[ltp] Which SSD for a X201?

[Dan Maran]

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Marius Gedminas
> Sent: 04/20/11 08:20 AM
> To: linux-thinkpad@linux-thinkpad.org
> Subject: Re: [ltp] Which SSD for a X201?
> 
> On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 12:36:20PM -0600, Christos Papadopoulos wrote:
> > I am about to get an X201 and would like to use an SSD with it. If you
> > have an SSD in yours, please let me know what you bought and how well it
> > worked for you. Any reason to stick with the Lenovo SSD? I'd like to get
> > a third party unit since they tend to be cheaper.
> > 
> > I am looking at at least 128GB, preferably more.
> 
> I've a 160 GB Intel X25-M SSD and am extremely pleased with it.
> 
> (It was not cheap.)
> 
> Marius Gedminas
> -- 
> BASIC:
>  A programming language. Related to certain social diseases
>  in that those who have it will not admit it in polite company.

I do not have X201 but a R61 with a modified BIOS to enable full SATA II speeds, I do however have 3 different SSD's:
1. Intel X-25-M 80GB
2. A-DATA S599 64GB with SF-1222 controller
3. Mushkin Castillo Deluxe 90GB SF-1200 controller

Thoughts on each:
The Intel unit was a good low power disk, as you can see from the specs, this unit seemed to degrade fairly quickly and using the Intel supplied tools under windows I could not get the original performance back in a little over 3 months. This in my opinion was unacceptable and was quickly replaced with the A-DATA.

The A-DATA showed a night and day difference as compared to the Intel, the boots were quicker, program access was faster and writes had little or no impact as compared to X-25M. My ONLY issue with the S599 was the size, I found 64GB is too small even for my needs. 

Which in turn made me choose the cost effective Mushkin, what can I say about this drive? It is the absolute hands down best of the three, it's very much in line with the A-DATA but for some unknown reason it feels faster. I have been using this SSD for the past 6 months with no performance hits and no stuttering**

As of now the Intel X-25M has been relegated to a testing role, the A-DATA is now the boot/normal programs(!games) drive on my Windows 7 machine and the Mushkin pushes my Thinkpad R61 everyday without pause. 

/HTH

**There was a stuttering issue which presented itself while testing OpenSuse 11.4 x64 which was not present while using RHEL 6(SL), this was fixed by a firmware update from the Mushkin website without issue and now that RHEL is back on it there has been no recurrence of the issue. I will keep my eye on it.

---
Dan
:w! saves