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Urgent: SSD for A31p ?? Type, Size,

R30/R40, A30/A31, G40/G50 and Z60/Z61 Series. NOT for AMD-Ryzen.
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frankie01
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Location: Stuttgart, Germany

Urgent: SSD for A31p ?? Type, Size,

#1 Post by frankie01 » Wed Jun 22, 2011 1:11 am

Hi

I use the A31p with 2x Travelstar 100GB, 7200 RPM (PATA, 2,5"/one in ultrabay) drives on stage and I need to get the most speed&reliability speed out of exactly that machine. As far as I remember the traverlstar has a read/write speed of about 40-50 MByte/sec and seek times of about 10ms.

I have two issues:

(1) can I safely use drives bigger than 128GB in the A31p?
(2) Can somebody recommend a fast and compatible 128GB (or bigger) SSD ??

Tips and sharing of own SSD tests are welcome.

Thank you

RealBlackStuff
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Re: Urgent: SSD for A31p ?? Type, Size,

#2 Post by RealBlackStuff » Wed Jun 22, 2011 6:22 am

A31/A31p natively takes any capacity 2.5" PATA drive.
The largest available is the 320GB WD Scorpio Blue.
If you buy an Ultrabay 2000 SATA adapter for 2nd HD, you can use SATA drives up to 1TB.
(Put this in the Ultrabay Plus bay).
Have no experience with SSD yet.
Lovely day for a Guinness! (The Real Black Stuff)
Lenovo: X240, X250, T440p, T480, M900 Tiny.

PS: the old Boardroom website is still available on the Wayback Machine
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ajkula66
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Re: Urgent: SSD for A31p ?? Type, Size,

#3 Post by ajkula66 » Wed Jun 22, 2011 10:57 pm

You might want to re-think the SSD idea, since you need a PATA SSD for A31p, and these are usually a deadly combination of being small and expensive.

Secondly, if you're intent on running XP (W7 has really no business running on A31p - been there and done that), you really should get a SLC SSD. More money out of the window.

All of that to be once again choked by transfer speeds of 2002 vintage...is it worth it?

Chances are, any newer high quality conventional hard drive (Samsung HM160HC would be my choice) will be more than fast enough for a machine of this generation.

In my book, SSD on A31p is a waste.

And - for the record - A31p is and will always be my favourite ThinkPad.

Good luck.
...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

Cheers,

George (your grouchy retired FlexView farmer)

One FlexView to rule them all: A31p

Abused daily: T520, X200s


PMs requesting personal tech support will be ignored.

frankie01
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Location: Stuttgart, Germany

Re: Urgent: SSD for A31p ?? Type, Size,

#4 Post by frankie01 » Thu Jun 23, 2011 7:27 am

ajkula66 wrote:You might want to re-think the SSD idea, since you need a PATA SSD for A31p, and these are usually a deadly combination of being small and expensive.
.
Well I am using the A31p for live music application where a high amount of data is streamed from the hard drive. The faster the transfer rate and the smaller the access time is the faster I could reboot and the more instruments could be played back at the same time.

It would of cource be decisive that the SSD provides a significant improvement vs. the Hitachi 7k100 Pata drive.

Regards

AMATX
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Re: Urgent: SSD for A31p ?? Type, Size,

#5 Post by AMATX » Thu Jun 23, 2011 3:34 pm

I like the idea of an Ultrabay 2nd hard drive caddy with an SSD in it.
Not setup to try it just now, but would be interesting to see.

Pro: ultrabay slot in an ancient A31p
Con: SSD

Not sure what'd win out with the above combo...

You could buy an ultrabay HD caddy fairly cheaply, then get a cheap SSD < $100 and see how it goes...

If this is new to you, read up on booting from an ultrabay slot vs. internal hard drive...the stuff about PF12 at boot, then select bootable drive, etc.

tanstaafl
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Re: Urgent: SSD for A31p ?? Type, Size,

#6 Post by tanstaafl » Fri Jul 01, 2011 11:30 am

I bought an aftermarket SATA ultrabay adapter, put an Intel 80gb G2 SSD in it, cloned the boot partition from the hard drive to the SSD, then removed the boot partition from the hard drive (leaving another partition on the hard drive to store files). I used Paragon Hard Disk Manager 2009 for the cloning, etc.

All is working well. There is not much of a speed boost due to the bottleneck in the IDE controllers in this old machine.

