Finally decided to upgrade my Vaio with SSD. A question.

Hi everyone. I have decided to upgrade my Vaio SVS13A190X with an SSD. I did some research and reading on here, and I know that it is possible and quick/easy to do. I apologize if my questions have been answered before, but navigating the 705 page master thread is a bit of a disaster.

1) Would any 2.5 SSD work, and which brand/model should I get? I'm looking for something in the 256gb range. I understand that I should stay away from Samsung. As for performance - I am not really picky, after all I'm still running the old 7200rpm, so anything would feel lightning fast. Budget is also a concern - anything in the $100 range is good.

2) There was some mention of Sony bios incompatibility with SATA III? Is this true, and will I have an issue installing a SATA III drive instead of a SATA II?

3) Do I need to make any bios modifications, or do I just need my Win8 dvd for a clean install.

And finally a more specific question regarding my specific Vaio model.

- As those of you who have one probably know, Sony messed up with the drivers a little bit. I have the Win7 model, which I have upgraded to Win8. However, certain drivers appear to only be available on the original backup partition. When you do a clean install without them, certain functions stop working - display brightness, Fn keys, fan control, stamina/speed button. Has anyone found a solution? I have found one for my current system, but that's still running a botched hybrid of Win7, that has been upgraded to Win8, so certain drivers have been left on there, and everything is working as it should.

 

Samsung MLC is perfectly fine. There are other high performance drives to choose from, such as Sandisk Extreme II and Crucial that are a good value. No need to thrash Samsung indiscriminately.

BIOS setting: AHCI mode. UEFI boot if it is possible, otherwise MBR will be fine.

$ Good luck with 100 dollars though.

 

What is wrong with the price?
Crucial M500 SSD CT240M500SSD1 2.5" 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive - Newegg.com

 

Hey, that's pretty cheap - I like!!!

Let some of the other guys weigh in since I'm not all that familiar with the older models.

Sorry, I'm a horrible shopper

Soon, zoom zoom!!!

 

The M500 is certainly not a bad model in any sense, it just isn't the most recent. The MX100 and M550 are the successors to that model. I actually purchased an SSD very recently as well, I went with a 512GB MX100. Other than marginally slower performance compared to slightly newer drives, there's nothing wrong with the M500, especially at the great price you find, I'd suggest you buy it. (Their 512GB version is 230$?!?) In practice, I'm guessing smaller differences in performance aren't very noticeable anyways, especially not if you're making the huge jump from HDD to SSD.

 

I would definitely, when not seeking the newest tech and then just using for general computing and value.

Those Samsung 850 Pro's do look enticing but not at their current cream of the crop pricing.

 

Newegg has the M500 512 GB for $165 today


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Supposedly someone bought a load of 850 pros for their office computers and they've been getting significant coil whine in many of the drives... Well another reason why not to get Samdung..

 

If OP is still looking for a 256GB under $100, this is an excellent choice IMO:

Crucial M550 CT256M550SSD1 2.5" 256GB SATA 6Gb/s MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - Newegg.com

 

LOL! I know the feeling of disgust well!!! and it's hard to get over.

Thing is so many companies have such poor QC.

Also, it is always good to wait a bit and not rush in and become a customer and a tester.

 

The 3 Samsung things I've owned have been pure and utter s h i t e!!!!

1. Samsung Series 5 TV.. The volume touch buttons get stuck randomly... Quite a well known problem and they did nothing
2. Samsung Series 5 ultrabook: My battery wears out like nothing
3. Samsung Galaxy S3: Overheating pile of crap.. I had some many batteries sent to me but none of them lasted properly and phone kept overheating.. Samsung wanted me to send it in for repair and it would take 28 days.. I just sold it off.. The LG G2 , Sony Xperia Z1/Z2(currently using Z2) have all been better then this and have never had any problems..

 

I have to strongly recommend the M550 Newegg link that was posted earlier. At well into the sub-100 price, that current price is really great. I myself feel really disappointed I bought my MX100 512GB on the 3rd, missed a 180$ price for the M550 512GB just 2 days later on Newegg. At that particular price, you can't possibly go wrong, and the M550 is a great drive (though the normal prices are too high imo). It uses MLC NAND, has a good Marvell controller, Micron/Crucial are well-known and a great brand. At the listed price, it is an absolute steal. The 512GB M550 deal on Amazon and Newegg were sold out within less than 24hrs and about a day, respectively.