Reddit mentions of Transcend 256GB SATA III 6Gb/s MTS400 42 mm M.2 SSD Solid State Drive (TS256GMTS400)

> £1000

Let's break it down.

• £1000 is $1447.
  
  
• The Cube i7 has a 2242 m.2 ssd slot. For $91.99 you can get a Transcend 256GB SATA 3 M.2 SSD drive.
  
• The screen. The Cube i7 has a 1080p samsung panel with a Wacom digitiser. The digitiser is compatible with all Wacom stylus pens, supports hover, 1024 points of pressure and has tilt sensitivity.
  
• The stylus is not included so let's add a Wacom stylus ($79.95)
  
• Ports. The Macbook 2015 has one port that needs dongles for everything. The Cube i7 has a USB 3.0 port, a mini HDMI port, a docking port that can hook up to an optional keyboard with USB 3.0 hub.
  
• Let's talk about the high res display on the Macbook. Putting aside the fact that the Cube i7 can power a 4k monitor at 60hz via mini HDMI... what is more useful? A ridiculously high resolution screen that a Core M and intel graphics can't hope to utilise, or a fully fledged stylus digitizer for creative work? The screen is the worst design decision on the Macbook 2015 imho.
  
• The screen of the Macbook is larger. The Cube i7 is more portable.
  
• 8GB ram is useless on a low power dual core system. I had a high end PC in 2007 that lasted four years, did not need more than 4GB. If you're really obsessed about the ram, you can go look for a Dell Venue 11 Pro 7140, it has the exact same specs as the Macbook 2015 (Core M 5Y71, 8GB Ram, 256GB SSD) and goes for $600 used. The Dell has wacom stylus support as well.
  
  So, even at the extra cost of a 256GB high performance sata 3 SSD the Cube i7 and a Wacom stylus the total price comes down to $521.94.
  
  Compare $521.94 to $1447.
  
  I rest my case.

I used a C720 as my daily driver for my last semester of college when I got fed up with my old MacBook Pro. With a lightweight Linux (I installed Arch and kept it lean) I was able to get decent performance, even ran games like Gone Home and Fez on it. I was mainly doing python development, for which the c720 was perfectly adequate. If you want to use it as your primary, I would suggest upgrading the storage using an M.2 replacement drive. Also, look into enabling legacy boot forever by removing a write a protection screw on the motherboard.

Actual 2242 user here. Very happy with this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KLTPUG4/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1. It's was $117 when I bought it in 2014. Regardless of the heresay about m.2, it's good in practical use.

I ordered a T450s with the 16GB M.2 card and a Smartcard reader. I decided to replace the 16GB M.2 with a 256GB M.2: http://amzn.com/B00KLTPUG4

I wanted to move the Windows 8.1 installation to the M.2 so I used a drive cloner: http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

It worked well and was the best of the software that I used (I cloned 3 times before getting things working).

The gotcha is that after cloning the drive you must remove it before booting back to Windows 8.1 (and probably Windows 8). If you don't do this Windows gets confused.

You need an adaptor for the SATA Express connector in the 2.5 inch drive bay. You can't plug a M.2 directly into the drive slot. You can however put a 42 mm (2242) m.2 dirve in the WANN slot, but this slot is SATA III only. The 2.5" drive bay can do PCIe x2 (half as fast as normal NVMe). This would still be twice as fast as a SATA III SSD. This difference might not be noticeable.

What I recommend people do now is either put a 2242 SATA III m.2 in the WANN Slot and keep the 2.5" HDD for mass storage or replace the HDD with a SATA III 2.5 inch drive and buy a cheap enclosure and use the HDD as an external drive.

I'd use this one.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00KLTPUG4/ref=sr_1_2_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1505443680&sr=8-2&keywords=m.2+2242+ssd

I put this SSD in mine:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KLTPUG4?keywords=transcend%2042mm&qid=1457712475&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

Paired with the i3 this thing runs well with GalliumOS dual booting with ChromeOS. GalliumOS looks alot like the Windows UI.

So like this:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KLTPUG4/ref=crt_ewc_title_gw_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

My concern is the connections dont seem to match.

M.2 2242 for second SSD. Something like https://www.amazon.com/Transcend-256GB-MTS400-Solid-TS256GMTS400/dp/B00KLTPUG4

I dunno how good the 840 is, but it'll definitely work. You can directly replace the HDD that came along with the laptop.

Battery: https://lenovo.encompass.com/item/11092852/Lenovo/01AV427/Ct470_Batt_External_6c_72wh_Li

https://lenovo.encompass.com is the place to buy parts, and this is parts list.

