T61 and Solid State Drive Upgrade -- Questions

Solid State Drive prices are going southwards, and I am tempted to explore the possibility of upgrading the existing internal hard drive with a solid sate one (as and when 128 GB SSD become available) in my T61.
My questions are:
1. Is it possible to upgrade to these devices?
2. Would there be any gain in battery life? How much is it likely?
3. Would there be any performance gain?
4. What are the pitfalls?
Sushil
Sushil
ThinkPad T61, (7658CTO), T7500, Integrated Graphics, 320 GB HDD, 3 GB RAM, 1 GB Intel Turbo Memory, Vista (32 bit) Business

Solid state drives have yet to become a worthwhile venture as their use in high end computing has not yet been proven. One of the biggest problems with SSD's is the fact that they cannot come to par with traditional drives in terms of random write speeds. Most people take a performance hit with these types of drives except for the exception of one company, which has gotten speeds up to traditional drive speeds.
However, sequential read and write speeds are marginally faster than traditional drives, which gives u a boost on boot, which is noticably faster. For most business users, the upgrade to an SSD will not yield any tangible results except when transferring bulk files back and forth, at which point one would notice a significant performance hit. Regarding battery life, the first time I used a SSD, it didn't help with battery life at all that was noticable. However, it was well worth the upgrade as it made the laptop literally silent and cool. It's surprising how much sound hard drives make these days ....
My two cents is that the SSD is really an expensive looks-only aesthetic mod but in terms of CG heavy users - not worth it yet unless you can run it in RAID 0 or 5 with 4+ drives, bringing performance quite up to par. At that point, a desktop machine running RAM drives from Gigabyte might even be better....
Message Edited by singularity2006 on 02-19-2008 03:48 PM
T61_Wide | Model No. 7662 - CTO
Core 2 Duo T7250 | 2GB OCZ DDR2-800
82566MM Gigabit | 4965AGN Centrino Pro

Similar Messages

Solid State Drive Upgrade Questions

Hello!!
I'm looking at removing the optical drive (recently deceased) from my MacBook Pro as I rarely use it and can use my friend's external one for the rare occasions I'd need it, and replacing it with a second hard drive. I've heard that this port can't reliably handle 6Gbps speeds so I'm going to put my 1TB mechanical drive in place of the optical drive and put a 64GB solid state in as the "main" drive.
My intention is as you might expect, to use the SSD for OS X and applications.
My first question, is what folders do I need to copy onto that SSD? I'll be using Carbon Copy Cloner to do this task. Do I have to select every folder on the source drive and just unticking any media and data that I'm going to keep on the mechanical 1TB?
When I have the two drives installed, where will my 1TB data appear? Will it still show up in Finder as it does with a single drive, or will appear as another storage device as if it were external? If it's as another device, can I make OS X make it look like everything is on the same drive?
I don't know a huge amount about this stuff, I know enough to do the copying and changing of hardware but not that much about working with OS X in Terminal or anything like that so please be patient if I ask lots of "How to" questions If there are online guides already answering my questions it'd be great to have some links, I've had a hard time finding them!
Thanks

Solid state drives have yet to become a worthwhile venture as their use in high end computing has not yet been proven. One of the biggest problems with SSD's is the fact that they cannot come to par with traditional drives in terms of random write speeds. Most people take a performance hit with these types of drives except for the exception of one company, which has gotten speeds up to traditional drive speeds.
However, sequential read and write speeds are marginally faster than traditional drives, which gives u a boost on boot, which is noticably faster. For most business users, the upgrade to an SSD will not yield any tangible results except when transferring bulk files back and forth, at which point one would notice a significant performance hit. Regarding battery life, the first time I used a SSD, it didn't help with battery life at all that was noticable. However, it was well worth the upgrade as it made the laptop literally silent and cool. It's surprising how much sound hard drives make these days ....
My two cents is that the SSD is really an expensive looks-only aesthetic mod but in terms of CG heavy users - not worth it yet unless you can run it in RAID 0 or 5 with 4+ drives, bringing performance quite up to par. At that point, a desktop machine running RAM drives from Gigabyte might even be better....
Message Edited by singularity2006 on 02-19-2008 03:48 PM
T61_Wide | Model No. 7662 - CTO
Core 2 Duo T7250 | 2GB OCZ DDR2-800
82566MM Gigabit | 4965AGN Centrino Pro

