SSD Consideration for Lenovo W520

Hey Everyone:

I have a new laptop - Lenovo W520 - coming and it should be here (hopefully) in about two weeks.

The laptop is coming with a 500GB 7200RPM drive and I've also picked up an Intel 310 80GB mSATA to use for boot / swap file / and probably a few frequent programs. The mSATA is SATA II.

I will be running W7 x64 and also probably some virtual XP-sp2 machines.

However, the W520 has two additional drive bays - both are SATA III (one of which is being used with the 500GB HDD); the other by the DVD burner. I guess my question is if I was going to get a second SDD for this laptop (like in the 250 GB range mainly for additional applications and probably a few games as well), what should I be looking for?

Reliability is absolutely most important for me as this is primarily a work computer. So, I'm leaning heavily towards Intel SSDs.

However, the new 510 drives are getting "mm-eehhhh" reviews - good but expensive and fast in some applications and not so fast in others. So I'm wondering about doing a stop gap solution instead and picking up an Intel 320 in either 120 or 160 GB size for the next 6-12 months and then replacing it with (hopefully) one of the new Intel 520 drives if they live up to what most people think these are going to deliver.

Pros for the 320 are that it's apparently enterprise class rated (which is a big plus despite being 25nm and the 510 being 34nm), and overall seems to be quite good performance, reasonable cost (for Intel) and reliable. Also, it has significantly lower power consumption than the 510. Cons are that it's only SATA II of course. I'm guessing that even at SATA II and a smaller size of 120 - 160GB, these drives are still going to be damn fast in the big picture!

The 510 is originally what I thought that I would want to pick up, but it's premium priced and reviewers at least seem to be kind of hot / cold with this drive, most calling it a stop gap from Intel for SATA III until they get their own controller out and really kick a bit more @SS.

So - any ideas? I can still keep the 500GB HDD in the system (yeah - 3 drives!) and I don't think I'll need the DVD drive - i'll make recovery / ghost discs but I could probably just put all of that information on a 16GB USB 3.0 key for like $20 - no?

My priorities are:
1) stability and reliability
2) reduce boot/wake/load times
3) read speeds
4) write speeds

Any useful suggestions are appreciated - thanks!

 

If you want best performance I'd get 1 SATA III SSD. There's no need for two SSDs. I would sell the Intel 310 and use that money to buy something really fast.

So one SATA III SSD that holds OS and applications. DVD drive is not necessary.

I know most people believe Intel is the most reliable choice. I would say Intel is reliable but not necessarily the most reliable. Going by hundreds of Newegg customer reviews Samsung 470 and Crucial C300 are at least as reliable.

For a SATA III drive I will not recommend OCZ Vertex 3 because reliability is a big question mark. That leaves C300, C400 and Intel 510.

C300 can offer most bang for the buck, if the price is right and you're on a budget.
C400 is the fastest for most single tasks, lighter multi tasking and 4K random performance.
Intel 510 is the fastest with large file copies, sequential speeds and heavy multi tasking.

So Intel or Crucial. They both use IMFT NAND and the same controller. The main difference is in the firmware.

I recommend reading the Hardwareheaven review: http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews/1143/pg8/crucial-m4-256gb-ssd-c400-review-file-copy-tests.html
It's the only review I know that compares V3, C300, C400 and Intel 510 in real world performance measured in real time with real applications.

PS. Crucial M4 = Micron C400, same product.

 

My research led me to a C300. And the more I read even after I bought it makes me think I made the right choice. Great value in $/GB and very fast and built on large media with very good reliability.

Perry

 

Two SSD's Sata III in raid 0 would be neat,,however I have read lenovo has to enable raid,,thus you have to order it before hand or possibly send it back to them to get the bios enabled raid.

No RAID option in Thinkpad W520 BIOS - Lenovo Community

The W520 is awesome workstation.. Get a SSD SATA III-top performer and reliability.

Cheers
3Fees

 

Cool (and thanks for the replies) - the Crucial C300 256GB looks good on tests and price is very competitive too. So, it's basically the previous generation but still SATA III, just based on larger media instead of the M4 which is on 25nm media?

That sounds like a good setup: fast SATA III speed, reasonable cost (the 256GB is about $470) and reliability (again, the most important for me).

I would need a bracket for this too - correct - to put it in the ultrabay?

Raid 0: yes, looks very cool, but you have the buy the drives from Lenovo to have them enable it. So, I'd end up with a couple of 320GB HDDs that I'd have to ditch, and I don't need that much speed. I'm sure it would be awesome with dual SSDs, but you also kind of double your failure rate as well, which goes against my philosophy on reliability. Still - it would be fast!

 

If I recall correctly the M4 was selling for $455 last week. You might want to look into that.

 

Sorry - one other question:

do the C300 and M4 support full drive encryption like the Intels do?

Thanks!

 

And I saw the 256 GB C300 at $414 last week somewhere. Newegg I believe.

Perry

 

You might want to consider the Intel Series 510 120GB ( SATA III and very reliable experience can be found from Newegg reviews) which can be found here for $250. The W520 indeed supports SATA III, as someone on this forum questioned lenovo employees.

 

I posted earlier that I really liked my C300. I will modify that to say that I have been experiencing intermittent freezes that require a hard reboot losing data.

And this is true with firmware 0006 and now with 0007 so I can no longer recommmend the C300.

Perry

 

That's not good to hear, pkincy.

Is there anything Crucial says about this on their forum?

 

As mine was a total freeze/lockup requiring a hard reboot, I suspect it had nothing to do with the intermittent freezes that the firmware was to fix.

I did change my drivers from the Intel RST back to MSAHCI from Microsoft.

That was yesterday and no freezes in the 24 hours since then. So I am back to being a happy camper. Another 24 hours without freezing. So I am now at 48 hr since the driver roll back and no problems.

Perry

 

bad form for 2 replies in a row, but I just ran HWiNFO32 on my W520 and it reports SATA 3 in the Ultrabay controller but only SATA 2 in the main drive controller.

I have moved my SSD to the Ultrabay caddy and it indeed benchmarks quicker there than on the main controller.

Perry

 

I'm a new W520 owner and also want to install an SSD for my OS and main apps.

After researching, I have been leaning towards the Intel 510 120GB because I want the best reliability as my primary goal but still want good capacity and performance (SATA III) for the price...$275 seems to be current street price. Will buy a neomodeus caddy. It's $46.47 vs $12 but doesn't appear to have the poor fit like the other caddies do.

My question is about power consumption. I understand SLC is much better for laptops than MLC. Anyone having power issues using the Intel 510 in a W520? Anyone have a better drive suggestion? Any general advice regarding my planned config?

Thanks!

P.S. Heard the Intel 520 series SSDs are due out soon and contemplating the wait since having the SSD is a luxury and not a necessity for me (could also trigger much bigger discounts on the 510 which is adequate for my needs).