Z61P and SSD discsc

[dado1981]

Hi,

I have a Thinkpad Z61p 0674-ksg model laptop. For some time now, I was thinking of putting the stock hard drive in the Ultrabay, as I don't need a CD/DVD drive (who needs it these days) and an SSD in the regular HD spot. A friend of mine told me that this laptop won't recognise the SSD drive at all... Also, I know that the chipset in this laptop doesn't support SATA transfers of more than 1.5 Gbit/s. I/O chip on this motherboard is ICH7, and even Wikipedia says that ICH7 supports SATA 2 (3 Gbit/s), but that this is disabled in notebook/mobile versions of this chip.

So may questions are, if I update to the latest firmwares of ECP and BIOS,
a) could I put SSD (solid state drive) in this laptop and make it work
b) would I be able to acomplish 3 Gbit/s transfer speed

Is there maybe some hack, or an unofficial firmware for this MOBO that would enable SATA 2 transfer speeds, as it was obviously disabled only for laptop versions of the same chip?

Thanks.

[ajkula66]

Welcome to the forum!

Yes, you can install a SSD in that Z61p and it will work just fine. The transfer speeds, however, will be locked at SATA I (1.5). There is no BIOS hack for this generation of ThinkPads to enable full SATA II (3.0) support.

[dado1981]

Thank you for your answer. SSD advantage is not really in transfer speed ( I don't care how fast I will copy a gazzilion of big files) but access time for files, as there is no need for seek. I'm in no way an expert, but from what I thought, files are scattered on the disk (and are even in fragments) accross the entire disc as time goes bie. In this way, to read a file, traditional mechanic discs need to physically move the read/write part (whatever it's called) accross the disc all the time, which takes time. SSD drives don't have that mechanical parts, so seek times, and overall times should be better. This is my layman thinking, maybe I'm completely wrong.

Do you guys think a SSD would benefit even at lower SATA 1 (1.5 Gbit/s) transfer? I would anyway use it just for OS installation and programs installation that I use so they would start faster, not for data (music, movies, etc.)?

[ajkula66]

Oh yes, there's a lot to be gained with SSD...even with the SATA I limits in place...

As long as you're running W7 - in my not so modest experience - you'll see a tremendous change in behaviour on this generation of ThinkPads (R60/T60/X60/Z61) when a SSD is installed. Like your machine has had a sip from a fountain of youth. Seriously.

That being said, frequent backups are a must - onto a different piece of hardware or media. A failing HDD will usually give some type of a warning. SSDs just go "poooof" and all of your data is gone...and they *do* fail more than most people would presume...

My $0.02 only...

Happy upgrading.

[ZaZ]

Do you guys think a SSD would benefit even at lower SATA 1 (1.5 Gbit/s) transfer?

The machine I have now that feels the fastest to me is my six year old SATA I R60e, not my X220 or my six core desktop. My R60e has a Kingston rebranded Intel G2 drive in it running Linux. It boots in about seven seconds, compared to about 20 for my Windows machines, and it's very snappy when clicking on files.

[AMATX]

I've dropped el cheapo SSDs into two of my Z61p laptops and there's just no comparison. WAY faster. New lease on life, etc. Running WinXP, didn't make any changes, etc., just cloned the system. There is some stuff on this(and other) boards about SSD alignment, but even if you do nothing at all, the speed change is amazing.

Go SSD and you'll never look back.

If using cheapie SSDs, make sure you have adequate backup, as these can crap out suddenly. If using more reliable brands, you should still have backup, but it's much less likely you'll have problems.

[underclocker]

The machine I have now that feels the fastest to me is my six year old SATA I R60e, not my X220 or my six core desktop.

Amen. The machine I use most is a nearly six year old Z61m with an Intel 320 Series SSD. It's snappier than any new non-SSD ThinkPad and seem as quick as most new ThinkPads with SSDs. An SSD is the equalizer.