T450s Memory and SSD question

[hyde]

I just learned T450s comes with soldered ram, I had no idea, made a big mistake not ordering 8GB from factory!
What is a matching RAM for the on board RAM? I don't want to get anything slower than whatever is on board.

For SSD,
Is there an additional mSata port available with 180GB SSD that I ordered?
Thanks in advance.

[hyde]

My 450s is about to arrive, can someone help with this place? Did I just make a big mistake of not ordering 8GB from lenovo?

[ajkula66]

I just learned T450s comes with soldered ram, I had no idea, made a big mistake not ordering 8GB from factory!
What is a matching RAM for the on board RAM? I don't want to get anything slower than whatever is on board.

You can install a 16GB DIMM but these are rather costly right now. Otherwise, you can add 8GB for a total of 12 since only 4GB is soldered to the board.

For SSD,
Is there an additional mSata port available with 180GB SSD that I ordered?
Thanks in advance.

No mSATA, but there is a M2 slot for a 42mm drive.

[hyde]

You can install a 16GB DIMM but these are rather costly right now. Otherwise, you can add 8GB for a total of 12 since only 4GB is soldered to the board.

No mSATA, but there is a M2 slot for a 42mm drive.

Thank you so much, will there be a performance impact by using mismatched size? 4+8? Or would it make more sense to get another 4 for total 8GB?
Is this a suitable upgrade: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006YG8X9Y

For M2 slot, can I just slide in any M2 drive or is there a limitation on model/size?
http://www.amazon.com/ADATA-USA-Premier ... B00LBDJZBA

I am considering M2 for storage purposes only, will it be OK or should I just use SD card instead? I assume M2 will be vastly faster.

[ajkula66]

Thank you so much, will there be a performance impact by using mismatched size? 4+8?

I don't know what you're going to be doing with this machine, but the "mismatched" size is not a huge deal nowadays. Your "first" 4GB (of the 8GB DIMM) will run in full dual-channel mode while the other 4GB will run in the "asymmetric" or "asynchronous" dual-channel mode. Unless you're beating the living daylight out of the integrated graphics 24/7/365 you should be just fine.

Is this a suitable upgrade: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006YG8X9Y

I believe so, but you may want to wait for an actual T450s owner to chime in.

For M2 slot, can I just slide in any M2 drive or is there a limitation on model/size?
http://www.amazon.com/ADATA-USA-Premier ... B00LBDJZBA

You need a so-called 2242 format, not just any M.2 and the ADATA that you've linked does come in that size. I'm not in the least keen on their SSD offerings, though.

I am considering M2 for storage purposes only, will it be OK or should I just use SD card instead? I assume M2 will be vastly faster.

Personally, I find that M.2 drives are still far from being a mature technology and best left alone as such. Having said that, they will be significantly faster than a SD card.

[hyde]

I don't know what you're going to be doing with this machine, but the "mismatched" size is not a huge deal nowadays. Your "first" 4GB (of the 8GB DIMM) will run in full dual-channel mode while the other 4GB will run in the "asymmetric" or "asynchronous" dual-channel mode. Unless you're beating the living daylight out of the integrated graphics 24/7/365 you should be just fine.

Is this a suitable upgrade: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006YG8X9Y

I believe so, but you may want to wait for an actual T450s owner to chime in.

You need a so-called 2242 format, not just any M.2 and the ADATA that you've linked does come in that size. I'm not in the least keen on their SSD offerings, though.

Personally, I find that M.2 drives are still far from being a mature technology and best left alone as such. Having said that, they will be significantly faster than a SD card.

I think I will be fine with 4+4+4 if that will be efficient enough. I regularly encode video in 1080p60 and I process large amount of pictures from our photo shoots and collections, otherwise nothing major. So hopefully it won't be bottleneck.

As for M2, since I only got 180GB SSD, I figure I will need add'l storage.

[ajkula66]

As for M2, since I only got 180GB SSD, I figure I will need add'l storage.

Why not just go for a larger 2.5" SSD? They are not all that expensive anymore...

Your machine, your $$$, your call by all means...

[hyde]

As for M2, since I only got 180GB SSD, I figure I will need add'l storage.