Solid State Drive Upgrade Kit v300a with Windows 8.1 on Envy laptop

I am trying to install the Solid State Drive Upgrade Kit V300a in my new HP Envy with Windows 8.1. This upgrade was listed as an option for this model and was bought with the machine.
The doc lists OS supported, but Windows 8 is not in the list. Is Windows 8 supported?
The included disk labled "Arconis" includes ATIHO user guide pdfs and an HP-Drive-Install-Guide-1.15.13-327pm pdf. The install guide mentions using Arconis. The Arconis user guide says to run "setup" to install Acronis but there is no setup file on the disk. I have chosen the setting to display hidden files and there is nothing on the disk but pdfs. The v300a box claims that it includes Acronis Cloning Software.
How do I install this HP upgrade on my new HP laptop?

When requesting assistance, please provide the complete model name and/or product number of the HP computer in question. HP/Compaq makes thousands of models of computers. Without this information it may be difficult or impossible to assist you in resolving your issue.
The above requested information can be found on the bottom of your computer or inside the battery compartment. Please do not include your serial number. Please enter the model/product information into HP's Online Consumer Support page and/or post it here for our review.
YES, Windows 8 and 8.1 should be supported.
Please refer to this "HP SSD Upgrade Kit Installation Guide" for instructions on setting-up the HP SSD Upgrade Kit and cloning your factory installed hard drive. Please read the guide carefully and in its entirety. Next, assembly the SSD drive and the drive enclosure, per the instructions on page 9. Now, carefully follow the cloning instructions from page 9 to page 26.
Per the instructions, the cloning software should be on the included CD/DVD and it may be a bootable disc. However, if you are unable to locate the required software, please see www.HPSupport.pny.com to register your product and download any needed software.
If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
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My Mac Book Pro has just had a new memory and solid state drive installed. After the installation, the Lightroom tools all became grey. There is no longer any color on the screen other than my picture. Even the color sliders are grey. Can you please help

My MacBook Pro just had a new memory and solid state drive installed. Since the installation, the Lightroom tools are now all grey. Even the color sliders are grey. Please help!

My guess is that your operating system got updated to Mavericks and that you are running an old version of Lightroom:
Sliders are white, look different | Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks
Be aware of a Lightroom bug with color management in mavericks that makes shadows too deep in the Develop module: Jao's photo blog: Serious color management bug in Mac OS 10.9 "Mavericks" and Jao's photo blog: Further quantification of the Mavericks color management problem.

Upgrading ThinkPad E420s, Choosing Memory and Solid State Drive

Hi All,
I want to update my ThinkPad E420s. Now I have 4 GB of memroy and 320 hard drive. I want to get 8 GB memory and a solid stated drive.
I want to verify that I have chosen components that will work with the laptop.
Will the memory and the SSD below work with E420s?
Memory: http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-PC3-10600-204-Pin-Notebook-CT2KIT51264BF1339/dp/B0067G1N34/ref=sr_1_1?...
SSD: http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-240GB-2-5-Inch-Internal-CT240M500SSD1/dp/B00BQ8RM1A/ref=sr_1_1?s=elect...
I used this article as a spec guide http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/pd015793
Specifications for memory:
8GB max7 / PC3-10600 1333MHz DDR3
Non-parity
Dual-channel capable
Two 204-pin SO-DIMM sockets
Specifications for SSD:
Solid State Drive (SSD) / SATA 3.0Gb/s
128GB SSD, 2.5" wide, 7mm high
80GB, mSATA
Thank you!
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Hi Mihalych,
Sure I will provide you the link where you can check with our customer care for nearby service center for your region.
Please click here to visit the Lenovo support link and select your region to get the contact number.
Hope this helps!
Best regards,
Hemanth Kumar
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Solid State Drive Upgrades

Hi guys,
My 2012 MacBook Pro (13" (non-Retina model) i7, 8GB) came with a 5400 RPM 750 GB hard drive.
While it runs fine for general use, I do a lot of pro-audio production & my system struggles while recording & mastering multiple tracks. Although 7200 RPM drives are usually the minimum requirment I thought I might as well keep up with the times & look into upgradint to a solid state drive. It's new territory for me, so any advice & additional information would be greatly appreciated .
In the past I've heard you should only go with drives that use a SandForce controller chipset... I don't know if that is still a valid requirment or not. Considering the size of my software & the audio files (pre-mastering), a 512 GB SSD drive is probably what I'm looking for.
Any recommendations anyone?
Also, while I'm here, if I take out my current system drive (which also contains a Windows 7 installation - via Boot Camp) & mount that into an external USB caddy, can I boot into those operating systems? Compared to my PC I see no BIOS access options in order to set drive boot priority, etc. Can anyone advice as to this point?
Many thanks for your time & kind regards,
mez

