XPS 17 3D with Vertex 3 SSD. Is it still working fine on yours?

Hi everyone,

My name is Lamk, I have just bought XPS 17 3D from DELL.
I'm going to order a SSD Vertex 3 soon.
I would like to ask anyone who claimed that s/he has successfully configured this SSD to work with XPS 17, is it still working fine in your XPS 17 up until now?

Beside enable AHCI in BIOS, press F6 to load Intel driver when install Windows 7, then apply registry fix LPM. Is there any other step that need to be taken?

If possible, please send me a link (or attach in your post) the .reg file (to fix LPM) and the Intel driver.

Thanks All.

Lamk

 

I would highly recommend getting anything but a Sandforce drive. The Vertex 3 in particular is very poor and is failing constantly on users if it doesn't arrive DOA to begin with. OCZ is not really acknowledging the problem as is typical of them, and I wouldn't hold my breath for a fix.

Crucial, Intel, and Samsung are all good choices though. The Crucial M4 in fact performs nearly identically to the Vertex 3, don't believe the benchmarks. In real life it is the same, and since firmware 0002 it is very stable. Crucial and Intel are known for their reliability, the only thing OCZ is known for is BS'ing their customers.

As for your installation questions:
Enable AHCI. You don't need the F6 method with Windows 7, just run the install. Windows will format and align the partitions for you. No need to apply the LPM fix if you get the Crucial M4, as long as it has firmware 0002.

Disable defrag on the SSD at the very least once you have Windows installed. Any other tweaks are up to you.

You might need the LPM fix for the Vertex 3, but like I said that doesn't even solve the issues with a lot of those drives. I would steer far away from Sandforce drives, they are barely over a year old, gen 1 had issues and gen 2 is even worse. Just about everyone else on these forums will likely say the same. Check out the SSD forums for more on choosing the best drive.

 

+1 for the Crucial m4 in an XPS 17, L702X.

I have the 512gb, and it is very fast. The raw read/write rate of a Vertex 3 may be higher, but the m4 is stable and scorchingly fast. In daily operation they are very comparable speed wise.

I had a C300 installed when I had initial problems with the m4. The m4 is much faster. No LPM fix is needed now.

 

+1 again for the M4.

 

Another happy M4 owner

 

so you spent $800.00 + on a ssd???

 

Crucial M4 or Intel 510 anyday over sandforce SSDs

 

Given OCZ's track record and it scammed customers by not labeling 25 nm flash NAND should be all be warning signs. Stick with Intel and avoid all those issues.

 

Thank you all for your recommendations. I have finally decided to buy Intel 510 120 GB ($276) on Amazon. I valued my system stability as well as my data above everything else. So I chose Intel.

Thanks again. Appreciate it.

Lamk

 

...was just about to say the same thing myself...LOL

 

Good drive choice. The Crucial M4 would have been good for you as well, but Intel's are terrific, no doubt. I know of people with your exact drive that love it.

 

I don't know why everone gets so negative about the Vertex III. I've had one in my Dell x702 since april and it's fantastic.

 

When the Vertex 3 first came out there was major compatibility issues. OCZ also has a less than stellar track record for reliability and again when they scammed consumers by not labeling 25nm flash NAND SSD's and pretty much tried to sell them as 34 nm.

 

And there are still dozens of people every day buying new V3's that are either DOA or crapping out in less than a month or two. A lot of the issues are in the Sandforce controller, but OCZ has a track record for screwing the customer and pretending a 25%+ failure rate is just customers with bad hardware (i.e. mobos, etc). Intel and Crucial just plain WORK in my experience. I had a horrific experience with my V2, and the V3 has had far more issues.

Consider yourself lucky if you are one of the few with a V3 still working. It's the same way I consider myself lucky my V2 still works after 9 months...