Intel 520 installed... i have a few questions

Hello everyone...
I just installed intel 520 180GB on my 14x in place of the primary drive and installed my previous drive in place of the optical drive...
Tested it with ATTO disk benchmark and the results were GREAT....
500 - 550mb/s for read/write...

stable so far...
current HDD's speed

BTW.. my bios is running 6 not 5 and it is giving me sata 3 speed...
most people say it has to be 5 or anything before because they disabled sata 3 recently...

ANYWAY...
I have two questions...
one concerning windows...
i used winToFlash to install windows on the new SSD...
is there any problem if i use windows on both drives...
i mean the hdd has one installed and i installed from the DVD included...
i haven't typed any but aren't they suppose to have the same serial code...
are the licences by the company or by serial code... ?
im just afraid that my windows will be banned or something... <<< noob

second question...
is there anyway to hard test the SSD beside actually using it and wait for a BSOD...??
so far so good... but i dont want to put all my files in here and install everything and then be forced to return it...


Thanks a lot...

 

good to hear you installed. but you haven't got windows installed in it no ?? because most of the instability comes while booting windows from the ssd from what I read. And interestingly if you install windows in the ssd and than it runs sata 2 (with your Bios A6) or instable it means that the port itself is stable with sata 3 just not windows. Hope it runs well either way.

 

you are right... the previous one was before windows installation...
i just finished installing most drives...
so i did the benchmark again...
a bit slower while it is running as an OS drive...

so yeah... A06 and sata 3 speed...
i just rechecked from bios itself and it says A06...

 

good job now if you could return back in a few days and tell us how cold boots are going.

 

Hey doniGforce, I also run an SSD, basically a Samsung 830 SSD, used for almost 3 weeks soon no boot issues to note. Running SATA 3.

 

This made me laugh really hard. +rep

 

did i write any code to make my questions invisible ?
please guys answer my questions..!!

owatch15... well yeah a lot of people here got sata 3 speed...
the discussion is regarding sata 3 with bios A06 rather than A05....

 

the most recent bios is A08...
ill reflash to A05 if i get BSOD...
but i have been running the OS from the SSD and so far soooo gooood...

 

Hi Dark Lord, I think you have the best shizznit out there, so relax. I do not think there are many M14X users with 520 installed. If I were you I would keep a backup of files that you are afraid to lose, and enjoy your drive. If problems occur, then you get help from me. I will swap my Vertex MI 3 for your 520 lol

Ok, seriously, I have start up issues, but I am sure Intel got it right first time. My MI 3 will shortly receive a new firmware, probably based on Intel's knowledge.

Enjoy your SSD.


As to your questions: No and dont worry about it. (+rep)

 

thanks a lot...

 

thanx for your rep, if you interested about my speeds, here it is, the left one is yours:

 

nice...
your SSD is even faster at smaller blocks...
then i guess i overpaid for just a brand and warranty...
or stability... but we dont know that yet...

 

Presently, here in Holland, Vertex Max Iops 120 is 20 EUR more expensive (why???) than Intel 520 120 Gigs.
I bought mine 5 months ago for 220 EUR. Today, the price is 203 EUR, and Intel 520 is 186 EUR.
If I were buying today, Intel 520 would be my choice, simply because of the price and reputation and I always wanted Sandforce controller (well i have it).

p.s.

I just realised that your 520 is 180 Gig, my Vertex 3 MI is 120 Gig.
The 180 gig 520 costs here 316 EUR cheapest and available I found.

 

i paid almost 400 CAD which is around 300 euro...
i was kinda forced to get the 180...
because intel decided to give the 180gb+ faster random read...
and to give 120gb- a faster random write...
it is the same for vertex 3 Max IOPS...
it could be a sandforce limitation or something...
check the newegg.com description page for all four to see...

 

can you try this test... input/output comparison with the pattern being random...
this is the result of mine...


also... i tried cancelling the direct input/output and i got 4gb/s transfer...
what does this mean...?

 

Sure...lol

Here it is. Pictures # 2 and # 4 (from left) are my results. Canceling direct input/output is probably ram speeds.

BTW. do you use RAMDISK software?
Pic # 5 ... the big one lol ... Here are some REAL speeds, I have 8 Gigs of fast RAM and 1.2Gigs of it is mainly dedicated for Google Chrome caching...a lot of very small files (1 Gig a day) not being written to SSD, but to RAM.

Have a nice weekend.

 

hello again...
thanks for doing the tests...
doniGforce... you warned me but i didnt listen....
but you were not totally right as A05 is as bad as A06 and A08....
i guess i overpaid for just a brand... same problems...
i didnt get BSOD... but a lot of freezing and cold boots...
here is the story... <<< it is a bit boring...

i was copying files from external drive to the secondary drive....
computer froze after 10 gigs of transfer (out of 40)... restarted... first cold boot...
finally booted but then the secondary drive is not detected..!!
i did a few restarts because i couldnt believe whats happening....
then everything went back to normal...
then i transferred the remaining 30 gigs with no trouble...
after a few hours... same story again... a lot of restarts and so i left the laptop for a while and it went back to normal...
after that i didnt use the secondary drive to avoid troubles...
but all of the sudden it froze and wouldnt boot... left it for a while... same thing...
then i thought to myself... the guys were right... i should reflash to A05... finally got it to boot windows... reflashed to A05 from A06... but same thing keeps happening... i thought to myself,, sata 2 wouldnt hurt... so i flashed to A08 but it got worse... worked fine for 10 minutes but then i couldnt boot for HOURS... finally got it working and reflashed to A05... a couple of freezes so far... but all of a sudden it works fine for 5-6 hours... freezing for one hour then goes back....

any suggestions...?

 

one more thing... A05 boot time for windows is slower...!!

 

as for the secondary drive the problems are known (that's why i'm just going to replace the primary drive and use a external case for the secondary) but problems with sata 2 and a8 ?!?!? maybe windows reinstall after a8 flash would help(you'll be stuck to sata 2 but maybe stable) but just a guess as I don't have an ssd as I mentioned. thinking of going for the 830 myself (better price, more gigs, slower speed but maybe not real life difference)
+1 rep you're doing some good testing and report. interesting find with the boot time in a5. how much faster a8 was ??

 

thanks a lot for the rep but u didnt have to....
A08 is the slowest... im talking about A06...
with A06 i didnt even see the windows logo... it boots in a flash....
but with A05 i can see the logo sign slowly moves for a few seconds then boots....
i guess you are right... i might need reinstall after A08....
right now im gonna stay with A05 and see how stable it is... 2 freezes last night but nothing for today....

as for the secondary drive problem.... i installed a lot of games from there....
works fine but the only problem is when you write to it....
it might be a power lack problem...

 

double post please delete xD

 

1. Tried installing Intel latest RST?
2. Forces SATA 1.5Gbps speeds on the secondary HDD. More information can be found at seagate.com. See section 3.2 for a picture.