Can a T500 run SATA 3.0 Gbit/s?

[dominik_heine]

 Hi!

I'm having a Lenovo ThinkPad T500 (2081CTO) and I want to buy a new hard drive.

I would like to buy a SSD, but just due to the fact that I read that the mechanical HDDs are just too slow to really take advantage of SATA 3.0 Gbit/s.

This was stated here as well as that it should be working with approximately the speed of SATA 3.0 Gbit/s: http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T61-and-prior-T-series-ThinkPad/T61-Support-SATA-II/m-p/64464/page/6?vie...

Now I read here that my notebook would not be able to use the SATA 3.0 Gbit/s anyway: http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/Quick-T500-question/m-p/71948#M6012 

Can somebody please clarify this for me or post test results if somebody has done this kind of after-market upgrade - is the second post just wrong or is there a problem with the T500?

Thanks for your help!

Cheers

Dominik

[lead_org Microsoft MVP Contributor]

it can't fully saturate sata I in its native speed, no platter hdd can. 

[MrPeter1985 Guru]

Per http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-71784 it is SATA not SATA II. But if SATA 3.0 does not run at 3 then it will run under 1.5, that is not a problem. People can confirm that the difference between 1.5 and 3 is not that much. The only huge difference is between a HDD and SSD drive.

[dominik_heine]

Hi!

Thanks for your answers so far.

@mrpeter1985: the page just states that the HDDs shipped with the T500 are only SATA - but the controller inside (Intel ICH9M-E/M according to the device manager) is supposed to be able to support SATA 3.0 Gbit/s.

Does anybody have a SATA 3.0 Gbit/s-HDD in its T500 and could provide a quick benchmark of HDD-throughput, maybe SiSoftware Sandra Lite (http://www.sisoftware.net) or Everest (http://www.lavalys.com)?

Thanks in advance!

Cheers

Dominik

[sys3175]

I believe the T500 has been benchmarked at 3.0 speeds on several sites testing out fast SSD's..  though depending on your bios, and driver versions your mileage may vary..

[TheDude]

The only way you will get over 1.5 GBs is with an SSD. The T500 spec. is to support SATA II, so put in an SSD and get going.

[dominik_heine]

Hi!

@sys3175: thanks - that's a good idea! I had a hard time finding benchmarks for the T500 with SSD - I only managed to find this: http://communities.intel.com/message/86694;jsessionid=5F17717E6EF0566924EA8C724AE00E97.node6COM and this: http://kettya.com/notebook2/crystaldiskmark.htm

The first link gives hope since it at least gets over the 1.5 Gbit/s - so it appears that SATA 3.0 Gbit/s is supported. The second link is less promising, but well maybe something else was wrong there...

Do you have any more/better benchmarks?

Thanks for the help!

Cheers

Dominik

[elsass]

Hello,

What's new about the SATA speed of levono T400, T500, W500 etc. ?

Here Mark_Levono answer the SATA operate at the normal SATA II speed.

This thread : http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/W-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/Does-the-ThinkPad-W500-support-SATA-II-in-both...

But the same Mark_Levono also responded that le SATA of the T400, T500, W500 is limited at 1.5Gbit which corresponds to SATA I bitrate.

this thead : http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T61-and-prior-T-series-ThinkPad/T61-Support-SATA-II/m-p/64464/page/6?vie...

Clearly today i dont know if a SSD SATA II will be operate with the full bitrate in a lenovo T500...

[lead_org Microsoft MVP Contributor]

@elsass,

Mark_Lenovo didn't say that the T400, T500, W500 drives are limited to SATAI, but rather he is saying that the platter spinning harddrive used in that generation of ThinkPads are operating in SATAI mode. If you have a SATAII drive then that is what it will operate under.

[krzysiuc]

I can only confirm. I have T500 with Intel 320 SSD and it runs in SATA2 mode.