Thinkpads Forum

Hi, I have bought a second hand x201 and I love it, but I would like do some upgrades, I have already changed to 8Gb RAM, but I was thinking in the following:

1. To change to a SSD(possibly 128Gb), I have read that the read speed is faster, but not the write speed, I used it mostly for internet (mozilla) and I think it is the write speed the important in the browsers. Is it worth? any brand or specification?

2. To buy a PCMCIA card usb 3.0 (the thinner one) but I have read that there are not very good and increasing the temperature.

3. Also the laptop came without the Lenovo sofware (Solution center, and any other), so is it interesting install any specific sofware?.

4 ReadyBoost for increase the RAM?

5. Any others advises for improve the power or the ThinkPad experience?.

Thanks so much and sorry if there are some english mistakes I am not a English speaker.

Welcome to the forum!

Chavilan wrote: 1. To change to a SSD(possibly 128Gb), I have read that the read speed is faster, but not the write speed, I used it mostly for internet (mozilla) and I think it is the write speed the important in the browsers. Is it worth? any brand or specification?

Definitely worth it, since the system will feel a lot snappier and more responsive regardless of what you're doing with it.

Nowadays I'd recommend getting at least a 256GB SSD, since they're not all that more expensive than the 128GB ones, but are significantly faster in most cases.

2. To buy a PCMCIA card usb 3.0 (the thinner one) but I have read that there are not very good and increasing the temperature.

I've got no first-hand experience with those, so I'll let someone else answer that for you.

3. Also the laptop came without the Lenovo sofware (Solution center, and any other), so is it interesting install any specific sofware?.

You can install pretty much anything and everything from Lenovo's web site, but apart from Power Manager/Hotkeys and possibly Access Connections, what do you feel that you really need? Most of Lenovo's - as well as most other manufacturers' - software is sheer bloat.

4 ReadyBoost for increase the RAM?

No. Unless you're running VMs - and if you are then you bought the wrong ThinkPad - 8GB RAM is plenty.

5. Any others advises for improve the power or the ThinkPad experience?.

Get a SSD, do a clean install of W7 on it, apply a couple of basic tweaks and enjoy.

Happy ThinkPadding.

Thanks so much and sorry if there are some english mistakes I am not a English speaker.

Don't worry about it - your English is fine from what I can tell - and there's a bunch of us around here who are not native English speakers.

Chavilan wrote: 2. To buy a PCMCIA card usb 3.0 (the thinner one) but I have read that there are not very good and increasing the temperature.

You can buy. NOT PCMCIA but ExpressCard (X201 haven't pcmcia slot). You can find USB 3.0 + eSATA ExpressCard either. Yes it can give some boost in interaction with external storages. But if you don't use it - remove it. I have not feel more heat in T61, but in sleep state with USB 3 card plugged in it consume more energy????

Chavilan wrote: 4 ReadyBoost for increase the RAM?

I have agreed with ajkula66. You can get up to normal 8Gb DDR3 RAM. and if you need more - i think you need other thinkpad. Any external storage is slower than RAM - so this (virtual - ReadyBoosted) ram become handbrake for your system.
Now most of my Thinkpads with 8Gb's + SSD's have pagefile (and ReadyBoost) turned off.