your perspectives and expertise are appreciated.

I am rather fond of my WWAN (now that I have a laptop that has it) and decided not to explore the mSATA route.

Instead I replaced the 320 GB spindle with a 256 GB OCZ Vector SSD (VTR1-25SAT3-256G):

http://www.ocztechnology.com/ocz-vector ... -5-ssd.htm

It was not a finance-rational decision at (AUD ~ USD) $275; but it sure feels good.

Keeping the 320 GB spindle, as-is, should warranty issues arise.

Creating Recovery disks from the original spindle and creating a factory installation on the SSD was straight-forward and simple.

The only problem was "user error" when I decided to tick all the boxes (critical, recommended and optional) in the Lenovo Update Utility for one huge monolithic update process - which rendered the O/S unbootable after a BSOD.

After re-installing the factory set-up, and modestly nibbling at the updates in judicious small subsets (hence catching those few that required interactive input), it all went perfectly fine; given that warm cycling is so quick, it was not an extensively time-consuming chore either.