This is not a cost effective upgrade if you are a middle-class dude like me; I just happened to have the SSD lying around and enjoy messing with laptops. Heck, the drive cost much more than I paid for the A31P.

Here are some HD Tach numbers on the SSD in the A31P ultrabay (Windows XP):
Random access: 0.1ms
Burst speed: 32.1 mb/s
Average read speed 30.7mb/s
A22, A31p
T41, T42, T400, T500, T420, T520
X22, X31, X41T, X60T, X61T, X200T, X220T, X230T

Johan
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Re: Urgent: SSD for A31p ?? Type, Size,

#7 Post by Johan » Fri Jul 01, 2011 6:00 pm

@ frankie01:

First, welcome to the forum!

Since I understand that you have an "urgent" need (but how "urgent" is urgent??), the following hint may perhaps be less interesting, because it will take at least a week to get the parts, but nevertheless - for your education in the noble art of ThinkPads! :-) - I'd just want to point your attention to a clever idea, by aid of which you can swap your present main 2.5" PATA (mechanical) harddrive by a 1.8" SATA (yes, SATA, and not IDE/PATA) SSD. Benefit by this: High speed owing to the SSD, and you will retain your UltraBay e.g. CD-ROM unaffected? Also, SATA SSD's have far better performance compared to PATA SSD's and are far cheaper (compared to the best, fast PATA SLC SSD's).

Wow, how do you do this? Well, see the thread 1.8" SATA to 2.5" IDE converter? and, if in a hurry, skip the first many posts and jump directly e.g. to this post. Very briefly, what you need is this IDE 44 Pin to 1.8" Micro SATA Adapter and a 1.8" SATA SSD of your choice (e.g. an Intel X18-M), and then, for your convenience, one of the caddies by your very clever countryman, forum member tomatenfisch. That's all! :-)

Johan
IBM T42p's (2373-Q1U & -Q2U): 2.1 GHz, 15" UXGA FlexView, 2 GB RAM, 128 MB FireGL T2, 128 GB 1.8" SATA SSD, IBM a/b/g, BT, Win 7 Ultimate
IBM T42 (2373-N1G): 1.8 GHz, 15" SXGA+ FlexView, 2 GB RAM, 64 MB Radeon 9600, 64 GB 1.8" SATA SSD, IBM a/b/g, BT, Win 7 Ultimate

ajkula66
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Re: Urgent: SSD for A31p ?? Type, Size,

#8 Post by ajkula66 » Fri Jul 01, 2011 9:22 pm

tanstaafl wrote:
There is not much of a speed boost due to the bottleneck in the IDE controllers in this old machine.[snip]

Here are some HD Tach numbers on the SSD in the A31P ultrabay (Windows XP):
Random access: 0.1ms
Burst speed: 32.1 mb/s
Average read speed 30.7mb/s
Indeed.

SSD should do much better than that to become a viable option for these old beaasts.

For sheer comparison purposes, here's some data from HD Tune on my A31p with 80GB/7200rpm Seagate drive in the main bay, running XP:

minimum transfer rate: 23.7 MB/sec

maximum transfer rate: 42.6 MB/sec

average: 34.4 MB/sec

burst rate: 72.8 MB/sec

access time: 14.8 ms
...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

Cheers,

George (your grouchy retired FlexView farmer)

One FlexView to rule them all: A31p

Abused daily: T520, X200s


PMs requesting personal tech support will be ignored.

kf_tam
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Re: Urgent: SSD for A31p ?? Type, Size,

#9 Post by kf_tam » Wed Jul 20, 2011 9:37 am

I have tested several SSD against Hitachi 7k100 on A31 WInXP system with Crystal Mark 3.0 (5 times 1Gb)
Seq R/W - 512k R/W - 4k R/W - 4kQD32 R/W
Hitachi 7k100: 43.86/37.81 - 22.01/18.48 - 0.356/0.625 - 0.529/0.661
MCCOE64G : 40.00/30.78 - 40.12/7.781 - 13.01/0.165 - 13.86/0.178
MCBQE32G : 54.65/34.09 - 54.62/8.386 - 12.95/0.108 - 14.34/0.107
FZM64GF18H: 30.28/25.49 - 29.42/6.250 - 3.685/0.067 - 4.303/0.041

