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W520 pcie M2 port and recent intel SSD?

W500/W510/W520 and W700/W701 Series
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gauthier
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W520 pcie M2 port and recent intel SSD?

#1 Post by gauthier » Thu Oct 13, 2016 3:15 pm

I'm wondering if I can put those SSDs in it:

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ ... -spec.html

What about the one which has height of 3.73mm ?

Thanks for insight.

theterminator93
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Re: W520 pcie M2 port and recent intel SSD?

#2 Post by theterminator93 » Thu Oct 13, 2016 3:47 pm

Not unless you intend to buy a SATA to M.2 adapter caddy for either the 2.5" primary SATA bay or ultrabay (and the necessary SATA ultrabay adapter), such as this: https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-2-5in-A ... J7U20?th=1

The extra port you're seeing in the W520 isn't M.2, it's mSATA. mSATA on the W520 uses the SATA-II standard, so your throughput will be limited to ~285 MB/s. If you need faster raw transfer speeds, then the only options are drives that live in the primaray SATA bay as it is SATA-III.
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Re: W520 pcie M2 port and recent intel SSD?

#3 Post by jcvjcvjcvjcv » Fri Oct 14, 2016 8:30 am

W520 is mSata, not M.2 Buy something like a Crucial MX200 mSata; available in 250 and 500 GB. And the *ugh* Samsung Evo 850 exists in 1TB mSata as well.
theterminator93 wrote:Not unless you intend to buy a SATA to M.2 adapter caddy for either the 2.5" primary SATA bay or ultrabay (and the necessary SATA ultrabay adapter), such as this: https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-2-5in-A ... J7U20?th=1

The extra port you're seeing in the W520 isn't M.2, it's mSATA. mSATA on the W520 uses the SATA-II standard, so your throughput will be limited to ~285 MB/s. If you need faster raw transfer speeds, then the only options are drives that live in the primaray SATA bay as it is SATA-III.
The Ultrabay is SATA-III as well
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gauthier
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Re: W520 pcie M2 port and recent intel SSD?

#4 Post by gauthier » Fri Oct 14, 2016 10:02 pm

Thanks both for your thorough and helpful answer :)

I just bought a W520 with quad-core 2.5 i7 and maxed ram to upgrade my T420s, what intel ssd do you recommend to put in the msata port?

For the primary SATA bay, am I good going with this one: https://www-ssl.intel.com/content/www/u ... -spec.html

Thanks again for outstanding technical information!

ajkula66
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Re: W520 pcie M2 port and recent intel SSD?

#5 Post by ajkula66 » Fri Oct 14, 2016 10:14 pm

gauthier wrote:Thanks both for your thorough and helpful answer :)

I just bought a W520 with quad-core 2.5 i7 and maxed ram to upgrade my T420s, what intel ssd do you recommend to put in the msata port?
Does it have to be an Intel?
For the primary SATA bay, am I good going with this one: https://www-ssl.intel.com/content/www/u ... -spec.html
My two suggestion would be SanDisk Extreme Pro or Samsung 850 Pro. I like Intel drives generally speaking, but I don't like TLC NAND.
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gauthier
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Re: W520 pcie M2 port and recent intel SSD?

#6 Post by gauthier » Sun Oct 16, 2016 7:29 pm

Thanks Ajkula, I think I'll get a intel 730 (I use one with my T420s), I'm somehow leaning toward intel wrt. SSD drives and thanks for the notice about TLC which I wasn't aware of.

ajkula66
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Re: W520 pcie M2 port and recent intel SSD?

#7 Post by ajkula66 » Sun Oct 16, 2016 8:10 pm

gauthier wrote:Thanks Ajkula, I think I'll get a intel 730 (I use one with my T420s), I'm somehow leaning toward intel wrt. SSD drives and thanks for the notice about TLC which I wasn't aware of.
730 is the last Intel SSD worth owning, IMO. I've gone through a few and they were excellent.
...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

Cheers,

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my music if anyone cares: https://www.youtube.com/@TheWaterMemory

PMs requesting personal tech support will be ignored.

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