Finally, I would not recommend trying to pry the bottom cover off, instead get something like this

Hello,

The X250 uses an M.2 2242 drive. Right now, the largest ones available in that form-factor are 256GB (A-Data, MyDigitalSSD, Transcend and the other usual suspects), but 512GB models have been announced and should be appearing soon. You could, however, use your mSATA SSD in a USB to mSATA external enclosure and treat it like a very large, very fast USB flash drive.

One thing to keep in mind is that the 2242-sized M.2 drives are even smaller than mSATA drives, and use less DRAM chips since they have less board space. As a result, they tend to be slower writing data.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

I had been wondering about the same question, and looking at prices in Europe, there isn't such a huge gap (at least not for all brands):
Transcend MTS400 M.2 SSD 256GB SATA III, MLC

for

EUR 112,44

I think that it mostly comes down to motherboard support of this or that brand for the moment…

I'd be really glad if someone with more knowledge/experience could chime in!

If storage space is a concern, you should look at this It will fit our Chromebooks and vastly expand the storage therein. Might be worth it if you want to keep that as a Windows machine.

That model Alienware (same that I have) supports m.2 ssds like https://www.amazon.com/Transcend-256GB-MTS400-Solid-TS256GMTS400/dp/B00KLTPUG4 so grab yourself one of those, easy done

as for the HDD, just get any 2.5" drive of your choosing and grab a sata to USB connector https://www.pccasegear.com/products/34864?gclid=CjwKEAjw5cG8BRDQj_CNh9nwxTUSJAAHdX3f7h42fX9FSBg_nD3GkFAo-TMimlfxdzbmFatKDQmu4xoC0avw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds use it like a USB to copy over your files and then put in the new one

Also I recommend reinstalling your OS

This seems pretty good to me

This guy has been in my laptop for nearly a year:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00KLTPUG4/ref=mp_s_a_1_17?qid=1456810526&sr=8-17&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=m.2+ssd&th=1&psc=1

It's about the size of two full sized sim cards (or four, two stacked side by side to include thickness), and I could easily imagine losing 2 hours of battery life to fit it into a 6 inch phone.

There's also this..

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B010Q57S62/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?qid=1456810757&sr=8-3&pi=SX200_QL40&keywords=256gb+micro+sd+card&dpPl=1&dpID=41xMr6kOMcL&ref=plSrch

So.. I would bet money that most manufacturers have held back in respects to storage, preferring larger profit margin, particularly paid cloud storage.

This is the one I'm using on my T460p I have windows 10 installed on it and a linux distro on my main ssd. I have the main linux ssd as the primary boot option in the BIOS and I just F12 whenever I want to use the windows ssd. I haven't had any issues with this set up.

www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KLTPUG4/

The link says it's used but I bought a new one.

Been thinking about getting this one for a while for my x240. It has good reviews and would be the form factor you need. That being said I don' have it just yet.

http://www.amazon.com/Transcend-MTS400-Solid-State-TS256GMTS400/dp/B00KLTPUG4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1424274475&sr=8-3&keywords=m.2+transcend

The case has nothing to do with how big of an M.2 SSD you can fit, the mainboards actual M.2 slot is the defining factor. Makes sense, right?

The Z97E-ITX/ac supports 30mm and 42mm M.2 cards, so no, you cannot use the MTS600.

BTW, why would you buy from Newegg? The SSD is much cheaper at Amazon, which is the much better vendor anyway.

By the way, Transcend now has 2242 drives. Example: http://www.amazon.ca/Transcend-MTS400-Solid-State-TS256GMTS400/dp/B00KLTPUG4/

Just thought I'd share my end results, got my t450s this monday, and had already ordered a 1TB samsung 850 evo SSD for all of my data:

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-75E250B-AM/dp/B00OAJ412U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426951032&sr=8-1&keywords=850+evo

And a Trascend 128 GB M.2 (42 mm) SSD for the operating system

http://www.amazon.com/Transcend-MTS400-Solid-State-TS256GMTS400/dp/B00KLTPUG4/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426951098&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=trascend+m2

My model came with the smart card reader, and no integrated mobile broadband. Following the hardware maintenance manual I was pleased to see how straightforward it was to remove the bottom cover and do the changes (disabled the internal battery before doing anything though). Here's a pic of the t450s without the bottom cover, showing the free M.2 slot, and one with the samsung SSD inside

http://i.imgur.com/R6LSGY4.jpg
http://imgur.com/5YKP5bE

Afterwards I installed Fedora 21 on the M.2 drive and configured the 2.5 SSD as my home drive. Needed to disable secure boot and also change the UEFI setting to legacy (otherwise Fedora would get stuck while booting). As reported by lots of people trackpoint buttons do not work properly, but fixes for that are already in the kernel so they should work eventually.

