Which SSD for my Sony VAIO FW?

I want an SSD for my VAIO FW21E. Got around £150-£170 to spend so probably looking at 128gb?

According to Intel Rapid Storage Technology program my current drive is a Toshiba MK3252GSX 320GB 5400rpm and it is reporting 1.5Gbps SATA transfer rate.

The laptop has the Intel PM45 chipset with ICH9-M Southbridge.

I would really like to buy a SATA 6Gbps drive (C300) for future-proofing but will this work with my laptop? What about a SATA 3Gbps? Or will only a SATA 1.5Gbps drive work?

 

A SATA 3 SSD will work in your laptop but you won't be getting SATA 3 speeds, you'd be getting SATA 2 speeds.

GPS fitness devices - GPS fitness devices - Solid State: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

A decent deal on an SF SSD. Don't know that many UK electronics resellers, and seems like they are a pretty penny more than US prices.

 

You say I will be getting SATA 2 speeds but i don't think my laptop is SATA 2?

SATA 1.5Gbps = SATA1?

 

GPS fitness device? What the...

 

Just cuz the 5400rpm drive is only sata1.. In all likelyhood your laptop supports sata2 drives.

Consult your manuals

 

PM45 supports full SATA 2 speeds. Sony probably cheaped out on the drive as most traditional hard drives don't even saturate SATA 1 speeds.

 

It seems that it is SATA2 enabled.

Going to wait for the C400 I think. Does anybody know if I will be able to use TRIM on Vista Ultimate x64?

 

No, only Windows 7 supports trim.

 

I've read somewhere about TRIM being executed from the SSD BIOS if you havn't got W7. Does the C400 have this feature?

 

That's not TRIM you're talking about: that's Garbage Collection (GC).

TRIM is superior to GC because of the much increased longetivity of the nand. In other words, TRIM is 'smart' and GC is a 'dumb' way to do the same thing: keep the performance of the drive as close to theoretical as possible.

GC simply uses up nand cycles to 'compact' the data as much as possible (compact here means put it all on the same nand 'page') to have as many 'clean and ready' nand pages to be written to next.

TRIM does the same thing, but the difference is, is that it knows what is real data (written and still wanted) and data that is not required anymore (written but not needed anymore). So, it is saving the constant read/write/erase/write step in the compacting that the GC does (unnecessarily).

 

I have the Intel 160GB on my FW285 series with Win 7. Granted that model is higher than your price range. But can tell you with WIN 7 and the SSD, you'll breathe some new life into the laptop.
It is a great upgrade and you'll really notice the difference coming from teh 5400 RPM drive.

 

I could get W7 I suppose. I prefer the Media Centre in W7 as I can watch Freeview HD through it

Anyone want to buy my Vista Ultimate x64 OEM? Tried selling it on ebay and my listing got removed.

 

I know what you mean. I had a F11Z1E core i7 8gb ram but couldn't deal with the fan noise. The FW21E has a C2D P8400 and 4GB ram and its fine for what I want to do. The HDD is a pile of junk though.

 

I'm not sure whether your drive is SATA 2 or 3 but can you confirm what Intel RST is saying the transfer rate is ie 1.5gbps/3gbps/6gbps.

Read somewhere that Intel RST downgrades the speed to 1.5gbps on laptops for power saving. Is this right?

Intel RST causing SSD to drop to 1.5 Gb/s (SATA I) - [H]ard|Forum

 

I don't know if its 'right' or not, but it sure is stupid (to downgrade the speed of the SATA bus).

Everyone knows that the key to power savings is to 'hurry up and wait'.

Intel, actually taught us that concept.

 

Only did a quick benchmark to make sure it worked like it should. CDM showed normal speeds.
As for hurry up and wait - military had that secret long before Intel...

 

J&SinKTO,

do tell...

 

Does anybody know if my FW21E runs in AHCI mode so that I can use TRIM?

There is not setting in the BIOS

 

Yes the FW will run in that mode - had to check via Device Manager, (BIOS is very ,limited). The Intel toolbox is also a very nice feature. Just ensure latest firmware, load the latest IRST driver and enjoy the new speed and multi-tasking capability of your laptop.

 

Military service has many great traditions and services to offer -however one "pays" for all of these with their time - hence the term.
Example - need to have formation at a ceremony at 0800, we'll be prepped and ready at 0700 and then we simply "hurry up and wait"

 

Thanks J&SinKTO.

I didn't want you to break any military secrets, but you still give me an good answer!