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I would like to upgrade my Thinkpad T42 to a SSD. I read this is possible. How much will the performance increase or doesnt it really matter, because the processor will then slow it down? Which companys should I buy the SSD’s from? Do I have to look out for something in particular?
T42’s don’t have a sata interface so an SSD upgrade would only be possible with a narrow bunch of fairly slow and expensive models that don’t stack up compared to their sata counterparts. The performance increase I can not say, depends on what you use the laptop for. An upgrade to a standard larger capacity western digital drive would be possible and more then likely would still make a nice performance difference compared to the drive that came with this model laptop. There is a bunch of things to look out for, depending on your operating system, BIOS, etc…….. For the price of an decent size SSD that would work for your system you could buy a T61 with windows 7 & fingerprint reader etc for $100 more on ebay. or a good netbook with slightly smaller screen & SSD w/ warranty all already there might be fine too depending on your needs. Just what i might do, even thou not part of your question.
Hi !! The T42 will work excellent with a mSATA to 44 pin IDE adapter and mSATA SSD drive. First, be sure you have the latest bios 3.23 - if not flash the bios to 3.23 version, you will need a usb 3,5’ floppy drive adapter to do that. Search ebay for “mSATA to IDE” and you will find several alternatives, ranging in price from $4 to $30. some of them will fit directly into the 2,5’ hd caddy, orhers will also work but ( the $4 ones) is more difficult to fit. In addition you will need a mSATA hard drive. Speed will be limited to IDE 33 mb/s from the ide bus found in the T42, BUT: due to the mSATA SSD’s low latency time and the capability to 100% utilize the capacity of the IDE 33 mb/s bus speed, the performance when it comes to everything related to disk operations is enormous. even if the T42 is very old, the quality is up to day unmatched. I use a T42 as a chart plotter for my boat, running Linux and OpenCpn and the performance is far better than a new laptop with w8.1 running OpenCpn, the reason is that the Linux is so much more suited for the job than w8.1,
Hey there I am using a T-42, because I need a computer that supports Windows 98 for my work. To upgrade it, I bought SSD with IDE connector and tried to connect, but the computer does not recognize it. I tried it in the main drive and tried in the CD drawer, but the computer does not recognize it. Is there a way to make it work ??? Thanks ;)
With reference to my post above, I add some photos of adding mSATA ssd to a T42, and also ASSSD ssd benchmark under Win7 after installing. Win 7 boots in 24 seconds. 4 photo: above, 44 pin pata to mSATA adapter from ebay, about $ 5,- under, same adapter with mounted 120 gb mSATA sse disc. 3 photo: the mSATA adapter mounted in the place of the original 2,5’ IDE drive 2 photo: the mSATA adapter secured with strong packing tape ( maybe not required, but extra safety) 1 photo: ASSSD benchmark under w7 32 bit with 2 gig ram.
