Hybrid HD vs. HD + SSD dilemma

Just got my t60. It came with 1 GB of Ram and 60GB HD. I paid $40 and threw in 4GBs of Ram. Yes, I know the T60 can only actually use 3GBs of it.

My dilemma is the HD. I'm an SSD guy and can't live with a traditional HD. I want this to be my download machine (the wireless card on this machine is awesome) so I want some decent space. I'm not paying $300+ for a 250GB drive on a $225 machine.

Seems my best 2 options are:
1) Pay $100 bucks and get a 500GB Momentus XT.
2) Use the stock 250GB HD that came with my X220 and buy an ultrabay caddy for my old Runcore 32GB SSD. It's a great (but small) SSD by the way.

I like option 2 the most, but I'm worried about the space on the SSD.
I like option 1 for more space and to avoid having 2 different drives. (I find it kind of a pain.) But I really don't like the idea of spending $100 for a new HD on a $225 machine.

Any thoughts?

 

As far as I'm aware, the hybrid drives aren't THAT much faster than traditional HDDs. I'd just use the SSD + HDD combo. I use up a LOT of storage, so I need separate boot and storage partitions and/or disks anyways. Not to mention that I like dual booting my systems with Ubuntu and Windows.

 

I have used the Hybrid drives and have a fare amount of them deployed in X200/201's T, and X61's. They after learn what you access the most are very fast. SSD fast no, much faster in real world use , yes. They have had thier issues and there's a fiimware update to address those issues. If you don't want to spend the massive amount for SSD drive and for a laptop thats Sata 2 interface then these are a great option.

ym

 

I've just gotten a X61 recently too, and I would want to upgrade the hard drive. May I ask if the 2.5 inch SSDs/ hybrids out there are compatible or not? Would the X61's older interface be unable to use the SSD's full speed?

As an aside, any recommendations for HDD/SSDs for the X61?

 

Having used both configurations, I'd recommend the SSD+HDD configuration if you can have that option. Even if the SSD is capped by a "slower" interface, it doesn't make too much difference since the main source of speed that you will notice are the access time and random R/W speeds, which are both unaffected by even the slowest SATA/150 since the random speeds are well below the maximum speed of the interface. Check your OS/programs on your current drive, if you don't play many games, you should be able to fit all that within 32GB easily.