Take a look at the great information concerning SSDs here - http://www.overclock.net/t/1179518/seans-ssd-buyers-guide-information-thread/ Most of the coverage is pretty general but some of it is PC- specific. It's a good starting point.
I've a 512GB Crucial m4 series SSD that I've had since April. The nice thing about Crucial is that they have terrific Mac support. So do the drives from OWC, but I find them a touch too expensive.
There are likely a hundred users on here that have SSDs - and you may get a handful of opinions as to what the 'best' SSD is - I think that we tend to be 'in love' with the models that we own and that have given us good service (which is why I recommend Crucial - you don't have to take it to a Windows machine just to update the firmware).
You'll want to buy an external enclosure for your old drive, use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your Mac partition and use Winclone to clone your Boot Camp installation. Then you can use the same external drive to keep a clone of your hard drive (again, I use CCC for that as well).
I'll keep an eye on this thread - should you have any further questions, write back.
Clinton

Solid State Drive (SSD) Questions for G4 "Sawtooth".

Below are some questions concerning using a Solid State Drive (SSD) in a G4 "Sawtooth".
Would a controller card need to be installed for an SSD to work in this machine?
Would the G4 be able to operate in Classic mode with the SSD?
Would the G4 be able to boot into OS 9 with the SSD?
Should the SSD be used only for booting and applications, with user data stored on another drive that does not use SSD technology (such as an ATA or SATA drive)?
Should only 50% of the drive space be used, in order to ensure optimized performance?
Would the G4 only be able to use the first 128 MB of drive space of an SSD that has a capacity greater than 128 MB? If so, would either of the below cards enable the G4 to read the entire drive?
[http://eshop.macsales.com/item/ACARD/AEC6280M>
[http://eshop.macsales.com/item/ACARD/AEC6880M>
-John

Would a controller card need to be installed for an SSD to work in this machine?
One like this:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Sonnet%20Technology/TSATA/
Would the G4 be able to operate in Classic mode with the SSD?
Yes.
Would the G4 be able to boot into OS 9 with the SSD?
Depends on the controller card, but with the linked card, it shouldn't be an issue.
Should the SSD be used only for booting and applications, with user data stored on another drive that does not use SSD technology (such as an ATA or SATA drive)?
Smaller capacity drives will limit file storage, and keeping OS and applications separate always improves performance, regardless of the drive type.
http://www.jcsenterprises.com/Japamacs_Page/Blog/00E03B83-1ADA-406E-A940-396D39F 598EA.html
Should only 50% of the drive space be used, in order to ensure optimized performance?
SSD's can be filled further, but should maintain 20GB or more for virtual memory.
Would the G4 only be able to use the first 128 MB of drive space of an SSD that has a capacity greater than 128 MB?
A controller card removes that limit.
If so, would either of the below cards enable the G4 to read the entire drive?
Those controllers will work for and allow use of large capacity ATA drives.

What's the difference between flash storage and solid state drive in MacBook Pro?

What's the difference between MacBook Pro with flash storage and MacBook Pro with solid state drive?

A SSD is packaged like any other notebook drive. Flash storage uses a different design and layout that connects directly to the motherboard using PCIe. It is faster than a normal SSD.
SSD vs HDD: What's the Difference? | PCMag.com
what are the differences between solid state drive and flash storage ...

