Thinkpads Forum

Hi!

I just received a used T410 (2537-AL8). As per the description from Lenovo Support I guess it comes with a 2,5" mechanical drive. I really want to upgrade it with a decent SSD. I know since my last SSD upgrade on my X41 that the brand was somewhat important (Intel SSD worked just fine in that case). Am I safe buying any Intel SSD in this case? Can I buy a Samsung instead?

Also, I am a little concerned about the form factor, since T410 comes with 1,8" SSD drives for some reason.

What should I go with? Intel/Samsung. 2,5"/1,8"? I guess my HD bay are equipped for 2,5" only?

Thanks!

There is good news! Your T410 uses the 2.5" drive with a maximum height of 9mm.

The T410s is the model that uses the more expensive, harder to find, and lower performing 1.8" drives.

I do not think the brand of drive matters, as I have tried Corsair, Intel, OCZ, and Crucial drives in my T410, and they all worked without a hitch. Since you are limited to SATA II speeds, any SATA III drive should give you maximum performance. The Crucial M500 and Samsung 840 EVO are probably going to be the lowest price for the capacity that you will find.

Great! I will try a 2.5" Samsung 840 EVO then. Hopefully I will not get a 201x error at POST
Thank you for your answer!

As a side note, I can't believe the difference in build quality betweeen T410 and T420. T420 felt like a consumer model compared to T410. And none of them come close to my old T61p 1920x1200 in quality and feel. Also I can't understand why all newer models come in 16:9 ratio and relativley low resolution.

Bosendorfer wrote:As a side note, I can't believe the difference in build quality betweeen T410 and T420. T420 felt like a consumer model compared to T410. And none of them come close to my old T61p 1920x1200 in quality and feel. Also I can't understand why all newer models come in 16:9 ratio and relativley low resolution.

I have not noticed the build quality difference that you speak of between the T410 and T420 series. The large bezel around the border of the screen on the T420 seems a little weird to me, but overall, the T420 and my current T420s seem to hold together pretty well.

Regarding the screens, lenovo is currently engaged in a technological "race to the bottom." The 16:9 screens are what is most popular now across the industry. The screen manufacturers price the 16:9 screens the lowest because they size the raw materials so that the parts can be cut out with the least amount of waste left over. If one of the the screen manufacturer's customers (such as lenovo or Fujitsu) order 16:10 screens, the machines have to be retooled and additional waste is produced. All of those costs get passed on down the line.

By switching to 16:9 and low resolution, Lenovo has made the choice that price is more important than quality or the desire of a minority group of end users (us enthusiasts).

I think that we will see higher resolutions in the future, thanks to market pressure created from the latest Apple designs. But until a method of building screens in a different ratio can come in at a lower cost than the 16:9 screens, the contract manufacturers (Compal, Foxconn, Wistron) will continue to steer the designers (lenovo, hp, Dell) towards the cheaper parts.

I would buy a Toshiba QPro SSD since they are 7mm(you can reuse in a few years) and have a high IOPS in read and write operations.

I tested Crucial, OCZ, Sandisk and Toshiba. Toshiba bought OCZ and that is a great deal. Sandisk Extreme II is also a great option.

You can get all those SSD at amazon at 99 US$ for the 128GB model. Toshiba Pro or Sandisk Extreme Ii should work fine.

http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-256GB-Int ... 00FR6VLN2/
http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Extreme-2 ... 00COF7E3K/

HTH
Oliver
P.D.: there is no referral in my links

I bought a Samsung SSD for my T410 last year and it works like a charm. Thank you for your reply.

oliversl wrote:Toshiba bought OCZ ...

... because OCZ was making such bad junk, that they went bankrupt!
I'd think twice before buying OCZ or Toshiba SSDs.

Then I would go with Sandisk Extreme II or Enterprise series X110 OEM. Sandisk consume less energy and have a low weight.

Samsung is a little bit of Evil, you know

RealBlackStuff wrote:

oliversl wrote:Toshiba bought OCZ ...

... because OCZ was making such bad junk, that they went bankrupt!
I'd think twice before buying OCZ or Toshiba SSDs.

I use an Intel 330 and a Crucial m4 (via UltraBay adapter) in my T410, both 2.5". Both work fine. Crucial m4 64, 128 GB drives seem to have reasonable second hand availability and pricing. Yes a 7mm drive might be a better longer term bet for use in a future build, but likely will cost more now.

I would go with Intel, as most--if not all of their SSDs use MLC instead of TLC. Samsung is known for using TLC on all their SSDs except for their Pro series. In fact, most if not all of the other SSD makers mentioned above use MLC. (On top of my head, the Samsung 830, 840, Evo all use TLC while their more expensive 840 Pro uses MLC)
When it comes to SSDs, Samsung seems to cut a few corners so I generally stay away from them unless I know what they offer. But many people are satisfied with their hard drives, so more power to them. I used to run an 2.5" Intel 520 (newer model is a 530), and it has served me well. I also run a 1.8" Intel X18-M G2 SSD on my T410s.