Hard Drive Upgrade for x230T - mSATA SSD + 320g HD or Straight SSD

Hi All,

I just picked up a Lenovo x230T, and I'm looking to upgrade its internal hard drive (a 320gb 7200 RPM hd). My options are to either:

1) Buy an mSATA drive and install it in the ExpressCard slot, move my OS and programs onto it, and keep the original drive for extra storage. If so, I'd be looking at roughly $90 for a 120gb mSATA SSD drive. I'd expect its Windows Experience Index to jump up from about a 5.9 to a 7.8. The downside would be that I'd loose the ExpressCard slot (not sure what else I'd use it for), and I'm not sure if I would lose (or gain less) battery life in the process.

OR

2) Just buy a 7mm SSD drive and replace the original 320gb platter drive. I imagine that I only need about 256 gb of HD space, which puts me at roughly $215 for the SSD and an adapter for the installation. I'd expect the Windows Experience Index for the HD to jump from 5.9 to 7.9, and I'd expect some sort of battery life savings.

Any advice? The mSATA seems like the way to go, but I'm not sure if I'm underestimating the ExpressCard usefulness or power savings.

Thanks!

 

Wait why would you put an mSATA in your EC slot? X230t has a mSATA slot for mSATA SSDs.

 

Go with the mSATA SSD. Your WEI for HD will go to about 7.5. And Tsunade_Hime is right, your mSATA SSD goes in a separate slot inside your computer.

Serial ATA - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

How about SSDs everywhere?

2.5" 7mm SATAIII SSD
mSATA SATAIII SSD
ExpressCard SATAII SSD or ExpressCard SD Memory Card Reader + SD Memory Card
SDXC UHS-I certified 64GB Memory Card