Thinkpads Forum

Recently bought a T430 that needs a drive. Considering using an mSATA SSD. My understanding is that the T430's WWAN/mSATA slot is limited to SATA II speeds.

And my understanding is that the differences between SATA II and SATA III mostly manifest in throughput when accessing large amounts of data, for example, launching Windows. Maybe SATA II speeds would result in a Windows launch that is a few seconds longer?

Are there any other common uses where a user would notice the difference between SATA II and SATA III?

I do not think OS boot will slow down over Sata2 speeds, i think the only thing that will slow down is large data access, like backup/restore or extracting/compressing huge zip files with zero compression ..etc.

I think the downside only is that msata SSDs are more prone to overheat when having the high load of a OS, unlike 2.5 inch SSDs, which uses the whole SSD body as a heatsink.
Different SSDs models may vary allot when it comes to overheating.

mSATA SSD are general more expensive than the traditional 9mm 2.5" SATA SSD per Gigabyte.

Also, we stick with the Samsung 850 Pro series with the 10 year warranty for all our 9mm 2.5" SATA SSD's.
mSATA SSD does not offer this warranty option.

The real benefit of the mSATA SSD is it allows you to use a platter drive for storage where speed is not as critical. They go up to 2TB, if you need the space, and they're much more wallet friendly than a 2TB SSD. I don't think there's much of a practical difference between SATA II and III.

hhhd1 wrote:I do not think OS boot will slow down over Sata2 speeds, i think the only thing that will slow down is large data access, like backup/restore or extracting/compressing huge zip files with zero compression ..etc.

I think the downside only is that msata SSDs are more prone to overheat when having the high load of a OS, unlike 2.5 inch SSDs, which uses the whole SSD body as a heatsink.
Different SSDs models may vary allot when it comes to overheating.

I hadn't considered the heat aspect. Interesting point.

w0qj wrote:mSATA SSD are general more expensive than the traditional 9mm 2.5" SATA SSD per Gigabyte.

Yes, I was only considering mSATA because of a local seller on Craigslist who was offering an mSATA drive for cheap.

serpico wrote: Yes, I was only considering mSATA because of a local seller on Craigslist who was offering an mSATA drive for cheap.

IMO, unless you want to use the main bay for the platter drive, there's no reason to go with mSATA, regardless of the price.

SSDs have gotten ridiculously inexpensive, and a standard 2.5" would be my preferred choice unless - as previously stated - I had the intent of having a huge standard drive in the main bay.

I run an mSata SSD in a T430s and an X220 and don't see any noticeable decline in performance vs the 2.5 850 EVO's that I have used also. There is a temperature difference that is visible when monitoring them in CrystalDiskInfo, but even at its hottest, it's never even got close to being concerning. Generally, my 2.5's are in the low 20's (Celsius) and my mSata in the low to mid 30's.
If you aren't using the WWAN card (which I never do) then I would always throw an SSD in there. You can keep your OS on it and have a second mechanical drive for mass storage and automatic backups of the OS drive.

I find having a large platter disk in the 2.5" bay and an mSATA disk for OS (and some programs) to be dreadfully convenient. Keeping all the large "unchanging" data on the platter disk where speed of access is of no concern (e.g. videos, photos or music) also serves an advantage of, by not taking up space on the SSD, that more cells are kept free to act as load leveling devices for the firmware, enhancing overall lifespan (in terms of time) of the storage medium. Assuming the drive is appropriately sized from the start!

Our X250 had a small capacity mSATA and a 2.5" SATA HDD.

We switched to a 2.5" SATA SSD.

And we set the Windows swap file to use the *entire* mSATA drive, all 16 GB of it!
(Our X250 had 8 GB RAM, so the swap file size was about right).

My T430s has a 250GB 850 EVO in the mSATA slot and a 128GB Lenovo SSD in the 2.5" bay.

I have Windows 10 Enterprise on the EVO and Bunsen Labs linux on the 128GB drive.

I don't see any performance difference wrt to file accesss times between the 2 drives.

That being said, I only used the EVO because I already had as a pull from my X301. If I had to buy an SSD it would've been either an 850 Pro or a BX2/300 both in 500GB capacities.

Short answer - other than benchmarks or multi-gigabyte file access, transfers, copies, etc. - no you won't notice any difference.

w0qj wrote:Our X250 had a small capacity mSATA and a 2.5" SATA HDD.

The X250 has an M.2 slot, not mSATA. But yeah, they usually come with puny 16GB SSDs.
What's frustrating is that its M.2 slot only fits the short 2242 (22mm x 42mm) instead of the longer 2280 (22mm x 80mm) size cards. The latter is the more common form factor for M.2 SSDs.

SSD size comparison: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C4q20S8UYAAz-Vs.jpg