sata2 msata SSD or standard sata3?

[unifex]

Hi all,

I'm basically looking at buying either:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/250gb...mb-cache-97k-7
or
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/250gb...mb-s-write-520

I'm sure both will be a big speed bump for my lenovo thinkpad t420, but does anyone know how much slower the msata one would perform? I know that the msata port underneath the t420 is only sata2, whereas the main drive slot and ultrabay run at sata3. Does anyone have any experience running an msata ssd at sata3?

[DanceswithUnix]

I do have experience of running an SSD in an oldish i5 laptop that is only capable of 3Gbps. It feels like an SSD. Obviously I can't turn the speed up to 6Gbps to see how much better that would be, but my gut feeling is that I am not missing out on anything. So I don't think you can go wrong really.

Installing Windows on that laptop from a fast USB stick onto SSD was an odd experience. Fastest Windows install I have seen, and eerily silent when you are used to the clunking of a dvd drive and thrashing of the HD.

[kompukare]

Can't help the OP about speed, but the mention of T420 and mSATA gives me a chance to rant about why Lenovo force people to chose between the 3G card and mSATA on both the T models (T420, T430, T440 etc.) and the X models (X220, X230, X240).

All of these models have the 3G aerial and the SIM card built in, but none of them can use both mSATA and 3G since there is only one slot. On T models (but not the T440 as that no longer has any optical drive), there is the option to install a HDD/SSD in the optical bay but anyone who wants a light X model with two drives and 3G is out of luck.

[Domestic_Ginger]

I upgraded from sataII to III and migrated across a sataIII ssd. It was not noticeably different in terms of reads and writes.

I would use the III port though just because. Well, just because you can. You'll alwaus wonder what the sataIII speeds would be like if you didn't.

XP files installed from a separate partition was my best install experience.