Thinkpad T440p M.2 speeds

[zogthegreat]

Hi everyone!

My son is upgrading his work laptop from a T440p to a T470 and is tossing the T440p to me, (see, if ya raise them right.... ).

I'm planning a few mods, (my son is a dev, but left the machine "stock"), mainly the screen and touchpad. I also want to upgrade the drive to either a 128gb M.2 with a 1 TB drive for data in the main HDD slot, or 128 2.5 SSD and swap out the CD/DVD for a caddy to hold the 1 TB drive.

I've been looking at the specs and I can't find any information on the M.2 speeds for a SSD. Is it better to get a regular 2.5 SSD for this machine or will the M.2 provide faster throughput? Theoretically, the M.2 should be faster, but as I said, I can't find any details.

Thanks!

zog

[RealBlackStuff]

That WWAN slot can take a double-sided M.2 SSD in format 2242, with B-key, and runs at SATA III.

In both 'regular' T440 and the T440p there is a Smartcard-reader.
In the T440 this can be replaced with 04X3827 FRU 3rd NGFF SSD adapter.
T440p does not mention this option, but it might be possible too...

[zogthegreat]

That WWAN slot can take a double-sided M.2 SSD in format 2242, with B-key, and runs at SATA III.

Thanks RealBlackStuff!


I'm not sure what they are thinking over at Lenovo. The whole purpose of the M.2 is increased data rates. I'll go with the normal 2.5 SSD and a caddy for my data.

Thanks again!

[jdrou]

Is it better to get a regular 2.5 SSD for this machine or will the M.2 provide faster throughput? Theoretically, the M.2 should be faster, but as I said, I can't find any details.

Not sure why you'd think it would be faster. M.2 does not equal NVMe. I don't think there were any NVMe laptops when T440p was released. M.2 SATA III is definitely a step up from the previous generation's mSATA at SATA II speed (vs. SATA III on the 2.5" bay). There were some Broadwell laptops with NVMe I believe but it didn't become widespread until Skylake.

You could maybe make this a valid complaint for the T460p though which apparently still used SATA in it's M.2 slot.

More important issue than speed is the fact that the slot is only 42mm length and no top-tier drive manufacturer released any SATA drives that size. Best drive available appears to be 512 GB Transcend MTS400 which is getting harder to find and is very expensive for its capacity.

EDIT: Transcend has since released MTS420S (no DRAM) and MTS430S available at much lower prices than the MTS400.

[zogthegreat]

Best drive available appears to be 512 GB Transcend MTS400 which is getting harder to find and is very expensive for its capacity.

(chuckle) Just out of curiosity, I checked eBay. The Transcend MTS400 512gb goes for $250 USD! I guess my plan for a caddy is the best choice!

Thanks everyone!

[samwhite]

Hi all . In continuation of this topic, I would like to clarify whether I understand correctly that I can install an SSD on this laptop anywhere, even using an adapter with a maximum speed of 500-600 MB/s no more?

For example
Transcend MTE400S 1TB, SSD
(PCIe 3.0 x4, NVMe, M.2 2242)
which has the same size will not work?

[RealBlackStuff]

NVMe drives do NOT work in a T440p, they must be mSATA.

[axur-delmeria]

Hi all . In continuation of this topic, I would like to clarify whether I understand correctly that I can install an SSD on this laptop anywhere, even using an adapter with a maximum speed of 500-600 MB/s no more?

For example
Transcend MTE400S 1TB, SSD
(PCIe 3.0 x4, NVMe, M.2 2242)
which has the same size will not work?

That will not work, because the T440p doesn't support NVMe SSDs at all.

What you need is an M.2 SATA SSD, like this: https://www.amazon.com/Transcend-512GB- ... 07MSQMGLT/

[samwhite]

Thank you very much for your answers and help!
I was confused by the answer from the seller in the store, who claimed that you can install an SSD M2 2242 which has a read/write speed of more than 600 MB/s

As I understand it, the best option in terms of price/quality would be Transcend.