Thinkpads Forum

I seem to remember that the mSATA port was quite slow compared with the normal HDD port on the W530.

I was thinking of leaving a copy of Win7 installed on an mSATA SSD and having Win10 or 11 on the HDD port.

The ThinkMods have an ExpressCard to NVMe adapter. So, of course i am now wondering if that would be faster than the mSATA and as quick as the HDD port.

Has anyone tried the NVMe route, what are you thoughts?

W530 Expresscard bandwidth is PCIe 2.0 x1 which is ~500 megabytes/sec, while the mSATA slot is SATA II @ 300 megabytes/sec

Do you have a Thinkmods NVMe adapter? Last I heard he had problems delivering. Is it still around?

axur-delmeria wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 20, 2025 11:11 pm

W530 Expresscard bandwidth is PCIe 2.0 x1 which is ~500 megabytes/sec, while the mSATA slot is SATA II @ 300 megabytes/sec

Do you have a Thinkmods NVMe adapter? Last I heard he had problems delivering. Is it still around?

Thank you. No i just found the ExpressCard adaptor via a search for "Thinkmods". It doesn't look like their site allows international shipping.

ac427 wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 23, 2025 3:44 pm

Thank you. No i just found the ExpressCard adaptor via a search for "Thinkmods". It doesn't look like their site allows international shipping.

Do note that the W530 cannot boot from an NVMe SSD (no BIOS support as NVMe didn't exist yet when the W530 came out). The Thinkmods adapter has an embedded USB flash disk that contains the Clover bootloader (or something similar) which has NVMe boot support.

IIRC there are other Expresscard to NVMe adapters available, but none have embedded USB flash.

axur-delmeria wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 24, 2025 4:40 am

ac427 wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 23, 2025 3:44 pm

Thank you. No i just found the ExpressCard adaptor via a search for "Thinkmods". It doesn't look like their site allows international shipping.

Do note that the W530 cannot boot from an NVMe SSD (no BIOS support as NVMe didn't exist yet when the W530 came out). The Thinkmods adapter has an embedded USB flash disk that contains the Clover bootloader (or something similar) which has NVMe boot support.

IIRC there are other Expresscard to NVMe adapters available, but none have embedded USB flash.

Thanks, I didn't realise i could not boot from the mSATA port. I might return the 512GB i purcahsed in that case.

ac427 wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 27, 2025 5:08 pm

Thanks, I didn't realise i could not boot from the mSATA port.

That's not what he said.

ac427 wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 27, 2025 5:08 pm

Thanks, I didn't realise i could not boot from the mSATA port. I might return the 512GB i purcahsed in that case.

My previous post didn't say anything about the mSATA slot. It was about NVMe SSDs not being bootable because of non-existent BIOS support. Regarding mSATA boot, this forum post explicitly mentions booting from an mSATA SSD on his W530.

Apologies. I have re-read the earlier response.

Did the Thinkmod EC to NVMe adapter even get shipped to anyone or at least anyone outside the States?

https://thinkmods.store/products/expres ... me-adapter

ac427 wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 28, 2025 3:54 pm

Apologies. I have re-read the earlier response.

Did the Thinkmod EC to NVMe adapter even get shipped to anyone or at least anyone outside the States?

https://thinkmods.store/products/expres ... me-adapter

My understanding is some got shipped, I'm in the ThinkMods discord server and I would say every 2nd post or so is someone complaining they didn't get theirs.

Last post of any kind by the seller was in December.

There are plenty of cheap adapters on AliExpress and the like, won't look as nice, but I've considered getting one myself.

ac427 wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 28, 2025 3:54 pm

There are plenty of cheap adapters on AliExpress and the like, won't look as nice, but I've considered getting one myself.

I bought mine from AliExpress, it works nice, but temps can get high. I won't trust putting in an expensive drive on it, even using a thermal pad.