Thinkpads Forum

Hello,

I am considering changing my hard for an ssd on my T400.

I am looking at buying the Samsung ssd 64gb SLC version. Now Lenovo will not let me buy the part unless it is through FRU (which makes it very expensive)

I am wondering if I can buy the drive directly from Samsung (or reseller) without having any BIOS lock issues come into play?

Any help is appreciated.


thanks,


sgossard34

Well if anyone is interested I went ahead and got the drive and installed it.


No issues.


sgossard34

So, how much did you ended up paying? Is there noticable speed/battery difference? At the end, was it worth it?

Well I ended up moving the 128GB SSD MLC from my X301 to my T400 and putting the 64GB SSD SLC I bought into my x301.


I paid about 600 (Deal through Vendor).


The X301 runs perfect.

The T400 feels the exact same as when I had the 7200 rpm hdd sata drive.

Not sure if this is becuase t400 has a sata I connection or not. Still researching this.


Honestly not really sure it was worth it at this point.

Wow..I'm surprise that there is no noticable performance difference. Did you do any benchmark before and after hd swap?

Btw, I think T400 has sata II.

Nothing in terms of an application dedicated to hdd/ssd testing.

Just my own use and some FTP transfers for raw speed.

I figured I would notice a difference as well. Especially for application use in terms of the very low seek times with ssd drives. Not really seeing much difference in that department, surprisingly.

T400 and the T61 both have the ICH9 chipset from Intel. The T61 is confirmed to be clocked down to SATA I speed and (while i have not 100% confirmed this) it appears the T400 is the same thing.

The X301 appears to not have this issue.


I am going to BIOS FLash my T400 and update the chipset drivers. Perhaps that might improve things.

Do not get my wrong though. The T400 with the SSD is very nice and fast. Nothing really to complain about. Just figured I would have a noticeable difference after switching from the SATA 7200 rpm hdd.


sgossard34

T61 has ICH8, not ICH9. Yes it is limited to SATA-1, maybe 1st generation (no NCQ). I am debating whether to get the Intel X25-E (SLC) or X25-M (MLC) and yes the chipset is a factor. I am leaning towards X25-M which is $369 (80GB) from newegg right now. $600 (if that means USD) is WAY TOO MUCH for a 128gb MLC drive since just about every MLC drive is way slower than Intel. The Intel 160GB X-25M is $729 right now and dropping almost every day.

For some unknown (at least by me) reason all the T/W hard disks are SATA 1 (150 GBytes/s)
I've a T60 with a X25E which tops at 130 MB/s reading'n writing.
If somebody knows the reason ,I'll glad to read him

Rochefort wrote:For some unknown (at least by me) reason all the T/W hard disks are SATA 1 (150 GBytes/s)
I've a T60 with a X25E which tops at 130 MB/s reading'n writing.
If somebody knows the reason ,I'll glad to read him

Yes I have read this before. Apparently because at the time hdd's could not achieve any higher throughput than SATA I so they disabled SATA II ability. I read this was for power savings but not confirmed on that.

I would hope Lenovo would remove this through a BIOS upgrade but I am not holding my breath.

This does not exist on the x301.

sgossard34 wrote:
This does not exist on the x301.

But it exists on the X300 (Page 126 of the latest Tabook)
Lenovo is hard to understand , at least for the TP line !?

This does not exist on the x301.

But it exists on the X300 (Page 126 of the latest Tabook)
Lenovo is hard to understand , at least for the TP line !?

Correct. Odd they would finally decide to change things for the x301 even though the x300 was standard ssd to start.

sgossard34 wrote: Correct. Odd they would finally decide to change things for the x301 even though the x300 was standard ssd to start.

Lenovo policy is hard to understand
T Series and even the W700 are with SATA 150 ,no E-Sata port !??
I'm looking towards HP

Lenovo policy is hard to understand
T Series and even the W700 are with SATA 150 ,no E-Sata port !??
I'm looking towards HP

I will not go the HP route. Even though Lenovo has brought the quality of thinkpads down, in my opinion they are still the best laptops around, personal or business.

sgossard34 wrote:
I will not go the HP route. Even though Lenovo has brought the quality of thinkpads down, in my opinion they are still the best laptops around, personal or business.

You're right but I'm infuriated by the poor performance of my X25E (>50%), no E-Sata port,System Update is making BSOD , flex on new keyboards...I'm waiting the next generation with W7...but I'm still looking at HP's.
I'm a TP fan since 1998 but, now, I'm disapointed

You're right but I'm infuriated by the poor performance of my X25E (>50%), no E-Sata port,System Update is making BSOD , flex on new keyboards...I'm waiting the next generation with W7...but I'm still looking at HP's.
I'm a TP fan since 1998 but, now, I'm disapointed

Yes I understand your frustration. No need to through it all away on Hp though

Have you tried any of the ssd tweaks? I am testing them now. Some improvement but the jury is still out.

sgossard34 wrote: No need to through it all away on Hp though

Have you tried any of the ssd tweaks? I am testing them now. Some improvement but the jury is still out.

1) I'm just looking
2) No need to tweak coz tweaks are only working with MLC
It's just a matter of controller ...= Lenovo