T400 / T500 and newer T series ThinkPad Laptops

[#1]

I want to buy T400s with 128GB Solid State Drive. What model of solid drive provide with T400s? I could not find that information on web site.

How many cycles of read write it supported? I'm software developer and I perform tens compilation per day and each compilation performs thousands of cycles read write. Also I have sql server installed which performs high load of hard drive. So I can reach million of read/write cycles for one day and I think that SSD drive will die pretty soon for me cause it has limited number of cycles of read and write. How to buy T400s with HDD 7200rpm 160Gb or more?

[#2]

Hi,

the T400s uses 1.8" HDDs. 7200rpm disks just don't exist in this form factor. You could replace the DVD-drive with a secondary hdd but I wouldn't do that in order to "replace" the SSD.

Although it is true that flash has a limited number of write cycles, by using wear leveling it would be pretty much impossible and unlikely to burn them out with regular usage.

I recommend the website www.anandtech.com for further reading on SSD technology. Myself, I'm pretty happy with my T400s and its SSD drive, especially now that there finally is a firmware update that seems to add the TRIM command.

-Jan

[#3]

Yeah,

You will have to replace the optical drive to get a platter hard drive.  First, you really do want that SSD in there. I'm not sure that your usage will kill it, but if you are worried Get an Ultrabay adapter III that will let you pop in a hard drive.  I have a T400 (not s) with a SSD boot drive and a WD Scorpio black in the ultrabay. SSD for speed, hard drive for size.

[#4]

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JOL wrote:

 Myself, I'm pretty happy with my T400s and its SSD drive, especially now that there finally is a firmware update that seems to add the TRIM command.

-Jan

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Tell me more of the firmware update you speak of? ;-) Is it for the Toshiba or Samsung?

Thanks,

Steve

[#5]

Second harddrive is not a cure. I found that if you use Intel X25-M or X18-M then these SSD have MLC memory type. So each cell of memory supports up to 10,000 cycles of writing. This case that hard drive will die in first three or five days for me. Even it will die for regular work of web designer or technical documents writer in a month.

I have got that information from Wikipedia "Solid State Drive" topic from Disadvantages section:

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive#cite_note-CWorldLackluster2-37

Then I have opened  Wikipedia "Multi-level cell" topic

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-level_cell

The "Multi-Level cell" has section "External links" and link to "What is NAND Flash"

   http://www.micron.com/products/nand/index

reading there:

Our Enterprise NAND is a high-endurance NAND Flash solution. It’s optimized for intensive enterprise storage applications where endurance is the top priority. It far surpasses standard cycle rates, delivering 30,000 WRITE/ERASE cycles for MLC and 300,000 for SLC. And it does it with an ONFI 2.1 synchronous interface.

I think you need to include option to choose HDD 7200RPM 160Gb or greater otherwise it is too risky to lose information or laptop will stop working and information also will be lost.

I have looked at that laptop only because of Moultitouch Screen option. So if I'm not able to get perfect and powerfull laptop for my tasks like ThinkPad T61 with long time of life of harddrive and Moultitouch Screen then I will be persuaded to find other solution but I do not want to do that. I hope we can find solution cause we are all people and good relation to people/clients is guaranty for well-being of business.

[#6]

The update is for Samsung and Intel ssds. No mention of Toshiba. Unfortunately, the readme doesn't say what is changed.

-Jan

[#7]

mrumpka,

there is something wrong in your lifetime calculation. Under heavy use, even an MCL drive should get 5+ years of life.

My understanding is current Thinpads ship with Samsung srives, but that may have changed. Samsung are first generation, much better than a hard drive, but not nearly as fast for writes as more recent drives.

[#8]

TheDude I don't think I'm wrong with my calculations cause I'm talking about write count attempts and not read. Read  attempts mostly "unlimited". So you can write data to your hard drive only 10000...100000 times but read that data any times you want. For "stupid" work it need only once write information and read it any time you wants but real world does not work like this...

If I wrong with my lifetime calculations you can corect me. I will be glad to see corrected lifetime numbers if they exists.

[#9]

If you look at Intel's spec sheet for the x25-m line it specifies 5 years at 20 GB/day writes. What is that 35 TB of writes. I don't think that even your use pattern is likely to generate that in a few days.

But, either way, if you have a concern, just put in a 2nd drive with a platter and compile to it.

[#10]

TheDude can you get me link to that specification?