Anyone have the intel 510 ssd in their R3?

I really want to love my vertex 3 but even after the firmware update it's still iffy. Sometimes windows hangs the moment I enter after a boot up. Or like yesterday, random blue screen surfing the web.

So with all that I figured I'd go the slightly slower but more reliable route. I haven't really heard of many people here talking about intel ssd's. Most people have posted about their vertex or c300s. So just wondering how those with their intel ssd's feel about their experience.

Edit: And of course the moment I post there's a ssd thread right under me. Although it's more about troubleshooting rather than their experience. Just in case someone is suggesting that I merge with another thread.

 

I have a 510 Intel 120gb sitting right here next to me, waiting to go into my M17xR3 that's being delivered today. I'll give some feedback once I put it in and restage (though I plan to run it in the "stock" config for a day or two to test it all out before I start mucking with it).

 

Stock config? What else can you do with a ssd? And let me know if you get any bsod.

 

Give me a call if you like. I have the exact same drive and I went through heck installing it, but I made note of exactly what steps I took so your process can go a lot more smoothly. You can find my contact information here:

http://www.forgetabout-it.com

 

I have the intel 510 SSD. Pretty amazing. No problems at all installing or even now. Just make sure to install it in port 1.

 

I have the Intel 510 series 120 GB drive installed as drive C and a Western Digital Scorpion Black 7200 rpm 750 GB as my drive D. If it weren't for the weird 6 GB memory configuration that somehow got ordered by my Dell rep this thing would be even faster. I've got 4 sticks of 4GB on order from NewEgg right now to resolve that minor issue, though.

So how does it perform? I haven't benchmarked it, but it seems way fast. I have no blue screens, no stability issues whatsoever, and no noticeable slowdowns anywhere. I did my research and the Intel drive wasn't that much more expensive than the OCZ, but the reliability reviews were polar opposites. It seems if you'd like better performance, but a significantly higher probability of premature catastrophic failure, go with the OCZ. If you'd like to avoid the headaches and still be near the bleeding edge, go with the Intel. For me it was a no-brainer.

However, that doesn't mean that this has been all that smooth. I got the M17x R3 with the nVidia 3D vision, blu-ray drive, etc. and I did a lot of research on SSDs before I bought the laptop or the drive. For best performance, the SSD needs to have AHCI enabled. I tried ghosting the original drive to the SSD and then enabling the AHCI drivers using the registry before setting the BIOS to AHCI, and it still blue screens and reboots endlessly. The only fix was to enable AHCI in the BIOS and then do a clean install of Windows 7. Then the driver install order also caused a lot of blue screen headaches until I found out which ones need to be installed AFTER SP1.

Now I'm up and running, rock solid, no issues except for software. Where the heck do I get all the software this thing is supposed to have? Where do I get the PowerDVD to play 3D movies? What else am I supposed to have? The resource DVD has NO software on it whatsoever. None.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...install-ssd-instructions-recommendations.html

 

Curious, did you guys install the intel rapid storage driver thing?

 

I meant I plan to run the M17x in its stock configuration (without the SSD) for a day or two to verify everything works before I install the SSD.

 

Go to Dell.com and login to your account and if i remember click on My Products and Software and there should be a list of software ex. Webcam, Roxio, PowerDVD.

 

Disable LPM. Problem solved.

 

What's LPM? Low power management? Little Persian midgets?

 

link power management (LPM)
Some info regarding how to disable LPM
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/f...AHCI-mode-on-Intel-6-series-Chipset-platforms

http://www.intel.com/technology/mobility/powermanagement/Designing_energy_efficient_SATA_devices.pdf

 

Hmm, after reading the link I'm still not really sure on why we need to turn off the LPM. Do we need to turn this off for intel ssd's also?

 

It's some issue specifically with the Vertex 3's....Everyone that disables it has the issue fixed.

 

zergslayer,

I'm in the same boat as you. I've applied the new firmware update and I still get some random stalls. Sometimes, I'll get a stall that won't end and I've allowed up to 30 minutes and I'll have to hard reboot. When the system comes back up, it won't recognize the Vertex 3 and ends up trying to do a network boot because it can't find a bootup drive. This happens sometimes when I get a bsod as well. Have you had that problem?

I really wanted the speed of the Vertex 3 but the reliability is biting me in the butt big time. I'm considering switching to a 510 or an m4. If you do make the switch, I'd be really interested to know if it fixed everything.

 

Do you have it plugged in port 0 or 1?

 

I wasn't sure if you were referring to me. I have it in port 1 and followed the normal install procedures. Bootup into AHCI, start Win7 installation, and then switch to Raid on the first bootup. I also applied the LPM registry change and then verified that it was there after bootup.

 

Ok so I got my intel 510 250gig. Figured I'd try to install windows in AHCI mode since the vertex 3 would freak out like a little girl who got her ice cream stolen and then had her bike ran over by a garbage truck. *ahem* Anyways, install went like you'd expect. And until today (almost 24 hours later) no bsod while using windows in AHCI mode.

I couldn't find any firmware updates for this drive but I assume it should be fine. Ran a benchmark and numbers aren't AS fast as the vertex 3 but it's not far behind. In terms of real world performance, windows loads in about the same time.

Ultimately, I decided that I wanted reliability and something that "just works" over the fastest benchmark speeds that I can't really notice in real life. So, peace of mind is a good tradeoff and that's what I did.

 

My Intel 510 didn't like AHCI. I even tried installing in AHCI and then switched over to RAID after the first reboot and still BSOD. So the only way I could get Windows installed is leaving it in RAID.

 

Switching modes after an install is frowned upon by the ssds. Not sure why you couldn't install in ahci mode to begin with.

 

zergslayer69,

Just wanted to see if you had any stutters or hiccups with the 510 in place after a week.