Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen. 3 SSD type

[sorapp]

Anyone know if the Gen. 3 still has the M.2 SSD type for the 128gb option? If so, can it be upgraded like Gen. 2?

[Ibthink]

Yes, it does have 2280 (80mm) M.2 SSDs, which are upgradeable.

[sorapp]

Thanks for the quick response.

One more question. The web site shows only the 512gb as PCIE, does this mean that the other sizes are SATA as in gen. 2? I don't know how they could do that unless there are different MBs.

[jonashendrickx]

The X1C3 uses a PCIe based M.2 2280 SSD and not a SATA M.2 2280 SSD found in the X1C2. I don't know if SATA SSDs are compatible.

But with PCIe M.2 SSDs you can exceed the SATAIII limited performance.

Benchmarks in my X1C3 reach 1.35 GB/s in Crystal Disk Mark.

[sorapp]

In the parts list it shows 4 planers for the 5300. I ordered the 5300 with 4gb RAM and 128gb SSD. The only difference is the RAM and TPM
Planar i5-5300U 4gb, NOK, Y-AMT, Y-TPM
Planar i5-5300U 4gb, NOK, Y-AMT, N-TPM
Planar i5-5300U 8gb, NOK, Y-AMT, Y-TPM
Planar i5-5300U 8gb, NOK, Y-AMT, N-TPM

I wonder if TPM indicates whether there is PCIE or not.

I'm interested because I want to upgrade to 512gb. I didn't go with the Lenovo SSD because the 512gb upgrade was $700.

[jonashendrickx]

The M.2 slot in the X1 Carbon Gen 3 uses M.2 SSDs of length 80mm and supports the following interfaces:

• PCIe 2.0 4x (faster)
• SATAIII

[fb1996]

I wonder if TPM indicates whether there is PCIE or not.

All system boards support PCIe 2.0 x4 via the M.2 slot, TPM only indicates if there's a "Trusted Platform Module" or not.

[sarbin]

I've also got a pre-release gen3 Carbon.
The PCIe 512GB SSD in it is a Samsung MZHPV512HDGL-000L1 (http://www.thessdreview.com/daily-news/ ... sung-sm951) and in synthetic benchmarks it scores 2.5x higher than the SATAIII Samsung 840Pro in my X220's main drive bay.

To fully clarify, the gen3 Carbon supports both SATA *and* PCIe-attached 22x80mm SSDs via its M.2 connector. Currently, according to the store's system configurator, of the 5 SSD options, only the 512GB drive is PCIe. Considering that the SM951 is bleeding-edge, I'm not at all surprised that it's a $700 addition.

Cheers.

[sorapp]

Thanks all for the useful detailed information. This helps me understand the options much better.