Also need advice on SSD upgrade and Windows version

[Muse]

I debated whether to jump into that other thread and risk bad karma for hijacking it or starting my own thread and decided that the latter was the better approach.

I've never booted to anything but a HD, but yesterday ordered my first SSD:

Intel 330 SSDSC2CT180A3K5 180GB Solid State Drive - 2.5" Form Factor, SATA 6Gb/s, Up To 500 MB/s Read Speed, Up To 450 MB/s Write Speed

I've put off SSD upgrades (I could use 3, possibly 4!) because of the complications I've seen discussed, but now I'm going for it on one machine, and the logical one would be my T60 with Intel Core 2 Duo processor T5500, which came with a 60GB HD and XP Pro (I have recovery disks for it). My T61 has a 640GB HD and is running Windows 7 64 bit. So, the T60 is cramped for space, and I've contemplated getting a bigger HD for it for years and figure the SSD upgrade makes sense for it, more so than for my other machines. It would triple the available space in the machine.

Question 1: How good is that Intel SSD? Is it a good choice? If it's not a good idea in my Thinkpads I could put it in my desktop, which runs XP Pro.

Question 2: Can I continue to run XP on the T60 after I install the SSD?

The T61 came with Vista Business 32 bit, and I made recovery disks before installing the 640GB HD and Windows 7 64 bit. So, I guess it might be possible to revert the T61 to Vista Business and install Windows 7 on the T60, however I don't know if the T60 would support a 64 bit OS. Of course, it would be simpler to just install XP on the T60 and leave the T61 alone. If XP on the T60 with the SSD is not possible or not worth the trouble I suppose I could get a different OS for it.

How do I best proceed here?

[RealBlackStuff]

With any Core 2 Duo (like your T5500) the machine is 64-bit capable (Core Duo is only 32-bit).
For pros and cons of XP on an SSD, read the relevant treads in this forum.
Generally it's better to run Vista or W7 on an SSD, because of the required partition alignment.
But you can also format the SSD with Vista or W7, and then install XP on it, using a regular XP CD, and then install the Lenovo drivers using SystemUpdate.
XP does not support TRIM, that's why Vista/W7 is better.

[Muse]

With any Core 2 Duo (like your T5500) the machine is 64-bit capable (Core Duo is only 32-bit).
For pros and cons of XP on an SSD, read the relevant treads in this forum.
Generally it's better to run Vista or W7 on an SSD, because of the required partition alignment.
But you can also format the SSD with Vista or W7, and then install XP on it, using a regular XP CD, and then install the Lenovo drivers using SystemUpdate.
XP does not support TRIM, that's why Vista/W7 is better.

I've been unable to find discussions so far of the pros and cons of using XP on SSDs.

I was told that I couldn't install XP using the COA on the machine using a "regular XP CD" but could install XP on it using the recovery disks and then use gParted to make the "required partition alignment."

I also saw discussion in a thread elsewhere saying that this SSD from Intel comes with utilities that allow you to set up periodic manual TRIM operations.

Is all this true and how does it play out in the pros/cons issues discussion?

[RealBlackStuff]

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=107391
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=106522
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=107229

[Muse]

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=107391
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=106522
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=107229

Thank you... extremely helpful!