Newbie here...just picked up my first Thinkpad (T420)..help

[Paulphilly]

Hello everyone. Decided to take some of my hard earned cash from my most recent deployment to Afghanistan and purchase my first Thinkpad. I picked up a T420 with i5-2520 (2.5gHz), 1600X900 screen, 4G Ram, 320g-7200rpm, fingerprint, webcam, etc..I absolutely love this thing. However, as a novice computer user (mostly surfing, emailing, video/movie watching), I am ignorant when it comes to "setting up" my computer and maximizing its potential. My big question is what can I do to make my computer faster? Not just faster overall, but faster at bootup. My bootup is taking about a minute or longer and I thought with rapid boot and "lenovo enhanced experience 2.0" it would be faster. I ordered an extra 4g Dimm stick to get me a total of 8g ram, but what else can I do? Is something wrong with my computer which causes long boot times? Finally, just FYI, I also have Windows Enterprise installed and Micro Professional Plus 2010. Please help, thanks

[ZaZ]

My big question is what can I do to make my computer faster?

The thing that will help your T420 seem faster is a SSD hard drive. They're small hard drives made from flash memory. They're small, but very fast. My X220i boots in under 20 seconds. You can get one that fits in the main bay of your T420, but I would suggest getting a mSATA drive. It's about the size of a WiFi card and plugs into a miniPCI slot on the motherboard. If you click on the review link in my signature, you can see the one in my X220i. Once installed, Windows sees it as another hard drive. The benefit of going with a mSATA drive is it allows you to keep the platter drive in the main bay for storage, where speed isn't as important, but you still get the benefit of the SSD speed on the boot drive. If I were in the market right now, I'd probably look at something like this. 60GB should probably be enough for the OS, especially if you've got the platter drive for storage, though they do make the drives up to 128GB if you need more space. Congrats on the T420, it's a fine machine, and making it home safe too.

[Paulphilly]

Thanks so much for your reply. It sounds like the mSATA drive is the way to go. Is this something I can install, or is it pretty involved? If you were me, would you get the 128GB just in case? And, how much will adding an additional 4g Ram help? Thanks.

[Neil]

It's exceptionally easy to replace a hard drive. If you have the $$ for a 128GB SSD, then by all means get one. An additional 4GB RAM won't do anything at all for boot times.

[Paulphilly]

It's exceptionally easy to replace a hard drive. If you have the $$ for a 128GB SSD, then by all means get one. An additional 4GB RAM won't do anything at all for boot times.

Neil, I think the administrator was stating that I don't need to replace the hard drive, but add a mSATA drive which is the drive I was inquiring about as far as how difficult to install. He mentioned something about placing in the motherboard....but how easy would it be to install the mSATA drive on my t420?

[Neil]

Oh! I didn't read all of ZaZ's comments. Still not difficult. I think all you have to do is remove the keyboard to get to the mini PCI slot.

[Paulphilly]

Oh! I didn't read all of ZaZ's comments. Still not difficult. I think all you have to do is remove the keyboard to get to the mini PCI slot.

Ok, I saw a video on youtube about removing the keyboard....doesn't look too bad. Is there any changes I can make to my BIOS (whatever that is...lol) to speed up my boot speed? I read recently about UEFI changes in the BIOS that might help speed up things...but, then again I don't know what UEFI is either...lol. I think I am going with a 120g mSATA drive in addition to my 320g-7200rpm platter drive and installing a 4g ram stick to make my ram 8g. Any other advice would be appreciated. Thanks

[bill bolton]

but I would suggest getting a mSATA drive.

Keep in mind that installing mSATA means that you lose any capability for running internal WWAN.

Personally, I've gone with a SSD in the main drive bay.

Cheers,

Bill B.

[Paulphilly]

Bill, that is someting I am considering. I am looking at 320g SSD drives, but they aren't cheap But, in the wrong run, you think I will be better off with one SSD over a HDD and mSATA? And, can you tell me why my computer is taking almost 1:30 to boot? I have a brand new t420 with i5 2520 (2.5ghz) but for some reason its take over a minute and a half to boot!! What in the world is wrong with my computer?

[ZaZ]

You might want to take a look at what's turning on with Windows. That may be slowing things down some. You can do that with MSCONFIG.

Installing the mSATA drive is fairly easy. You have to take of the palm rest and keyboard. I think there's five or six screws on the bottom of the machine to take off, then you can plug the mSATA drive into the slot. If you want to see how to do it, hit the service and training site. The mSATA drive is not there, but the WWAN card is and it's pretty much the same thing.

If you want WWAN and can't do the mSATA, you might want to look at the Seagate Momentus XT. It's a hard drive with a flash drive attached. It comes in 500GB and 750GB sizes. Once it figures your usage patterns, it gives near SSD performance. It's a good choice for those with a single drive. Another option would be to buy a smaller SSD, say 60GB for the OS, then using the modular caddy to replace the optical drive with another hard drive. That's if you're not using the optical drive much.

[xMertonX]

On the T420 you do not need to remove the keyboard or palm rest to install an mSATA drive. The slot is in the same panel on the bottom with the second RAM slot. It is very easy to install. I have this one and so far it works great and boots in less than 30 seconds. while you are in there you might as well add another 4GB of ram it won't help with your load time but it is cheap and it couldn't hurt.

[Paulphilly]

On the T420 you do not need to remove the keyboard or palm rest to install an mSATA drive. The slot is in the same panel on the bottom with the second RAM slot. It is very easy to install. I have this one and so far it works great and boots in less than 30 seconds. while you are in there you might as well add another 4GB of ram it won't help with your load time but it is cheap and it couldn't hurt.

Thanks so much for the advice! I just installed (yesterday) the extra 4GB of ram, and wondered what that empty space beside it was...lol. What are the wires that are sticking out? Would I just tuck them under the new mSATA? Any install advice would be greatly appreciated. Also, what do I do after I have installed the mSATA? Should I upgrade my i5 2520m processor to the i7? I have Windows Enterprise installed, and Microsoft office suite executive plus 2010 installed on my HDD and do not have backup discs for either Windows or Microsoft Office

[xMertonX]

The wires are for a mobile broadband card. You just tuck them out of the way. They cannot go under the card as it sits flush.

Do not upgrade the CPU the dual core i7m is not much faster than the i5 2520M.

As for software, I just used the Lenovo restore disks and it worked great. If your copy of office is legit, you should be able to get the key(google) then just download the trial version and enter your key.
If you have pirated software, I can't help you.