Why not just go for a larger 2.5" SSD? They are not all that expensive anymore...

Your machine, your $$$, your call by all means...

I already ordered, not sure why I stayed with 180GB but I think anything larger was going to be too expensive. (180 GB Solid State Drive, Serial ATA3 OPAL2.0 - Capable)

I figured OPAL 2.0 and add'l storage was worth the $20 difference over 128GB but now that I think about it, I should have upgraded to 256 for $90 more.

[ajkula66]

Well, you can pick up a 500GB SSD nowadays for around $200...if that T450s is a wage-earner, it's well worth it IMO...

[hyde]

Well, you can pick up a 500GB SSD nowadays for around $200...if that T450s is a wage-earner, it's well worth it IMO...

Yes it is, but I don't really utilize space as much as I thought I would, it will also help me keep my laptop crap-free (which I tend to just download, store and eventually forget about) My current drive in X220 is 250GB and only 163GB occupied.
The reason I wanted to split "storage" data to M2 is because I can just throw whatever is for long term storage into that M2 and not worry about someone stealing my SD card (encrypted SD cards are terribly slow in windows).

[ajkula66]

Yes it is, but I don't really utilize space as much as I thought I would, it will also help me keep my laptop crap-free (which I tend to just download, store and eventually forget about) My current drive in X220 is 250GB and only 163GB occupied.

No over-provisioning, huh? A horrible idea in my opinion, but it's not my machine.

The reason I wanted to split "storage" data to M2 is because I can just throw whatever is for long term storage into that M2 and not worry about someone stealing my SD card (encrypted SD cards are terribly slow in windows).

And you'll most likely receive a 180GB SandForce-based Intel that will have decent reads, ugly writes and will slow down significantly even if heavily over-provisioned. Adding a M.2 drive will not improve the overall performance of the system whatsoever.

Get a good 500GB, set it up correctly including correct over-provisioning, and truly enjoy your new system.
That's what I would do anyway.

[hyde]

Yes it is, but I don't really utilize space as much as I thought I would, it will also help me keep my laptop crap-free (which I tend to just download, store and eventually forget about) My current drive in X220 is 250GB and only 163GB occupied.

No over-provisioning, huh? A horrible idea in my opinion, but it's not my machine.

The reason I wanted to split "storage" data to M2 is because I can just throw whatever is for long term storage into that M2 and not worry about someone stealing my SD card (encrypted SD cards are terribly slow in windows).

And you'll most likely receive a 180GB SandForce-based Intel that will have decent reads, ugly writes and will slow down significantly even if heavily over-provisioned. Adding a M.2 drive will not improve the overall performance of the system whatsoever.

Get a good 500GB, set it up correctly including correct over-provisioning, and truly enjoy your new system.
That's what I would do anyway.

Hi, thanks for the info, I will look into over-provisioning, didn't know about that. Is there something I should do with over-provisioning now with relatively empty SSD?
M2 is not meant for performance increase but for add'l storage that is independent from SSD.

I'll use what I already have now, and eventually will buy 500GB when this thing slows down (when it does, prices of 500GB should be much less).

[XE1UFO]

I am enjoying this thread and would love to know HOW over-provisioning is set up correctly.

Thanks in advance!

[ajkula66]

I am enjoying this thread and would love to know HOW over-provisioning is set up correctly.

Install the OS and then boot a Parted Magic live CD to shrink the partition by desired amount - for me it's usually 20-30% depending on the drive size - and call it a day.

Presuming that you're using W7 or later it can also be done from within Windows using Disk Management.

[XE1UFO]

Thanks for the reply! So over-provisioning only works in Windows, not Linux systems?

[ajkula66]

Thanks for the reply! So over-provisioning only works in Windows, not Linux systems?

It works in the *nix as well, however you'd be well advised to look for specific advice from someone who is a heavier Linux user than myself.

[hyde]

So, you are suggesting to create a new partition on the unused portion of the SSD in order to use as storage drive and keep the initial partition as the windows boot partition?

I wasn't aware of this but it looks like Lenovo already spliced the SSD into 5 partitions and I am not sure why it thinks it needs 7GB for OEM Partition on top of 13GB it uses for Recovery partition, then it also has 1GB healthy partition and 260MB EFI Partition.

