Thinkpads Forum

I'm a complete noob when it comes to SSD. My apologies for my ignorance but I just want to double check I know what I'm getting into before I pull the trigger and potentially waste money I don't have to lose.

I have a W500 (Win XP) I'd like to add an SSD to while retaining the existing HD. My HD is a 7200 RPM 500Gb Hitachi Travelstar (2.5" 9.5mm drive). I've ordered a Ultrabay slim drive adapter to adapt my current HD as a secondary drive;

http://www.newmodeus.com/shop/index.php ... cts_id=483

Yea, there were cheaper ones out there but the newmodeus part looks exactly like my CD/DVD burner (projection and all) and specifically states it is for the W500 (where other vendors did not).

I'm finding the Samsung EVO 256Gb 2.5" SATA III to be within my price range ($120'ish) and inasmuch as my HD stays at about 1/2 capacity I figure the 256Gb capacity will be more than adequate especially with a 500Gb secondary drive I can offload 'static' files to.

I'll be using Acronis TrueImage to clone the existing boot HD to the SSD.

That look right? Am I missing anything? Is there better a 'bang for the buck' SSD vendor I should look at vs the Samsung?

You'll need your "new" drive in the main bay, and the "old" one in the external USB drive during the cloning process.

I'm not keen on Samsung's EVO series, and would look onto other options such as Crucial MX100/M550 but have no idea how the prices are in your neck of the woods.

Good luck.

I will not say any thing about EVO because i have not used any, but here was one negative report for EVO and ThinkPad. Think further - your thinkpad can only DO SATA II - so do not seek higher speeds. Samsung TLC flash memory wear faster than MLC so it is not best thing.

westsailor wrote:I'll be using Acronis TrueImage to clone the existing boot HD to the SSD.

Next thing - your OS is XP. It is possible to use XP on SSD comfortable (and i am using XP in 4 Thinkpads with SSDs), but in core XP is not designed to work well on SSD. 2 things:
- partition alignment. XP's default disk management align partitions optimally for space but for SSDs partitions must be aligned on block size (i don't know how much is it for your SSD So i have to use linux fdisk partition programm to partition SSD before installing XP. I have stared 1st partition on 1st cylinder boundary which is ok in most cases (and even more than needed;) Unused space before 1st partition will serve as passive overprovision space and will help in future usage. Can you place cloned with Acronis partition on certain offset?
- TRIM. XP don't have ability to use TRIM and without TRIMming SSD sooner or later will be full of garbage and after that write speed drops (because to write something SSD relocate garbage from block, flash (erase) that block and return old garbage and newly written data). But i know 3 programs that can help.
+ Intel SSD toolbox - can optimize (TRIM) Intel SSDs and i use it on 320 series (yes they are old - but works well in X61 tablet and T601)
+ Samsung magician - can TRIM samsung series 830 and newer SSDs and it works well on X61 840 (not EVO and not PRO - this is not good choice because TLC, but it is working).
+ O&O defrag can TRIM any SSDs but it is not free ($$$). It have worked on old (pre 830) samsung SSD in T60.
You must install one of this (or something else that can help) to make your SSD TRIMmed;)

My advice - is installing clean and shiny XP from scratch (i think Restore CD Set can't help well because wrong placement of 1st partition). But if you can many programs installed and tuned it is hard way