Getting an X300 soon and have a few questions

[Temetka]

So I'm pikcing up an X300 from a fellow board member.

It doesn't include a hard drive, so could you guys recommend a 1.8" to mSATA adapter?

Will the Broadcom HD Decoder card work in this machine? Typically it goes in the WWAN slot on laptops and provides hardware decoding of video streams.

I plan on running linux on it. Kind of excited. It will play backup to my T410 and replace my D630.

Thanks!

[Dekks]

Linux support of the broadcom card is sketchy and as its unmaintained atm, Linus has listed it for removal from kernel in the near future. Plus IMO from using it on windows it's of marginal use.

[RealBlackStuff]

See http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=118345
I use the same mSATA adapter as mentioned in the first two lines of the first post there.
See the second post telling how I keep the mSATA in "place".

If you want only an SSD: Crucial C300 1.8" 128gb works great.

[brchan]

I don't think you will need a broadcom card for this machine. I have a T60 (T2500 2GB ram, intel gpu, arch linux distro), and it plays fullscreen 1080p video perfectly fine in chrome on its internal SXGA+ display (as long as you aren't running other stuff in the background). Not sure how it would fare with a 1080p screen, but 720p should definitely be smooth. Don't use firefox if you want to watch higher resolution video, it tends to give much worse performance.

If you get a used msata ssd (or any used ssd), I recommend doing an ATA secure erase using hdparm. It should restore the drive to its native performance, provided that terabytes haven't been written to it over and over.

[Temetka]

I don't think you will need a broadcom card for this machine. I have a T60 (T2500 2GB ram, intel gpu, arch linux distro), and it plays fullscreen 1080p video perfectly fine in chrome on its internal SXGA+ display (as long as you aren't running other stuff in the background). Not sure how it would fare with a 1080p screen, but 720p should definitely be smooth. Don't use firefox if you want to watch higher resolution video, it tends to give much worse performance.

If you get a used msata ssd (or any used ssd), I recommend doing an ATA secure erase using hdparm. It should restore the drive to its native performance, provided that terabytes haven't been written to it over and over.

I'm pretty sure the T7500 is more powerful than the CPU I will be getting.

Regarding used SSD's. I don't buy used or refurb SSD's. Nope.

[Temetka]

See http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=118345
I use the same mSATA adapter as mentioned in the first two lines of the first post there.
See the second post telling how I keep the mSATA in "place".

If you want only an SSD: Crucial C300 1.8" 128gb works great.

Thank you very much.

[brchan]

I don't think you will need a broadcom card for this machine. I have a T60 (T2500 2GB ram, intel gpu, arch linux distro), and it plays fullscreen 1080p video perfectly fine in chrome on its internal SXGA+ display (as long as you aren't running other stuff in the background). Not sure how it would fare with a 1080p screen, but 720p should definitely be smooth. Don't use firefox if you want to watch higher resolution video, it tends to give much worse performance.

If you get a used msata ssd (or any used ssd), I recommend doing an ATA secure erase using hdparm. It should restore the drive to its native performance, provided that terabytes haven't been written to it over and over.

I'm pretty sure the T7500 is more powerful than the CPU I will be getting.

Regarding used SSD's. I don't buy used or refurb SSD's. Nope.

I think you misread my post. My T60 has a T2500, not a T7500 and is not much faster than the the L7100 in the X300. The x3100 intel gpu is also faster than the intel ones in T60s. 1080p should not be a problem.

[Temetka]

You're right, I did mis-read that.

I'd be happy with smooth 720p playback, which I don't think will be an issue.

Now I will have to hunt down an AC Adapter and decent 1.8" SSD.

[ajkula66]

Now I will have to hunt down an AC Adapter and decent 1.8" SSD.

You're probably better off with mSATA + adapter. While there are some nice 1.8" SSDs, the price premium that comes with them is usually quite hefty.

[600X]

A mSATA with adapter is the better choice in most cases, but if you do want a 1.8" SSD, then I can recommend the P400e: http://www.ebay.com/itm/MTFDDAA128MAR-1 ... 3a926aaf3f

Price is decent IMO. I have the 64GB version running in my X301. Very fast and reliable. The 64GB version is quite cheap as well.

[Temetka]

Wow, I'm just making all kinds of mistakes in this thread. Unusual for me.

I meant an mSATA SSD, not a 1.8" SSD.

[rambo47]

I'm running Linux Mint 17.2 (64-bit) on a Yoga 3 Pro that uses a Broadcom wireless card. The driver recommended by the Driver Manager program in Mint works beautifully.bcmwl-kernel-source 6.30.223.248+bdcom-0ubuntu1 is the driver designation. It's listed as an Ubuntu package but Mint is based on Ubuntu and the driver works in a variety of Linux distros.

[Saucey]

My X300's play youtube fine, I didn't use MPC-HC on it yet, but I wouldn't doubt it run flawlessly since my X61T ran fine w/ it.
Some sites may take some time to load w/ java/flash crud, but once it loads it plays good.
Netflix works well for me, I use a 1.8" drive, I believe it's an Intel unit, but it might be Samsung or Crucial.

[brchan]

You can install flashblock for firefox or flashcontrol for chrome to prevent useless media content from starting automatically on each site (and make exceptions for youtube.com, etc.). This can speed up the responsiveness of some webpages.

[Temetka]

Oh I know all about that. I use Iceweasel under linux with these addons:

Ghostery
NoScript
AdBlock Plus
Flashblock
YouTube AdBlocker

Web pages load super quick once you cut out all the cruft.