Oracle RAC and Solid State Drive

Can we use Solid state Drive with Oracle RAC as a replacement to SAN?
Regards,
RJiv.

burleson wrote:
Hi,
Can we use Solid state Drive with Oracle RAC as a replacement to SAN?Yes, and it works especially great for RAC clusters:
http://www.rampant-books.com/t_rssd_12_removing_bandwidth_saturation.htm
BTW, SSD is now offered by Sun, EMC, and lots of other mainstream vendors, and the prices are falling rapidly:
http://www.dba-oracle.com/include_ssd.htm
Hope this helps . . .
Donald K. Burleson
Oracle Press author
Author of "Oracle Tuning: The Definitive Reference"
http://www.rampant-books.com/book_2005_1_awr_proactive_tuning.htm
Don,
I know you and your company has done lot of research on (RamSan+Oracle RAC), but it will be nice if you can comment on (FusionIO+RAC) solution. I know no one has used it so far, but I think it is viable, so what do you think?
The reason why I think FusionIO is a good solution for small DBs because it's not a Flash Drive and it costs less than the other SSD solutions available in the market. Also you do not want to buy SAN for small DBs (<250 GB).
But I am too sure about the actual configuration at this point like - gigabit vs 10 gigi NIC, type of interconnect, Fiber Channel, etc.
So I would really appreciate if you can provide some insight.
Thanks in advance....
Disclaimer: I do not work for FusionIO - http://www.fusionio.com/

SSD (Solid State Drive) Upgrades and DV7 4280US

I am posting this as an FYI for anyone who is considering upgrading their DV7 or similar laptop with a SSD.
My experience with this has been somewhat difficult and I am hoping this will help.
I own a DV7-4280US laptop with 6GB of memory, i5 processor, and an 750 GB 5400rpm drive. I decided to put a OZC Vertex 2 120GB drive in it to replace the main drive. I decided to do a fresh install of the factory image directly to the new drive. This failed. I was able to run the HP recovery disks and get all the way through without an error, but was not able to boot. The system stated that there was no valid boot disk. I tried several times with different options and always got the same error message when I tried to boot from the SSD.
The solution for me was to use partition wizard home edition (http://download.cnet.com/Partition-Wizard-Home-Edition/3000-2094_4-10962200.html?tag=mncol;1) and to copy partition #1,2 and 4 over to the new drive (from my old drive in an external enclosure) resizing appropriately so the data all fit on the newer smaller drive. I was careful to make sure each partition was created as a primary partition not a logical one. I also had to make the first partition active as it contained the boot info for Win 7-64bit.
A note about partition size: before I copied the partitions over, I decided to uninstall some of the extra software I did not use that came from HP and a few that I had installed. I also deleted all of my temporary files and did a disk clean up. It is best to not fill your new SSD too quickly and to do as few writes as possible. It is the writing that consumes the drive over time and even if you copied the partition and then uninstalled and cleaned up you will have still consumed some of the life of your drive. I was able to trim my C: drive down to about 30 GB and have a lot of space left in the 111GB of that partition.
My guess is that the problem with the HP restore disks is that they for whatever reason did not set the first partition as active on the SSD. I have not been able to figure out why because they would do this correctly if it were any other type of drive. Maybe this is a bug with that restore program.
I also found that doing a fresh install of Win 7 form a microsoft disk works fine too.
I have been told by OCZ that if I have enough memory (4GB +) that I should set the page file to "No Paging File" in the advanced system settings. This will conserve the SSD as they have a limited number of writes and over time the page file will consume a good portion of it's life.
OCZ and Microsoft both recommended that I run the Windows Experience Index immediately after installing the SSD because it will turn off several prefetch and caching services that you will not need with your new SSD.
I have been super happy with my new SSD and am absolutely convinced that it is the very best upgrade you can do to speed up your system. My windows experience index went from 5.2 to 6.7 the disk is now rated at 7.6. Windows now loads in about 8 seconds and web pages are almost instantaneous. It is well worth the 200 I paid for the drive.