Does "Shrink" work for "provisioning"?

[ajkula66]

I'd just nuke the recovery partition and call it a day, but that's me.

"Shrink" does work but make sure that's aligned properly, as in able to be divided by 4096 and give a full number...

[hyde]

I'd just nuke the recovery partition and call it a day, but that's me.

"Shrink" does work but make sure that's aligned properly, as in able to be divided by 4096 and give a full number...

How do you recover when something goes wrong without a recovery partition?

[ajkula66]

I'd just nuke the recovery partition and call it a day, but that's me.

"Shrink" does work but make sure that's aligned properly, as in able to be divided by 4096 and give a full number...

How do you recover when something goes wrong without a recovery partition?

Recovery disks? Regular backups?

[hyde]

Recovery disks? Regular backups?

Regular backups won't help restore the factory installed OS or the drivers and other essential applications that arrived with laptop, however Recovery disk probably would. I believe X220 had a software to create a recovery partition on external drive like USB thumb drive, I should look into that, and I'll take your suggestion of getting a newer and bigger SSD once I see 300 or 500GB ones go down in price. Until then I think I'll use what I have (in terms of size), assuming Lenovo put a decent SSD with acceptable speeds.

Does having a SATA 3 Opal 2.0 – Capable SSD help in any way on daily operation?

[ajkula66]

Regular backups won't help restore the factory installed OS or the drivers and other essential applications that arrived with laptop, however Recovery disk probably would.

First of all, if you create an image of the drive, it will restore everything.

Secondly, what "essential applications" are you referring to?

Does having a SATA 3 Opal 2.0 – Capable SSD help in any way on daily operation?

Marketing mumbo-jumbo. Once you get to the point of actually being ready to purchase a replacement SSD, we'll take it from there.

[hyde]

Regular backups won't help restore the factory installed OS or the drivers and other essential applications that arrived with laptop, however Recovery disk probably would.

First of all, if you create an image of the drive, it will restore everything.

Secondly, what "essential applications" are you referring to?

Does having a SATA 3 Opal 2.0 – Capable SSD help in any way on daily operation?

Marketing mumbo-jumbo. Once you get to the point of actually being ready to purchase a replacement SSD, we'll take it from there.

The lenovo stuff. Wouldn't I have to get those all one by one in order get my thinkpad to run properly if I don't keep a factory restoration copy? Anyway, we agree we can keep external backup, so we are fine.

With all this in mind, if I were to replace the internal SSD today, what would be your suggestion?

[ajkula66]

The lenovo stuff. Wouldn't I have to get those all one by one in order get my thinkpad to run properly if I don't keep a factory restoration copy?

The only thing that I ever kept was Power Manager, along with Hotkeys. That's gone in W8.x anyway.

Anyway, we agree we can keep external backup, so we are fine.

Correct.

With all this in mind, if I were to replace the internal SSD today, what would be your suggestion?

Presuming a 500GB or thereabouts, my choice would be Sandisk Extreme Pro.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... gnorebbr=1

[hyde]

The lenovo stuff. Wouldn't I have to get those all one by one in order get my thinkpad to run properly if I don't keep a factory restoration copy?

The only thing that I ever kept was Power Manager, along with Hotkeys. That's gone in W8.x anyway.

Anyway, we agree we can keep external backup, so we are fine.

Correct.

With all this in mind, if I were to replace the internal SSD today, what would be your suggestion?

Presuming a 500GB or thereabouts, my choice would be Sandisk Extreme Pro.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... gnorebbr=1

Thank you, and you just used it %100 capacity or did you "provision" it in any way? I am getting ready to upgrade my RAM, replace my keyboard and during the same process, I might as well replace the SSD.

[ajkula66]

Thank you, and you just used it %100 capacity or did you "provision" it in any way? I am getting ready to upgrade my RAM, replace my keyboard and during the same process, I might as well replace the SSD.

Nope. I over-provision all the SSDs between 15-20%. You can go higher than that if there's heavy work on the machine 24/7/365, but I presume that not to be the case in your usage scenario.