Turbo-charging my X-40 with a SSD.

from JoeUser Forums

Six hears ago, IBM released the best portable laptop I’ve ever used. The ThinkPad X40.

It was only about 2 and a half pounds, quite fast (especially at the time), had a full sized keyboard with a 12.1 inch display.

It had only one weakness. Its pathetic 4200RPM HDD. A drive that has definitely not aged well.

I benchmarked it the other day:

x40drive
ThinkPad X40’s original 4200 RPM drive.

Ignore the burst speed. Look at the average read speed. 6.6 MB/sec.  Let me put that in perspective, a desktop PC from the same era could expect to do around 40 MB/sec.  That’s 6X faster.

Obviously, today, that speed is really embarrassing and more specifically, it makes an otherwise highly useful laptop useless because if you want to use even remotely new software, it just takes forever to deal with (not to mention, picture dealing with virtual memory on such a machine).

So I’m putting in my new SSD drive tonight.

Update....

Here is the ThinkPad X40 updated with a SSD:

 

53 MB/sec.

Now, that may not seem that fast but remember, the limiting factor here (Besides the fact that it's not even SATA but rather PATA) is the CPU. 

We're talking an instant 8X faster experience.  So instead of taking 240 seconds to boot (4 minutes) it would boot in 30 seconds.

Except it's actually better than that because of the random access time of 0.2ms vs 61ms.  Or put another way, random seek went form being nearly a 10th of a second to instantly. 

Net result, instead of it taking 5 minutes to boot it now takes 10 seconds in real world conditions. It's now a very usable netbook type device except the upgrade only cost $100 or so.

21,917 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

I just bought a new CPU. Now it looks like I'm going to have to work a SSD into the budget... :P

Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Which SSD drive are you using?

Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

About 6 weeks ago I decided to follow Brad's commands, as impossible as they are to disobey, and buy a SSD. Result: WOW 8O  

 

I bought the Supertalent Ultradrive 64GB GX. Without  testing other SSDs I can't say how good it is compared to other SSDs but I can say it is fast! It doesn't seem to matter how many programs you're opening at the same time, they all seem to open as if the computer is idle. At this point the most disappointing things are size (64GB for $300 AUD) and that I can't have ALL my drives as SSDs due to cost. Transfer rates are about 200mb/s, 3 times that of my 1TB drive, and people can transfer over the network to/from my system without my system slowing to a crawl, coughing, dying, coughing, then dying again in a fireball of explody goodness. I think my next system will be a 3 x RAID SSD. A man can dream; a man can dream :')  

 

Cheers To Brad, Overlord and supplier of Awesomo Gamage!

Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top

At this point the most disappointing things are size (64GB for $300 AUD
End of quote

I'm getting me a 128gb Kingston SSDNOW V Series Sata II   for 329.00 AUD, hopefully it should arrive next week.  I hadn't planned on doing this for a few more months yet, but what the heck... only live once... and I'm not getting any younger.

Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I have an old dell laptop I wanted to revive (the HD died).  But replacement 2.5" ide hard drives are too expensive.  I wanted to try this.  Would this SSD you used work for my application?

 

Thanks.

Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I have an old dell laptop I wanted to revive (the HD died). But replacement 2.5" ide hard drives are too expensive. I wanted to try this. Would this SSD you used work for my application?
End of quote

Should do.

I may try the same thing...my old Dell is painfully slow....but otherwise does the 'job'.

If it goes to God in the end I can just chuck the SSD in my tower....along with the existing one...;)

Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Do you need a special adaptor for this to work?  That is what I wasn't sure about.  All the new drives are sata, and my laptop is IDE. 

 

I too was thinking the same thing on the old laptop.  This may revive it a bit, and it if crashes, the drive isn't useless.

 

Thanks.

Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top

To anyone looking to upgrade to a SSD... If you don't have a decent processor it will bottleneck.

BE SURE TO DO SOME RESEARCH!  Some of the name brand SSD's are junk, yet others are Awesome and you can sometimes get the same exact drive with a generic name and price.

You can get one with an interface of SATA, IDE, even PCI and more.

But make sure whichever one you decide on, be sure it comes with TRIM.

Check to see what kind of architecture you would like... either SLC or MLC.

When you think you have decided on the very drive you want, go to the manufacturer's website and read some forums about your new SSD.

Enjoy... worth every penny.

ps. I have an OCZ Agility 120Gb with a Core I7 920 and 6Gb of 1600MHz RAM... Sweeeeeeeet.

Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Thank you for your input in this matter.  Helps direct my research time.  Much appreciated.