http://www.amazon.com/Transcend-MTS400-Solid-State-TS256GMTS400/dp/B00KLTPUG4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1426748747&sr=8-2&keywords=m.2+ssd

this is m.2 right, sorry kinda noobish but learning. but i did buy the t450s without the 16 g cache

edit: sorry lol i didnt' read the whole post thorougly but archover said he did install a 256 gb in the m.2 slot. Yeah basically i want to keep the hard drive where it is, and have an ssd as well

That looks like a fine M.2 SSD, but make sure it's the right form factor. I could be wrong, but I thought the T450s M.2 slot was 42mm, or approximately half the length of the one you linked. The drive I was considering was this one: http://www.amazon.com/Transcend-MTS400-Solid-State-TS256GMTS400/dp/B00KLTPUG4/

 

In my T450s, I ended up just replacing the 2.5" HDD with an SSD and not using M.2 at all.

Is there a limit to SSD capacity you can connect to WWAN slot? Will this drive work: https://www.amazon.com/Transcend-256GB-MTS400-Solid-TS256GMTS400/dp/B00KLTPUG4 ?

Y'a pas énormément de choix pour ce format 2242:

https://www.amazon.fr/Transcend-TS256GMTS400-interne-Type-2242/dp/B00KLTPUG4/ref=sr_1_1

Et

https://www.amazon.fr/SanDisk-TM4PS4256GMC101-Disque-Flash-interne/dp/B0191W5MPU/ref=sr_1_4

I don't think M.2 SSDs take up much space (my build has one). I think any case can easily fit like 10. Plus, the number of M.2 SSDs a system can accommodate is usually determined by the motherboard, so not sure what that has to do with the PC case.

Maybe you're talking about something else? I'm talking about something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Transcend-MTS400-Solid-State-TS256GMTS400/dp/B00KLTPUG4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421633733&sr=8-1&keywords=m.2+ssd

http://www.amazon.com/MyDigitalSSD-128GB-120GB-Super-Drive/dp/B00LNF1RVM

http://www.amazon.com/MyDigitalSSD-256GB-Super-Boot-Drive/dp/B00NY4VIPA/

http://www.amazon.com/Transcend-MTS400-Solid-State-TS256GMTS400/dp/B00KLTPUG4

Mine hasn't failed (thankfully) but I've recently learned of another SSD that might work.

Link

I don't actually have this one and just heard about it in this sub so I would do more research to make sure that it does fit though Amazon has a pretty good return policy. Best of luck.

Try :

Y510p needs 42mm ssds

https://www.amazon.com/Transcend-256GB-MTS400-Solid-TS256GMTS400/dp/B00KLTPUG4/ref=pd_sim_147_5?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00KLTPUG4&pd_rd_r=ZF0WTNE8D5GW6ACMXGZF&pd_rd_w=OLiDW&pd_rd_wg=OBXpM&psc=1&refRID=ZF0WTNE8D5GW6ACMXGZF

With that money you can either build a mini itx build (small PC) or a quiet PC, both with respectable performance.

(excuse the price, from the UK so I don't really know the many different sites to get cheaper components)

Mini-ITX build

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor | $219.00 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler | Stock cooler | $0.00
Motherboard | ASUS Z97I-PLUS LGA 1150 Mini ITX Motherboard | $159.99 @ Newegg
Memory | Corsair XMS 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory | $69.99 @ Newegg
Storage | Transcend 256 GB SATA III 6Gb/s MTS400 42 mm M.2 SSD | $150.33 @ Amazon
Storage | HGST Travelstar 2.5-Inch 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6GB/s 32MB | $80.77 @ Amazon
Video Card | MSI Graphics Card N760 | $379.00 @ Newegg
Case | Cubitek Mini Cube ITX Computer Case | $99.99 @ QuietPC
Power Supply | Corsair CS Series 450 Watt ATX Semi-Modular | $62.08 @ Newegg
| | Total
| | $1,221.15

This is sorta the build I personally want. It's a small setup but powerful enough. Hopefully more manufacturers will be Mini-ITX-ing higher end graphics cards.

You probably want to get a m.2 SSD (faster than your standard 2.5" SSD) which is only supported by Z97 and H97 motherboards.


_____

a quieter build will be using Nanoxia Deep Silence series cases and this beast of a CPU "fan".