Hey...thanks for the information - I wish my search had come across your post earlier...it would have saved me a couple days of pulling my hair out! I just bought a DV7-7298 (i7, 1T HDD, 12GB RAM, Win8 pre-installed) and similarly wanted to install an SSD (Intel 335 240GB).
The recovery disk option for intalling Win8 on the new drive got me nowhere at all - it would not boot except for once and I had no networking and major software installation issues which forced a reboot sequence and more terror...horribly frustrating and HP was absolutely no help. I had a Windows 7 disk that I was able install on the SSD but no clean Win8 disk. I called Microsoft (who were quite helpful) - they were happy to allow me to download a fresh copy of Win8 with my existing Win8 Product Key...great, I thought...
With some aftermarket software I found the Win8 key which is attached electronically to the BIOS on these new machines - no more Product Key stickers on the bottom of our machines...the problem is that the OEM Key was not accepted by the Windows site to allow me to download the clean Win8 software...argh! In the end, Microsoft helped again by agreeing to mail to me a Win8 install disk (which I though was decent of them)...not a quick solution, however. In looking for solutions, I came across the Microsoft Win8 Pro upgrade offer ($40 until Jan. 31, 2013) - in order to potentially get this done, I decided to spend the $40 and get the upgrade which I downloaded and installed immediately...in the end? Success!! But not quite so fast...I had to install Windows7 on the SSD first in order to run the Win8Pro install which I'd put on the 1T drive that came with the machine - put it in an external drive...it installed without any issues. I downloaded the drivers that Windows missed from the HP website and now have a slick, extremely fast notebook without all the bloatware...so sweet!
It is amazing just how fast these drives work - no regrets at all (except for the wasted time getting it working)...this is a great performance upgrade - if you want a faster machine and quick boot, this has got to be the best bang for the $! With this DV7, I can still have the 1T drive in the second bay (battery power isn't a problem for me) so a lot of my data will be going there with programs on the SSD. If you're considering this upgrade - great - do it for sure! But do yourself a favour and don't waste time with the HP recovery disks...they just don't work for this upgrade...find someone with a clean Windows disk (XP, Vista (ugh2), 7 or 8) and install your OS that way. If you have the UEFI BIOS Product Key set-up - it should activate itself (Win8).
Best of luck - you'll love the results!

Solid State Drive Cost

My neighbor is looking to possibly buy a Macbook Pro this month. She would like to get the 512 solid state drive upgrade but the cost is utterly nuts. My reply to her was, "why pay less when you can pay more?" Seriously. I did mention that she could buy the same ssd drive, elsewhere, for literally $500 cheaper. I also mentioned that for her money she might want to wait for ivy-bridge and usb 3. Would like to hear from those who are happy with cost verses benefits of solid state drives.

Csound1 wrote:
Because your post suggested that other than capacity they are the same, and they are not, neither of them are as fast as pure SSD, but the 750 is closer (I don't really care how fast they boot, I rarely reboot) they are quicker at opening and closing files than pure rotational drives. There is also a price difference as you noted, but if price was the issue we'd be using regular drives and saving much more money. As a bonus the 750 is cooler and quieter than the 500 in my experience (2 x 750, 20+ x 500)
Current firmware for them is SD28 for the 500 and SD12 for the 750, SD28 is a must if you use the 500, 26 & 27 had issues.
I am sorry my post does not suggest that at all. I suggested the 750 and stated what I used to replace the SSD I had in my system.

Converting to Solid State Drive

I would like to upgrade the hard drive in my HP IQ816 to a solid state drive. I will clone and then swap out the HD with the SSD. I'm trying to find a compatible SSD (256 GB). HP has a kit - 2.5" Solid State Drive & Upgrade Kit v300a/ak I am wondering if that is the right kit or is there a better or more compatible one for this purpose. thanks... Rick

You will find this helpful: Upgrade manual This is the HP upgrade kit: http://www.shopping.hp.com/shopping/pdf/h5a88aa.pdf Not sure how much this costs but I suspect you can get an SSD much cheaper. Also

XServe only sees internal solid-state drive.

Hello,
XServe only sees internal solid-state drive, doesn't not see any other hard drives. I currently have (3) 1 TB drives in each bay. Disk Utility only sees CD-ROM and solid-state drive.
Any ideas on how I can get it to see my drives?
Jeremy

Some more details would be helpful:
Are these the drives that shipped with the system?
Did they suddenly go off-line? Was it after some event?
Do you have a RAID card?
SATA or SAS drives?
What does System Profiler show?
And any other details that might be relevant.
=Tod
Thank for the reply, Tod. As far as I can tell, these were the drives that shipped with the system. The XServe was purchased 2 years ago, and only recently was it decided to bring it up. I tested the drives individually with a USB-SATA adapter and was able to see the drives on an iMac, so I know they aren't broken. I also was able to partition the drives using this method. System Profiler only mentions the CD-Rom and the solid state drive. The XServe does not have a RAID card and is not connected to an array. I even tried to boot off of cd, but the still couldn't been seen.
Thanks!
Jeremy

Upgrade my Macbook Pro 17" with solid state drive and RAM?

