Using PCM`CIA or Expresscard SSD disk

[bkahler]

Hi,
I am considering exchanging my trusted T60p with a 430 or 530. I really hate that both are longer and that if I want a new machine no heavier than my existing, I will have to settle for a 430 with much smaller screen area and perhaps also slightly lower resolution (mine is 1400 x 1012).

With a new machine I would be running some virtual machines in addition. So to pay up for the above, I would like an SSD disk. However, I am almost running out of space with my 750 Gb regular disk (hybrid), so I would need both a regular disk and an ssd.

I could of course put my regular disk in the ultra bay - sacrificing my dvd.

But the possibility I am looking into, is using a SSD disk in the expresscard slot as a boot disk. However, I understand that this unit will not be as fast as putting the SSD into the main 2,5" unit.

Does anyone know how what transfer rates are or other hard figures that could tell me how much benefit this would be - as opposed to first solution?

[twistero]

There is a better solution if you don't need mobile broadband: put a mSATA SSD in the WWAN slot as a boot disk, and a mechanical hard drive in the main HDD bay.
However, the main HDD bay in a T430 only accepts 7mm-thick hard drives if I remember correctly, something to keep in mind if you want to use the HD from your T60p.

[jayton4]

Everyone is different. For me, I would have absolutely no reason to ever use my DVD drive. Any software licenses that I currently own have been purchased through digital distribution. I use .iso files on flash drives for legacy software.

For me, the UltraBay is the only way to go. If I ever needed to burn an audio CD for some reason, I have other computers or a USB external slim drive I could use.

If you use discs often, then the UltraBay may not be the best for you. In that case, the mSATA that twistero mentioned would be the way to go. Not all mSATAs are created equally, some of them are slow.

[bkahler]

Most interesting. I was not aware of the mSata option. The issue about speed seems to be an option. From what I see, I can get at most 120Gb with transfer speeds around 280 reading to 260 writing MB/s whereas a Momentus XT 750Gb has one at 600. I not so good at the hw, but it seems faster than the ssd, howver, I would suspect the seek time to be countering this. What would I see "in action".

[jayton4]

Most interesting. I was not aware of the mSata option. The issue about speed seems to be an option. From what I see, I can get at most 120Gb with transfer speeds around 280 reading to 260 writing MB/s whereas a Momentus XT 750Gb has one at 600. I not so good at the hw, but it seems faster than the ssd, howver, I would suspect the seek time to be countering this. What would I see "in action".

The Momentus XT is only fast at booting. It is really the only trick that it has. I have the 500GB version, and the SLC NAND is only used for caching. If any of the files change, they are not read from the cache, meaning the benefit is lost.

Also with SSDs, the sustained transfer rates do not tell the whole story. It is more about the random reads, measured in IOPS, where you experience the biggest difference.