Thinkpads Forum

Does UltraBay natively support SATA3? The psref.pdf does not specify and I cannot find any other documentation from Lenovo specifying.

thinkpadAdmin wrote:Does UltraBay natively support SATA3? The psref.pdf does not specify and I cannot find any other documentation from Lenovo specifying.

I think I remember hearing it is a SATA 3.0Gb/s port.

I called Lenovo tech support in Atlanta. The support tech told me she didn't understand why I wasn't willing to assume that just because the hard drives and SSDs that Lenovo installed supported SATA3 that the controller would also natively support SATA3.

Anyway, I spoke to an engineer at Intel and was able to determine that the chipset used in the T420 supported up to 2 SATA3 ports as well as some number of SATA2 ports. Naturally the T420 has exactly 2 ports. This leads me to believe that the Ultrabay and other SATA port are indeed SATA3 ports. I wish I knew how to contact the person in charge of the PSref to have this information explicitly listed. Anyway, I hope this helps anyone else with the same question.

thinkpadAdmin wrote:I called Lenovo tech support in Atlanta. The support tech told me she didn't understand why I wasn't willing to assume that just because the hard drives and SSDs that Lenovo installed supported SATA3 that the controller would also natively support SATA3.

Anyway, I spoke to an engineer at Intel and was able to determine that the chipset used in the T420 supported up to 2 SATA3 ports as well as some number of SATA2 ports. Naturally the T420 has exactly 2 ports. This leads me to believe that the Ultrabay and other SATA port are indeed SATA3 ports. I wish I knew how to contact the person in charge of the PSref to have this information explicitly listed. Anyway, I hope this helps anyone else with the same question.

Some crawling on the internet is indicating that it is SATA 3.

People shouldn't have to "crawl" on the internet to find this information. Companies should just list it. If it wasn't important I wouldn't care. Besides, how does one verify that the information on the internet is true, particularly from anyone not from the company in question? I do not just accept information posted on the internet as gospel.

from the horse's mouth: http://www.lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox ... notebooks/

i agree that the PSREF sheets should be more detailed though.   instead they list the drive speed rather than the interface speed.

the T420 leverages SATA 6Gb/s for the main bay and ultrabay, then SATA 3Gb/s for mSATA and any external or docking connections such as eSATA or eSATAp.

erik wrote:from the horse's mouth: http://www.lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox ... notebooks/
...
the T420 leverages SATA 6Gb/s for the main bay and ultrabay, then SATA 3Gb/s for mSATA and any external or docking connections such as eSATA or eSATAp.

I note that several user comments to that Lenovo blog post report findings to the contrary (i.e. SATA 3.0 capable drive's not operating at SATA 3.0 (6Gb/s) speeds).

(I assume they are talking about operation from the main bay, or ultrabay)

that's most likely because many users either failed to read benchmarks properly or bought drives that benchmarked slower than advertised.   this topic has all but completely died now that people are understanding these errors and finally seeing the numbers they expected.

Erik, I disagree that the topic "has all but completely died now". Until the PSREF is updated to tell people whether an interface supports SATA-II or SATA-III then the issue still remains.

Referring to your post, benchmarks are often very subjective and may not include or compare hardware that matches your own configuration. While I am at it, the link you provided http://www.lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox ... notebooks/ is nice but seems an unprofessional way to pass on the information. This info needs to be summed up and made available in the areas where people go to determine whether they want to purchase the machine and in the support areas for technicians go to determine if their benchmarks are making sense during base-lining or troubleshooting.

don't shoot the messenger.   all i'm saying is that the information is out there (albeit hidden) and that users were initially confused in what they were seeing in benchmarks.