What to upgrade on X301

[gaia]

I love my X301.

I run Vista Business x64 with 4GB memory & 128GB SSD and carry a 1TB Buffalo ministation. As many apps as possible are x64 including IE & Office 2010.

As there's no replacement, I've today ordered memory to take it to 8GB & a Crucial 256GB SSD to replace the existing SSD.

What else might I replace or upgrade?

[domi]

What else might I replace or upgrade?

Vista Business x64 to Win 7 Pro x64?

Let us know how the Crucial 256 GB works in your X301, I've been thinking about buying one.

[dr_st]

Upgrading Vista X64 to Win7 X64 is not worth the trouble, IMHO. Then again, I almost never upgrade existing operating system installations that work well (and I maintain them to make sure they continue working well).

[gaia]

I've been using Vista for some years & except for an initial issue with WIFI, I've been very happy with it. My current system is well tuned & I recently did my annual reformat & install.

Have others seen a performance improvement of Windows over Vista in x64 configuration?

[dr_st]

In Windows 7 Microsoft worked to tweak the responsiveness of the system, since they came to the (shocking ) conclusion that this is what users perceive as "performance". On older systems with less RAM and slower hard drive, it can make the difference. On your machine it probably won't.

[domi]

How about TRIM support, available in Windows 7, but not in Vista (and older)?

Since the original poster plans to add a Crucial RealSSD C300 in his X301, he may want to have a look at the conclusion of the following article:

"Compared to what Indilinx and SandForce have done, Crucial’s implementation just doesn’t cut it. For Windows 7 users running a single drive this shouldn't matter since you have TRIM. But if you're running RAID or another OS, the C300 isn't as desirable."

[gaia]

Looks like TRIM might be the reason to move to Windows 7.

[penartur]

I've been using Vista for some years & except for an initial issue with WIFI, I've been very happy with it. My current system is well tuned & I recently did my annual reformat & install.

Have others seen a performance improvement of Windows over Vista in x64 configuration?

I've tried to move from Vista to 7 on my X200, and despite some obvious 7 UI/UX issues (and lot of things that just don't work as they did in Vista, so one needs to get used to 7's pecularities), there is also a huge problem with the battery life (basically, battery life time shortened twice).
With all this cons, i've never seen a single pro of 7 (unless you cannot live without that new taskbar).
Maybe it is interesting for some consumer-grade entertainment laptop, but i'm working on my laptop, and i completely don't want to waste time to get used to 7 and to trade-off my battery life for that, so i don't see a point in upgrading to 7.

[domi]

Upgrading Vista X64 to Win7 X64 is not worth the trouble, IMHO.

Upgrading shouldn't be too much trouble, since it's possible to perform an in-place install (because he would be upgrading from one 64-bit version of Windows to another 64-bit version). When I got my X301, it came preinstalled with 32-bit Windows 7 Pro, so I had to get rid of it and install the 64-bit version from scratch. Even that didn't cause that much trouble, and what little trouble it caused was worth it, since I have 8 GB in my X301.

[domi]

I've tried to move from Vista to 7 on my X200, and despite some obvious 7 UI/UX issues (and lot of things that just don't work as they did in Vista, so one needs to get used to 7's pecularities), there is also a huge problem with the battery life (basically, battery life time shortened twice).

Sorry to hear about your problem with Windows 7 and your X200. I can neither comment on Vista, nor on the X200, because I have had neither (I switched from Win XP on my X60s to Win 7 on my X301, skipping the Vista era altogether). All I can say is there is nothing abnormal regarding battery life on my X301 with 64-bit Win 7 Pro. I'm not going to install Vista on it just to verify your claim, however

How did you perform the installation of Win 7 on your X200? Did you do an in-place install on top of Vista? Something must have gone wrong IMO, power driver or the like. Some X200's came with Win 7 preinstalled, one would imagine the issue you mention would have been reported.

[dr_st]

When I got my X301, it came preinstalled with 32-bit Windows 7 Pro, so I had to get rid of it and install the 64-bit version from scratch. Even that didn't cause that much trouble, and what little trouble it caused was worth it, since I have 8 GB in my X301.

