T400 - Setup with Intel X25-M SSD and Windows 7

[Harryc]

So, I am going to install a G2 160GB Intel X25-M SSD into the T400 in my sig with Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. Since this is my first foray into the SSD world on a Thinkpad, I have some questions.

• The T400 comes with the Turbo Memory feature. Should that be turned off with an SSD installed?
  I beleive the G2 Intel X25-M comes with 'Trim' enabled. Is there anything I need to do to configure or enable that option on a T400?
  I've read that I need to disable the hard drive defrag utility and scheduling with an SSD, and I also read that 'prefetch' has no use to an SSD user. True?
  What other options should be tweaked or turned on/off?
  Can I clone a standard hard drive to an SSD?
  Any formatting pointers?

[csv96]

1) Turbo Memory - yes, you should disable Turbo Memory. Two ways to do that. You can install the driver, and just select disable from the Turbo Memory interface. Better option would be to just remove the Turbo Memory module (easy to do, just remove the keyboard) so you don't even have to install the driver.
2) To make sure your X25-M has trim function, just go to intel.com and download the latest firmware (it's a small .iso file that can be burned into a bootable CD). I would do this before installing Windows.
3) Windows 7 supports trim. No need to install any additional software.
4) Windows 7 detects your drive as an SSD and disables defrag by default.
5) You can clone your original hard drive using acronis or other drive image software. But if you want the best performance, do a clean install of Windows 7 and install only the required drivers and utilities.

Enjoy your X25-M G2. It's an amazing drive.

[Harryc]

Thanks for the detailed reply. I also found this good site for SSD on W7 information;
http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/0 ... s-and.aspx

"By default, Windows 7 will disable Superfetch, ReadyBoost, as well as boot and application launch prefetching on SSDs with good random read, random write and flush performance."

[mgo]

So, I am going to install a G2 160GB Intel X25-M SSD into the T400 in my sig with Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit.[/list]

WARNING...addictive technology! Windows 7 and a solid state drive combo just runs like crazy and is tons of fun to have on any machine.

Maybe they have support groups. "Hi, my name is Mike and I can't stop buying solid state hard drives" (..."hi Mike..."

[Harryc]

Got the drive today, installed it in my T400, and everything went as csv96 described. I flashed the firmware first, then W7 Premium 64bit. It is fast and stable. I''m adding 2GB more RAM tomorrow, for a total of 4GB.

[ScotchDiver]

I did the same upgrade to my W500 and it is incredible. At the time, I didn't think an SSD would be that big of a deal. I mean, really, how often do you open new applications in a typical day; maybe a couple times an hour. The reality, though, is you are constantly hitting the drive for lots of little reads and writes. Everytime you open an explorer window, a browser tab, an email; just about every action you do accesses persistent storage at some point. In my opinion, this is the single most significant improvement to the computing experience of the last decade (well... maybe second most; after broadband).

Enjoy your latency-free goodness.