Thinkpads Forum

Does x200t support SATA 2? The pre-installed hard drive is only SATA.
I was wondering if I can install a SATA 2 (SATA 3Gb/s) Hard Drive/Solid State Drive on my X200t?
Especially, SSD nowadays only have SATA 2 interface.

cecilyen wrote:Does x200t support SATA 2? The pre-installed hard drive is only SATA.
I was wondering if I can install a SATA 2 (SATA 3Gb/s) Hard Drive/Solid State Drive on my X200t?
Especially, SSD nowadays only have SATA 2 interface.

Yes, it can support SATA 2. However, I recommend that you try to avoid SSD. If you don't even know that the X200t can support SATA 2, I doubt that you can know everything you need to about the variety of SSD out there. All SSD's are not created equally, and they won't perform equally well.

Thanks.
Although I am not a computer guru, I did some homework on SSD.
Site like TomsHardware and even Wikipedia give good explanation on SSD.

My only concern is that I can only find SATA 2 SSD now and those new generation SSD have R/W speed above the bandwidth of SATA 1.
Anyway, I might buy a Intel or Samsung SSD when the price is acceptable then.

AvalonXIII wrote:

cecilyen wrote:Note from Admin: Snipped excessive, nested quoting.

What do you think of the 64GB SSD by Samsung on the Lenovo site and the Memoright GT 64GB SSD??

stylinexpat wrote:

AvalonXIII wrote:

Lenovo recently shift toward using Samsung MLC SSD with 90 MB/sec read and 70MB/sec write. They used to use Samsung SLC SSD exclusively with standard spec of 100MB/sec read and 80MB/sec write (I say standard because there's a revision of this SSD capable of doing ~105MB/sec read and 90MB/sec write).
Memoright GT SSD is very good, using high quality SLC, and have read and write speed of 120MB/sec, beating the Samsung. Although the Samsung SSD is considered as very power efficient. The Memoright GT, if I remember correctly, has power consumption up there with the SSD's from Mtron, which is to say a lot.
Piled on top of that is the Intel SSD, with ~250MB/sec read and 70MB/sec write with the MLC version. Power consumption of this Intel drive tops even the Samsung SSD.
Something else that is more important is that most SLC drive on the market right now have very high IOPS rating, which prevents stuttering while using Windows on them. Only the Samsung and Intel MLC drive is confirmed to solve the stuttering problem. Most of the MLC drive out on the market right now causes stuttering with their low IOPS.
Hope this helped

TomsHardware has a decent review about SSD. Check it here
14-Way SSD Hard Drive Roundup : Flash SSDs Compared

And an update news on Intel's new SSD
Intel's X25-M Solid State Drive Reviewed : Intel’s First Flash SSD Ready for Vertical Take-Off

I remember reading somewhere that the disk I/O throughput of thinkpad is limited by hardware to a bit over 100MB/s. search "SSD" with "bottleneck" in the forum and you will see. So even if I get an intel SSD (~ 200MB/s), I still get only 100MB/s performance.

bluewale wrote:I remember reading somewhere that the disk I/O throughput of thinkpad is limited by hardware to a bit over 100MB/s. search "SSD" with "bottleneck" in the forum and you will see. So even if I get an intel SSD (~ 200MB/s), I still get only 100MB/s performance.

Yes, I know about this issue, and the limit is actually 150MB/sec in the newest Thinkpad

So, that means Thinkpad actually only support SATA 1?
Maybe that's true, since Lenovo never advertised Thinkpad has SATA 2.

If I buy a new SATA 2 drive, I may still install it on my Thinkpad. But, I can only get SATA 1 speed though.

Anyone here install the new SSD from Intel on their X200 or Thinkpad??

AvalonXIII wrote:

bluewale wrote:Note from Admin: Snipped excessive, nested quoting.

I want to buy the new X200 tablet and install a better SSD in it. Anyone here have any reccommendations?

stylinexpat wrote:

AvalonXIII wrote:

I tried X25-E in my X200s. If you have the money for it, highly recommended.

AvalonXIII wrote:

stylinexpat wrote:

How much space did you have left after the install? I am wondering how much space I will left after the install on the X200 Tablet..? I plan to install Windows Vista Business .

stylinexpat wrote:
How much space did you have left after the install? I am wondering how much space I will left after the install on the X200 Tablet..? I plan to install Windows Vista Business .

About 13GB left. If you look for some more space then you should look at the Samsung SSD 64GB. It's the fine line between performance, cost, and storage space. I may be looking to sell my 64GB SSD for Thinkpad, which is made by Samsung. If you're interested, PM me.

AvalonXIII wrote:

stylinexpat wrote:Note from Admin: Snipped excessive, nested quoting.

I had wanted something faster then what Lenovo offered. I like the 64GB SSD that they offer but I don't think it's fast enough and want something faster. I like the new 32GB SSD from Intel but would prefer a bit more space so I am now considering the new Memoright GT 64GB SSD.

stylinexpat wrote:

AvalonXIII wrote:

The Memoright is very expensive, so if you can afford it, you should go for it. The 32GB SSD from Intel can't be used at full speed. The transfer speed of X200 series is capped at 150MB/sec for both read and write.

Also, the Memoright's power consumption is at least 2 times the power consumption of Samsung SSD's. You will probably notice a decrease in battery life compared to normal HDD even.

Currently Samsung SSD is the sweet spot of performance, reliability, and power consumption.

AvalonXIII wrote:

stylinexpat wrote:

Looks like the Intel extreme is the only way to go for the time being..

You two are trying my patience with your consistent failure to trim your quotes.

I didn't know there was a limit on Quotes

stylinexpat wrote:I didn't know there was a limit on Quotes

While there's no formal limit, there is a common-sense, practical approach to quoting which is:

Only quote enough to identify the message you're responding to.

There's no reason to quote an entire message along with whatever was quoted in it since usually it's just above the message you're posting.

Fortunately, in the new forum, there will be an admin control that will control how many levels of quoting are allowed.