For a fresh installation, I totally agree with you and would do the same. I see no reason to do that however when one has an installation that's been running for some time, especially if they are happy with it.

[domi]

For a fresh installation, I totally agree with you and would do the same. I see no reason to do that however when one has an installation that's been running for some time, especially if they are happy with it.

But don't you agree upgrading to Win7 in this particular case (need for TRIM support) would be justified? Or is it better to use the Crucial SSD in a sub-optimal manner?!

[dr_st]

In this particular case (TRIM) I have to admit that my knowledge in the area is inadequate to form a serious opinion.

[penartur]

Sorry to hear about your problem with Windows 7 and your X200. I can neither comment on Vista, nor on the X200, because I have had neither (I switched from Win XP on my X60s to Win 7 on my X301, skipping the Vista era altogether). All I can say is there is nothing abnormal regarding battery life on my X301 with 64-bit Win 7 Pro. I'm not going to install Vista on it just to verify your claim, however

By the way, there was a mistype, i was talking about X200s
IIRC, with vista my X200s worked from a 9-cell battery for about 6 hours when watching movies and 9 hours when doing office work. With 7, it was about 3.5 hours when watching movies and 4-5 hours when doing office work. All the power saving features were turned on (and when i tried to turn something off, e.g. set the minimum laptop frequency to 100%, power consumption immediately went even higher than that).
I wasn't saying anything about XP->7 migration (maybe Vista is better, but anyway one should move from XP to some modern OS); but IMHO there is no point at all in Vista->7 migration (basically, you will only get a new taskbar, but will have to live with all this little changes, some bugs which are making life quite inconvenient for some use cases, and possibly lower battery life; not to mention a time that should be spent to install new OS plus all the drivers and to reinstall all the software needed and to configure it in a way one want).

How did you perform the installation of Win 7 on your X200? Did you do an in-place install on top of Vista? Something must have gone wrong IMO, power driver or the like. Some X200's came with Win 7 preinstalled, one would imagine the issue you mention would have been reported.

Both Vista and 7 were clean x64 installs with all the drivers from lenovo.com plus Power Manager (no ThinkVantage toolbox etc). Editions were Business/Professional, and i've installed these from retail Microsoft DVDs.

[i-SnipeZ]

I get better battery life in a clean install of 7 compared to restoring to Vista on my X200. Then again, I only played around with Vista 64bit for a week while I was looking for my 7 box.

I think if you're really serious about the SSD, then get 7. The TRIM support would definitely be worth it IMHO.

Other than that, you could probably replace the screen if its a lower end model? There's not much customizability in that system (or any laptop for that matter)

[penartur]

I get better battery life in a clean install of 7 compared to restoring to Vista on my X200.

What exact battery life you experienced?
With X200 (P8600, CCFL-backlit AFFS screen, HDD) i've experienced about the same battery life under Vista x64 (clean install) as with X200s (SL9600, CCFL-backlit AFFS screen, HDD).
So, it might be possible to tell from your numbers whether it was 7 performing better than on my X200s or Vista performing worse than on my X200s.

[gaia]

I've now upgraded my X301 to 8GB & 256 Crucial SSD.

First I installed 8GB & sized pagefile to 512MB on Vista X64 and then replaced SSD & installed Windows 7 X64.

No apparent change in performance, but I feel that I've given the X301 a few more years of life.

Also bought a couple of T410s for others, but I still prefer the size of the X301.

[sanjuro]

I love my X301.

I run Vista Business x64 with 4GB memory & 128GB SSD and carry a 1TB Buffalo ministation. As many apps as possible are x64 including IE & Office 2010.

As there's no replacement, I've today ordered memory to take it to 8GB & a Crucial 256GB SSD to replace the existing SSD.

What else might I replace or upgrade?

The CPU.

If your x301 has a SU9400 1.4GHz C2D, then consider a swap for a SU9600 1.6GHz motherboard. If you feel brave, there are few SU9600 motherboards available on E-bay.