Hi guys,
Old time member of this forum. So I have recently ordered thinkpad x120e E-240 1.5gHz single core, 3GB RAM, 320GB 5400 RPM hard drive.
What will this machine benefit from the most in my upgrades?
A) SSD 128GB
or
B) 7200 RPM 320 GB Hard Drive + 4GB RAM total?
or
C) the CPU is the bottleneck, upgrading SSD or RAM will have little effect!

The most memory intensive application that I will be using is iTunes.

If you are sure it is a single core, then it would be a 32-bit machine. Is that correct?

I ask because I got an X120e for a granddaughter, but it is a 64-bit machine and has Windows 7 Pro 64-bit on it. It's bottleneck is the the CPU.

For you, if you can live on 128Gb, then an SSD drive will make it snappier. Just be CERTAIN to keep it backed up. If you need more space, get the 7200-rpm drive as it will be noticeably faster than the 5400-rpm drive.

If 32-bit for sure, 3Gb is all the memory it can use.

... JDH

exact specs:
Processor: AMD® Fusion™ Processor E240 (1.5GHz, 512KB L2)( )
Operating system: Windows 7 Professional 64 - English
Display: 11.6" HD WXGA (1366 X 768) LED Backlight w/ 0.3MP Camera"
Graphics: ATI™ Radeon™ HD 6310
Memory: 3GB (1GB & 2GB) PC3-10600 DDR3 1333MHz SDRAM SODIMM Memory
Hard Drive: 320GB, 5400RPM Serial ATA 2.5" Hard Drive
Optical Drive: No Optical Included
---------------

Thank you. I was confused by the single core. So that is roughly the same X120e I have here.

The bottleneck is the CPU. It is a slow machine (OK for my grandaughter once it starts).

So I think the only thing you can do to speed this one up is the SSD hard drive. I still do not trust SSD's, so be sure to keep it backed up.

.... JDH

but is 3GB RAM enough for 64 bit windows 7? this is gonna be my first 64 bit machine so I'm not familiar with optimal ram. I'm not gonna be doing anything heavy on this but I would like to have windows 7 running as smoothly as possible.

The X120e I have is quite slow and it has 2Gb of memory. I only ever ran Vista 64-bit and Windows 64-bit on my T61p with 4Gb of memory. 4Gb will help and be better than 3Gb, no question.

I have an M90p Desktop with 4Gb (Windows 7 64-bit) and it runs very fast. My T61p ran fast with 4Gb but I have 8Gb in it for Virtual Machines.

Both my M90p and T61p have stronger CPU's and faster hard drives than the X120e. The difference is very, very noticeable and it really the CPU in the X120e that slows it down. Once started, though, it is a very decent little machine.

.... JDH

Got my thinkpad finally. WEI score is lowest at the CPU as expected. My total RAM is 3.0GB with only 2.6 usable (????? Why?).
I've disabled fancy areo and the laptop feels quite snappy.

My total RAM is 3.0GB with only 2.6 usable (????? Why?).

I don't know for sure. It may be a limitation of the BIOS and CPU. I checked the specifications and it says the X120e can take 4Gb. What I do not know is how much will be useable of 4Gb.

... JDH

The E-240 is a 64 bit CPU, as is almost everything AMD has offered in eight years. They invented the modern x86-64 architecture. The ~400MB of missing RAM is being taken by the Radeon HD 6310. This does not seem to be variable, as I had only 1.6GB available with 2GB of RAM installed.

I had an E-240 X120e, and it was fast enough with Windows 7; the only place it struggled was on webpages that had heavy Flash use. Install Flashblock and you will be okay for general computing. Your machine will benefit the most from addition of a SSD, both in speed, and low power consumption.

I started up my X120e and confirmed the above. So 4Gb should give you an extra 1Gb.

... JDH

okay great, im thinking about getting SSD and 4GB ram total. hopefully it will speed things up a bit. what's your recomendation on SSD and RAM brand?

I recall my vendor shipped me Kingston memory for my T61p and said it was ok within the warranty.

I have not yet used an SSD.

.... JDH

alright so im gonna grab a 4gb stick (these are fairly cheap), 126GB SSD and 32GB SDHC card for extra storage. i will report here about my result and maybe even write a mini review of my new thinkpad. i have to say im quite impressed with the build quality.

One thing I would change, I would re-enable Aero Glass, since it offloads rendering to your GPU (which is pretty powerful).

Yeah, areo glass was the only setting i kept checked. everything else such as shadows, etc is off. BTW I love the black thinkpad theme with black taskbar and start menu.

UPDATE: okay so while I still didn't manage to swap SSD into x120e, I did upgrade ram from 3GB to 6GB. Just the RAM in itself made a world of difference, especially for internet browsers.

Okay so i managed to install 6GB ram and 64GB SSD. I have to say the difference in speed is day and night. The processor speed might have been the limiting factor according to windows but by all means it's completely false estimation of windows experience.