More than 4GB for T410s? Retrofit with Solid State on T410s?

[JShadd19]

I have a T410s on the way with a 4GB and no solid state hard drive?

Disclaimer: I have never retrofitted a computer of mine before

Anyone have know if it is possible to upgrade from 4GB on the new 410s?

Anyone have know what would be the best solution to upgrade to solid state drive? (looking for ~125 GB)

[zhenya]

Lenovo states the maximum amount of RAM for the T410s is 8GB. There are two ram slots, meaning you can use 2 4GB sticks. Two things, though. 4GB modules are exceptionally expensive still, and, of course, you must use a 64 bit OS in order to make use of that additional RAM.

For SSD's, I really only recommend drives from Intel. You pay a bit of a premium, but are getting a reliable, very fast drive.

[ljwobker]

Replacing a spinning hard drive with an SSD is the single greatest improvement you can give a PC. This is even MORE true with laptops, since their hard drives are generally slower than desktop drives. It's even MORE true than that with 1.8" form factor hard drives like the standard one in the T410s -- these drives (generally) are even slower still. With a spinning disk, the size of the drive makes a lot of difference, because (among other things) as the platters get larger, you can both store more data on them and read them faster.

With an SSD this is not the case, as the capacity is just a function of how many storage chips you can fit inside the physical package.

I have also used the Intel SSDs a great deal and I can absolutely confirm that they are very very good at what they do. OCZ also makes good SSDs, but I'm not sure if they make any in the 1.8" form factor that you would need for the 410s.

Replacing the drive itself is a very easy procedure if you're at all comfortable with hardware and very basic tools. The drive bay is easily accessible without having to remove or move any major components. Swapping the drive is far simpler than replacing/upgrading memory, or the display panel.

I would suggest this drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820167026

or it's larger but more expensive 160GB brother.

[JShadd19]

zhenya & ljwobker..........

Thanks so much for the information....I am waiting on my T410s and I am already thinking about ditching the hard drive for an SSD and upgrading the RAM....but likely do the hard drive first...

I often work with large excel files, excess of 15MB and my current PC struggles some (Dell with 2.33 GHz and 3.25 MB RAM)

Any suggestions if I have never worked on a laptop before? I can change my oil and do some basic plumbing but I don't want to mess with my T410s....

[zhenya]

If you can do those things, you can change a hard disk or add RAM. Both of them are accessible by literally 1 screw. As out T410s order came in today, I can confirm that there are in fact two accessible RAM slots. I'll be installing Intel SSD's in here as soon as I get an image of the factory install.

[AMATX]

I just installed 4G memory sticks in my W700; $150 for each stick(off of ebay).

Installed a cheapie Kingspec 30G SSD, that I got off of ebay for 'best offer' of $100+(check world-wide auctions for Kingspec, as other currencies can net out less than US$ and they all offer free shipping).

So, not a huge amount. Kingspec probably ain't Intel, but it's cheap, and should get me by fine
until the higher quality stuff comes down in price. And, it's FAST; even the cheapies can be real screamers.

As mentioned above, depending upon your workload characteristics, either memory or SSD or both can have a tremendous impact upon performance, so try something.

[zhenya]

I'll just note that for $100 you can get a 40GB Intel drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820167025 or for under $200 you can get an 80GB Intel http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820157021. The highly regarded Kingston drives also start at under $100.

Good luck with the Kingspec. I have just had too many issues with cheap SSD's to take the risk.

[AMATX]

Looks like some price drops since I bought my Kingspec; that's nice.
Next go around, I'll take a look at those other makes.

No problems yet; we'll see. Fairly current backups, so shouldn't be totally hosed
if something blows.

[zhenya]

How's the speed overall? That's what I'd be concerned about more than it out-right dying. Some of the less expensive SSD's use sub-par controllers that cause all sorts of stuttering and pausing during normal OS usage; to the point of being worse than a standard drive. Kingspec is one of the few manufacturer's that makes 1.8" PATA SSD drives that I've considered using in a fleet of older X41's I've been re-purposing recently, but I haven't seen much real-world experience with their products.