SATA 2 Full Speed for Dell Inspiron 1720, Dedicated Video Card Version?

I have done tons of googling and did found tons of posts about this question, after viewing those Leveno T61 posts, I wonder if someone here has a cure for Inspiron 1720..

This model even has two hard drive slots...Anyone has already tried uncap the limitation on this model yet?

Willing to spend $25~35 for a beta tested moded BIOS.

Thanks~

This is my first post on notebookreview BTW.

 

I don't think there is such a limitation on the 1720...?

 

Damn 1720..the Inspiron 1720 support SATA2 drives, but the speed is capped to SATA1, just try googling it, there are already tons of posts..

e.g:
http://daily.blogspot.com/2011/07/dell-inspiron-sata-speed-with-ssd.html

Inspiron 1720 SATA transfer mode II SATA 3.0G (SATA II). New motherboard in the making ! - Disk Drives (HDD, CD/DVD, Blu-ray) Forum - Disk Drives - Dell Community

inspiron 1720 help

 

965 chipsets shouldn't be gimped to SATA 1 speeds for Dell. I can test out my Vostro 1500 tomorrow (Inspiron 1520 clone).

For mechanical drives, SATA 1 bottleneck shouldn't matter, they won't hit anywhere close to the bandwidth. Even an SSD, you still get the .1 ms latency, but I'll test it out tomorrow as I have an OCZ Agility 2 60 GB in my Vostro 1500.

 

Great, thanks.

 

Five steps ahead of Tsunade... just tested an Intel G1 on a 1520 and got the full 250MB/s sequential read. I'd be *very* surprised if you didn't get the same on a 1720.

 

Thanks for all the replies and people who take time to perform those testes, thumbs up~:smile:

I got the Intel G3 120GB version here, and tested in 1720 with only 100~110 read speed while being 150~190 on my Inspiron 1420...(Tested with HDTunePro BTW)

The SATA connector circuit board in 1720:



Since the data has to travel through the bare board, I guess this is why they limit the speed to keep it more stable? Anyone has a 1720 here, or maybe Vostro 1700?..Look like they are the same..

The SATA connector in 1420 is directly soldered on the motherboard...

 

My SSD is 91% full, probably explains the pitiful performance results.

 

Deleted some stuff off my SSD, did not help out really. Perhaps it is Secure Erase time.

 

A little late post here:

All testes are done in Inspiron 1720, both two drives are install in the same machine in the same dual-connector board.

1st Intel G3 120G:


2nd Seagate Hybrid 8+750G:


Speed is obviously limited to SATA1...

The interesting thing is, when testing both drives at the same time(I opened two crystaldiskmark), they both got full SATA1 speed...Interesting..

 

Good update which shows a 3Gbps link is possible.

Now in old days it was necessary to remove the IDE controller to get it to re-negotiate back at a higher speed if the link was degraded to a lower UDMA mode due to errors. So the very same thing may be happening with the SATA controller.

So I'd suggest leave the drive on the channel with the shorter wiring, boot to Win7, remove the AHCI/IDE/SATA controller in Device Manager, reboot and let it PNP.

If it still doesn't negotiate a 1.5Gbps link then try the Intel RST driver which I prefer to the Microsoft one. That way if there are any MS AHCI driver remnants in the registry that may degrade the link it will not affect the Intel driver as it has it's own registry settings.

 

After read your post, I placed the drive to the left one and installed clean win7 without sata drivers(PNP). The problem is all the hdd info tools shows me 3.0Gb/s, but only RST Software shows me the real speed 1.5Gb/s and RST Software cant run with pnp drivers. So i can't check the real speed.



There is something weird with this laptop's sata, for instance;
*if you switch between ide and ahci mode, you don't have to reinstall os(no blue screen).
*(Maybe i am wrong, but as far as i know you need the ahci mode for 3.0Gb/s speed or in other words full sata speed ) If you switch the ide mode, this is the test result: write and read speeds are strange for 1.5Gbps with my friend's ssd

This laptop has tough structure and it's been very stable mac and pc for me. And i'm starting to think the problem is the mini board too.

It looks like i have to borrow the ssd from my friend again and try again. So maybe i can check the real speeds with your tactic(PNP). I really appreciate your advices. Thank you...

 

The ATTO read performance test maxes out at 238MB/s. That is running a SATA-II link.

 

Yes, but ssd is "corsair force 3 gt", so i think write speed has to be over 200mb/s too. I will try again a few days later and this time only ahci mode with your pnp tactic. Thanks...

 

OH OH, that ATTO Disk Benchmark picture really shows SATA2 speed!!!

Well, I just switched the two drives and did a test again, about the same result...limited at SATA1



BTW, the picture in #12 looks like the 3Gb/s was indicating the South bridge controller?? If yes, then yes, there are two 1.5 making up the whole 3Gb/s

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Off topic:
Before, I actually put the 750GB hybrid drive in the connector nearer to the motherboard because I though the 750GB would be using more heavily, as all bulky stuffs are stored there. On the other hand, the SSD is only useful while booting up, loading software, and loading massive small files...And once the software is loaded to the memory, the SSD is done...

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off topic:
hum..just about a month after, the R/W speed of the SSD is already a bit slower...Damn..Even the most reliable Intel isn't as good as I though..

 

Just want to provide a picture showing those tools usually don't give the actual speed, but whatever speed the drive itself supports.



The Seagate hybrid drive itself supports SATA3..so ...

 

No mechanical drive is ever going to realistically break SATA 1 speeds, so it's kinda pointless anyway, maybe with an SSD you'll break SATA 2 speeds, but again after a certain "speed", most people can't tell the difference as an SSD offers .1ms latency.