My MBP is a 17" mid-2009, 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, Memory 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3, Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT 512 MB.
I am an architecture student. I use 3D modeling programs like SketchUp, Revit, AutoCad, etc. According to these software websites, my MBP is sufficient. However, when I'm running these programs, I get the apple "beach ball" a LOT, along with a lot of lagging even when I'm working on simple models. After doing some research, it appears that upgrading my RAM to 8GB (my model's max capability) and buying a solid state drive would help my MBP run much faster and much cooler.
My questions:
1. What brand and exact product #/link to this (if possible) of RAM (2 x 4GB sticks) and SSD should I purchase?
2. Which SSD GB option should I purchase? I chatted with OWC online and was given this variety of SSDs.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/internal_storage/SSD/Mercury_Electra_3G_Solid_Sta te
3. I was also given this product bundle recommendation. It's cheaper than buying everything individually, but I'm not sure if I need the tools and I don't understand the purpose/advantage of having the "OWC Express Silver Enclosure".
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/YSSDMP240/
I just want my MBP to run as fast as possible while running my modeling software w/o spending an arm and a leg if possible. But I don't know if it's worth the trouble and expense to upgrade my current MBP, which I love, or just getting a new MBP or Mac desktop. And if I should just get another Mac, I don't know which one I should get.
Another thing I have seen is the Mac Mini. Is it possible to plug this or any other external device to my MBP in order to accomplish my performance goals without having to modify my MBP or buy another Mac?
This is the first time I've posted any help questions to the Apple Support Community. I really appreciate any advise you Mac experts can give me. I called one of the Apple Stores, but I was definitely not satisfied with the inexperienced rep's answers.
Thanks!

1. OWC or Crucial are recommended sources for memory. You can usually find a 5% off and free shipping code for Crucial on retailmenot.com. On crucial just key in your system information in their memory selector.
2. Your system likely supports SATA II speeds, so the SSD OWC pointed to would work. I installed one in our 2010 mac mini and it's working well. I originally installed their 6G drive however it ran at SATA I speeds. Turns out the 3G which is specd for SATA II is what was needed and works fine.
3. The OWC package they recommended includes a case to put your existing hard drive in. That helps to be able to transfer your data back to the SSD then you can use it as a backup drive or as an external storage device.

Purchase questions: solid state drive and 8GB RAM

I am finally going to upgrade from my PBG4, and I am salivating over either a 13" or 15" MBPro. Two questions:
1) A solid state drive is expensive, but the way I abuse laptops, it may be worth it. In addition to being more rugged, what are its other advantages? Is it faster than a 5400 or 7200 rpm hard drive? Does it boot/shut down faster? What else?
2) I do graphics, so 8GB RAM can help me with Photoshop, etc. If I can get 4GB RAM chips elsewhere cheaper than through Apple, can I upgrade the RAM myself, without voiding the Apple warranty?

You're probably about as good a candidate as there is for a big (250GB) SSD, but only for the sake of its ruggedness. The current small sizes of SSDs compared to HDs will be a serious disadvantage for anyone who works with a lot of graphics. SSDs are still in their infancy, and there are large variations in speed from one to another and new models coming out almost weekly. Taken overall, any SSD will be as fast or faster (and some are *many, many* times faster) than any conventional notebook hard drive. But some are slower than fast hard drives for certain operations, e.g. sustained large writes. Try to pick one that's fast across the board, because they'll all be highly shock-resistant (and astronomically expensive) compared to any HD. It's going to take a bit of Googling to dig up many reports — I haven't seen any big "roundup"-style tests yet myself, but that doesn't necessarily mean there haven't been any. Here's one test that may or may not be representative:
http://www.barefeats.com/hard121.html
With respect to MBPs themselves in your situation, we haven't heard from anyone in these forums since the introduction of the unibody MBPs who has reported how well they've held up to the kind of ultra-rough handling you describe. If there are some uMBPs out there with you, you would know better than we do, and you'd have a better chance than we do to ask how well they survive. Hard drives would certainly be among their most vulnerable parts, but I would also ask pointedly about display hinges, glass display covers, optical drives, and above all, dealing with dust. These machines can't be sealed, and their keyboards and ports can't be cleaned easily or effectively. In a desert setting, I would think keeping a keyboard cover in place, taping over the ports, optical drive slot and speaker grilles when they're not in use, and finding access to a vacuum from time to time would be essential if at all possible. Even so, the fans in these machines run all the time, and they will continually draw dust inside.
Good luck in your research.

T61 and Solid State Drive Upgrade -- Questions

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