Thinkpads Forum

hi
Looking for an upgrade from regular HD to a SSD as boot drive
wondering about compablity issues with the W series
if anyone have one of these SSD working in their W700's...
they are all SATA III..I thought I can migrate it to a new laptop in the future..
noticed the prices on SATA III are not too far from SATA II...so figure go future proof
but wondering if they will work with W700's..thanks much

considering these models:
Intel 510 series
Samsung 830 series
Plextor PX-128M2P
Crucial M4 (in their forum, the moderator said the W700 will work with their M4)

SATA III should be backwardly compatible w/SATA II, so you oughta be ok.

However, I've not specifically come across anyone running a III in a W700. That could be because the IIIs are still fairly new.

Give it a try and report back

Yeah, it will work. SATA 6GB/s (SATA III) SSDs will work even if you connect them to a SATA I port.


And as for the SSD choice, just get the cheapest one.
Those drives all use the same controller, and I believe their write speeds surpass 300 MB/s so you'll be maxing out the SATA II bus anyways.

Of course, you could just try to score two cheaper SATA II drives (new or used, SandForce SF-1200 ones are fastest and don't have more problems than the average drive does) and run them like that.

Or, you could go with SF-2281 drives since a.) firmware issues seem to be fixed and b.) you're not going to exacerbate the issue since you're running them at a slower speed. But get them returnable.

Q-Ball wrote:Yeah, it will work. SATA 6GB/s (SATA III) SSDs will work even if you connect them to a SATA I port.


And as for the SSD choice, just get the cheapest one.
Those drives all use the same controller, and I believe their write speeds surpass 300 MB/s so you'll be maxing out the SATA II bus anyways.

Of course, you could just try to score two cheaper SATA II drives (new or used, SandForce SF-1200 ones are fastest and don't have more problems than the average drive does) and run them like that.

Or, you could go with SF-2281 drives since a.) firmware issues seem to be fixed and b.) you're not going to exacerbate the issue since you're running them at a slower speed. But get them returnable.

They don't use the "same" controllers. A lot of issues with SandForce controllers. M4 has possible loss of data on shutdown due to the controller they use althought its not a SandForce. Intel uses Marvell controllers in thier 510 series. Would say the creme de la creme is the Intel 510. You can also long Marvell stock (ticker is MRVL).

You haven't heard the recent news on SS-2281 drives, have you?
Or read my post, for that matter.

Oh, and

They don't use the "same" controllers.

Actually yes, they do (apart from the Samsung controller which I missed):

-Crucial m4 uses Marvell controller
-Intel 510 uses Marvell controller
-Plextor PX-128M2P uses Marvell controller


Oh, and did I mention that the Intel 520 (which comes out sometime in the next few months) runs on an SF-2281? I wonder why that could be?

picked up a plextor sataIII 64 gb (cheap). --I believe its the same controller as the Intel 510 (marvell--non SandForce)
I'll give it a shot once I get it--and see if it'll work with W700ds


on a side note, first I already updated the W700Ds with all the latest bios and downloads from Lenovo
I went into W700Ds Bio --storage SATA---its showing it's "AHCI"
I checked my Device manager and checked my download history for the system
and its showing it has the latest Intel Matrix Storage Manager Bio already...
So am i running on AHCI Now? is this correct?
so Am I go to go?
put the SSD drive in and do a fresh install from recovery CD?
Thanks