Hitachi 7k100 is a 2.5" conventional harddisk used as OS drive C: (NTFS file system) at HDD bay
MCCOE64G is a Samsung 64Gb SLC SSD with ZIF interface, removed from Lenovo 41W0736 SSD module. It is firmware limited to UDMA44 (Samsung branded one is UDMA66 capable). Tested at empty as D: (NTFS file system) in Ultrabay with appropriate adapter
MCBQE32G is an older Samsung 32Gb SLC SSD with 50pin PATA interface. NOS bought from eBay. Tested at empty as D: (FAT32 file system) in Ultrabay with appropriate adapter
FZM64GF18H is a Super Talent MasterDrive GF series 64Gb MLC SSD with ZIF interface. Tested at empty as D: (NTFS file system) in Ultrabay with appropriate adapter

A31 is my conditioner for harddisk/SSD intended for other notebook or electronic devices. I have a collections of various adapters.

PadPoet
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Location: Chios, Greece

Re: Urgent: SSD for A31p ?? Type, Size,

#10 Post by PadPoet » Sun Dec 12, 2021 9:00 pm

Necrobumping this in case anyone knows which is the best SSD solution to go for in late 2021 for an A31P Thinkpad. Operating system is Windows XP Service Pack 3.

ajkula66
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Re: Urgent: SSD for A31p ?? Type, Size,

#11 Post by ajkula66 » Sun Dec 12, 2021 11:56 pm

PadPoet wrote:
Sun Dec 12, 2021 9:00 pm
Necrobumping this in case anyone knows which is the best SSD solution to go for in late 2021 for an A31P Thinkpad. Operating system is Windows XP Service Pack 3.
There is no good solution.

A complete waste of time IMO/IME.

See here:

viewtopic.php?f=31&t=115478
...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

Cheers,

George (your grouchy retired FlexView farmer)

One FlexView to rule them all: A31p

Abused daily: T520, X200s


PMs requesting personal tech support will be ignored.

PadPoet
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue Jun 18, 2019 1:54 am
Location: Chios, Greece

Re: Urgent: SSD for A31p ?? Type, Size,

#12 Post by PadPoet » Mon Dec 13, 2021 3:00 am

ajkula66 wrote:
Sun Dec 12, 2021 11:56 pm
PadPoet wrote:
Sun Dec 12, 2021 9:00 pm
Necrobumping this in case anyone knows which is the best SSD solution to go for in late 2021 for an A31P Thinkpad. Operating system is Windows XP Service Pack 3.
There is no good solution.

A complete waste of time IMO/IME.

See here:

viewtopic.php?f=31&t=115478
Oh, wow! Never knew about this. Thanks for saving me tons of time and effort. So I guess a simple 2.5 inch 7200rpm drive is the best solution here.

RealBlackStuff
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Re: Urgent: SSD for A31p ?? Type, Size,

#13 Post by RealBlackStuff » Mon Dec 13, 2021 4:11 am

Nope, the best would be a 160GB 5400rpm HDD from Samsung, the HM160HC.
Lovely day for a Guinness! (The Real Black Stuff)
Lenovo: X240, X250, T440p, T480, M900 Tiny.

PS: the old Boardroom website is still available on the Wayback Machine
.

ajkula66
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Re: Urgent: SSD for A31p ?? Type, Size,

#14 Post by ajkula66 » Mon Dec 13, 2021 10:54 am

RealBlackStuff wrote:
Mon Dec 13, 2021 4:11 am
Nope, the best would be a 160GB 5400rpm HDD from Samsung, the HM160HC.
Agreed 1001%
...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

Cheers,

George (your grouchy retired FlexView farmer)

One FlexView to rule them all: A31p

Abused daily: T520, X200s


PMs requesting personal tech support will be ignored.

farfromtheland
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Re: Urgent: SSD for A31p ?? Type, Size,

#15 Post by farfromtheland » Wed Mar 02, 2022 9:46 am

Hmm.

I am currently running my A31p with 2.5Ghz cpu with an SSD - of only 32 GB capacity because I am not interested in writing to this drive, having an external firewire drive that runs at 10k, specifically for live audio transfer.

(Edit - Oh dear, I think In was late night rambling here - thought again.)

I am going to stick with SSDs in any case as they run cooler. My SSD is a dirt cheap 'Fashion Sprout' generic Chinese object. I am making sure to have a duplicate working copy.
380 - sampling
T21 - superannuated
X31 - swingin
A31p - slick
slappy other stuff

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