Thinkpads Forum

I am buying a new T520 and will install an mSTATA SSD for the OS drive.

1) Best best way to set this up?
I assume the OS and all its temp files on the SSD plus high-use files like outlook.mdb and a the documents that I am currently working on.

2) Best mSATA SSD card?
I know that there are existing posts but new drives come out all the time. (Once I get a chance to review the old posts, I plan to add a summary here.)

3) "Paragon Migrate OS to SSD" is free today (until 2011-10-06 08:00 GMT)
Update: EXPIRED

Thanks in advance.

I can't say whether it is the best or not, but I put a Renice 128G mSATA drive in a friend's T520 and she loves it. It has been about 3 months now and all is well. The system is set up such that the OS and all software are on the mSATA drive and all data are on the 500G drive that came with the machine. If you don't mind spending the extra money, Runcore makes an SATA-III mSATA drive.

Bruce

These are relatively unknown brands. What are your reasons in selecting them?

Well, they do seem to work pretty well (I haven't seen a thread about one not working).
Finding them can be a challenge, though.
But those are your best options for the cash (about 200 dollars).

But if you want to go with a known brand, there's Intel, OCZ, and SuperTalent.
The reason these brands are unknown (Renice/Runcore) is because they're all Asian manufacturers. They're more OEMs than anything. Kind of like going to Quanta computers to buy a ThinkPad off the line.

Intel uses its own controller in its 310 mSATA SSD. It's essentially a version of the X-25V.
Everyone else uses either Marvell or SandForce controllers. SandForce is the fastest of them all, except in random reads where the Intel controller takes top marks. Marvell is somewhere between the two.

With the exception of SATA 6GB/s (SATA III) SSDs based on SandForce (the SF-2281 hasn't had a good reputation for working properly), anything else should be fine.


Just be advised that if you go with the OCZ mSATA drives, if there is an extended warranty, get it.

I have three OCZ SSDs in my desktops and two or three others. I've never had a problem with any of them.

I am also buying mSata for my T520 and have three types :

1) Kingston 64GB SSDNow mS100 (SMS100S2/64G) ~85€
Performance - 255/170 MB/s 11,000/3,000 IOPS (random 4k Read/Write)
Controller - unknown (?)

2)ADATA XM13 60GB (AXM13S2-60GM-C) ~ 105€
Performance - 280/260 MB/s 12,500/12,500 IOPS (random 4k Read/Write)
Controller - Sand Force SF-2141

3)OCZ Nocti 60GB SSD (NOC-MSATA-60GB) ~120 €
Performance - 280/260 MB/s 11,500/12,500 IOPS (random 4k Read/Write)
Controller - Sand Force SF-2141/2181 (?)
Probably not worth consideration because is most expensive and some test available here says that white-paper performance is unreachable.

Since those are new products (almost no tests/reviews over internet) and i have no experience with SSD of any kind i have no idea what to choose. Especially when ADATA and OCZ referral performance data are probably copy-paste from SandForce white-paper. But on the other hand, Kingston claims that he runs real tests on his SSD cards, and even when measured speeds are lower, there are more trustworthy. Anyone have any advice what to choose?