T41 Pata SSD / CF card / Sata SSD [SOLVED]

[jaspen-meyer]

system specs
processor - 2.0 ghz Pentium M 755

summary
conclusions on having upgraded my silent T41's hard drive from a Pretec 667x 16gb CF card to a Kingspec 32gb Pata SSD and also upgrading the processor from the stock 1.6 (1mb cache) to 2ghz (2mb cache).

Kingspec 32gb Pata SSD (KSD-PA25.1-032MJ) with Pentium M 755
- hdparm read speed: 81 mb/sec
- operating system: Xubuntu 9.04 + LXDE
- boot time: 21 seconds (poweron -> desktop)
- comments: put drive in machine, formatted disk to ext4, installed system. drive improved system responsiveness.

Pretec 667x 16gb CF card
- hdparm read speed: 47 mb/sec
- operating system: Xubuntu 9.04 + XFCE
- boot time: 34 seconds (poweron -> desktop)
- comments: drive was formatted as ext2. system would stall once per day. Had to poweroff system, after which booting announced corrupted data - a few times i was left with 'No Operating system installed'. System lagged when installing programs/updating.

Upgrading cpu to Pentium M 755
- installing the cpu took me 20 minuets
- system 'feels' 35% faster
- hotter. Fan is set to turn off at 63 degrees C. with the 1.6ghz processor, it almost never turned on. with the 2.0 chip, it turns on once every 2 hours.

notes
clonezilla used to clone drive.

next project - SATA SSD
ordered a ultra slim sata adapter. will add a sata ssd to the machine and report back with my findings.

[eyestrain]

Thanks for posting.

next project - SATA SSD
ordered a ultra slim sata adapter. will add a sata ssd to the machine and report back with my findings.

Comparing that to Kingspec in T4x will be interesting!

Pretec 667x 16gb CF card
- hdparm read speed: 47 mb/sec
- operating system: Xubuntu 9.04 + XFCE
- boot time: 34 seconds (poweron -> desktop)
- comments: drive was formatted as ext2. system would stall once per day. Had to poweroff system, after which booting announced corrupted data - a few times i was left with 'No Operating system installed'. System lagged when installing programs/updating.

Did you try a different CF-IDE adapter?
Did you try formatting to FAT32 or FAT16?
Did you use the main drive bay? You could also try the ultrabay with an ordinary PATA hdd adapter, though I doubt it would be an improvement.

You could also try doing a Persistant Live, or even just regular Live, install of Ubuntu onto the first 1gb of the CF, formatted as FAT32 or FAT16. This dramatically reduces the need for writes.

I use 2gb CF slower than yours, with Persistant Live installs, and have ok results. My goal is more quiet than speed.

Upgrading cpu to Pentium M 755
- installing the cpu took me 20 minuets
- system 'feels' 35% faster
- hotter. Fan is set to turn off at 63 degrees C. with the 1.6ghz processor, it almost never turned on. with the 2.0 chip, it turns on once every 2 hours.

Have you tried undervolting?
Undervolting is easy with Windows, using NHC or RMClock. With Linux, it is a little harder. PHC should work. I am too much of a beginner to get it running though, especially since I don't read German...

If you undervolt, I believe that the 2.0 can be quieter than the 1.6, especially if you disable the highest freq or two. For example, the 2.0 might be run at max 1.9 with 2.0 disabled. Undervolted, when running at 1.6 speed, it will be a lower voltage than your old 1.6 chip was, even if the old chip was undervolted too. When 1.9 (or maybe 1.8?) it will get work done more quickly than the old 1.6 did, but at a similar amount of heat, and can go back to cool idle sooner.

[jaspen-meyer]

Have added the ultrasilm bay sata adapter. in it is a 32 gb intel X-25e (slc) ssd.

the sata drive works! (on these forums i've read it's not possible to use sata in a T41.)

read speeds are 91mb/sec.

[vulpoiurosu]

Hi,
Could you please tell me how did you manage to install a SATA drive in T41? I only found a link: << http://mikejmoffitt.com/wp/?p=5 >> about T43p.

What I did, I removed the DVD drive and replaced it with an adapter. It worked (for a while?!) but I was wondering if there's a method similar to the one mentioned by Mike in the link above.

Thank you.

[Johan]

Could you please tell me how did you manage to install a SATA drive in T41? I only found a link: << http://mikejmoffitt.com/wp/?p=5 >> about T43p.

What I did, I removed the DVD drive and replaced it with an adapter. It worked (for a while?!) but I was wondering if there's a method similar to the one mentioned by Mike in the link above.

Welcome to the forum!

The approach described by Mike J. Moffitt (and linked to in your post) is not applicapable for ThinkPad's of the models T40/p, T41/p or T42/p (you will find much more information about this so-called "SATA-mod" in e.g. the thread T43p SATA Guide (Beware pictures, 56k-ers), but again - it is not very relevant in the context of a T41).

If you wish to install a SATA drive in your main HDD bay (in your T41), then I suggest you see - as a starting point! - the sticky (currently just two posts "above this", here in the T4x-forum): GUIDE: Make your T4x *FAST* by replacing the HDD with a SSD!. The (in particular: SATA) SSD mainly referenced to in that sticky may also be a conventional SATA mechanical rotating harddrive... although this will obviously be significantly slower compared to a (SATA) SSD.

If - after reading the various threads linked to therein - having questions, please ask in the appropriate threads... thanks in advance!

Update: Another (perhaps-potential?) option I just came across is to use something like this 2.5" SATA SSD/HDD driver to mini 44-pin IDE adapter but I'm uncertain whether it will be too big to fit in the ThinkPad main-HDD bay compartment? (there are better images of this dapter in this eBay advertisement). I believe this adaptor is based on the JMicron JM 20330 PATA-to-SATA translator chip (with its known incompatibility issues!). Ref: = this post. Notice the customer-feedback for this adapter at Amazon's site.

Johan