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    W520: Sata III SSD question

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by intergalactic, Apr 26, 2011.

  1. intergalactic

    intergalactic Notebook Enthusiast

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    Trying to confirm successful, problem-free use of the current crop of Sata III drives with the W520

    OCZ Vertex 3: Have heard Vertex 3 does not fit well in primary drive bay (7mm cavity vs. 9.5mm drive enclosure) without modding. Has anyone had better luck with a lenovo/3rd party ultrabay caddy? [update: was wrong about the 7mm, issue applies to X220]

    Intel 510: Read about erratic behavior with the Intel 510 SSD hanging on reboot; wonder if this is a bios version issue some users are having or something more widespread. would be a real shame if the latter since I'm partial to reports of Intel's reliability.

    Crucial C300: According to Anandtech, this drive may be more susceptible to performance degradation over time than others.

    Any help would be appreciated, thanks.
     
    intergalactic, Apr 26, 2011
    #1
  2. sml

    sml Notebook Guru

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    Are you sure the W520 requires 7mm?
    I slipped an OCZ Vertex 2 at 9.5mm into a T420 easily.

    C300 - that comment was only applicable if you weren't using TRIM.
     
    sml, Apr 26, 2011
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  3. gimmin74

    gimmin74 Newbie

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    Is TRIM automatically enabled when you install Windows 7? Or is there something I have to do to "enable" it?
     
    gimmin74, Apr 26, 2011
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  4. mrpeaches

    mrpeaches Notebook Consultant

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    The W520 has a standard 9.5mm HD drive bay. Any standard 2.5 in SATA drive (HD or SSD) should fit just fine.

    You may be confusing it with the X220, which does indeed have a 7mm drive bay which requires removal of the spacer on certain models of SSD to fit.
     
    mrpeaches, Apr 26, 2011
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  5. marcob

    marcob Notebook Geek

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    Confirm: 7mm only inside a W520 is nonsense.
     
    marcob, Apr 26, 2011
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  6. intergalactic

    intergalactic Notebook Enthusiast

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    yup I must be wrong about about the 7mm issue. very helpful, thanks.
     
    intergalactic, Apr 26, 2011
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  7. mrpeaches

    mrpeaches Notebook Consultant

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    Shamelessly copied from a google search on "windows 7 trim enabled":

     
    mrpeaches, Apr 26, 2011
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  8. intergalactic

    intergalactic Notebook Enthusiast

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    intergalactic, Apr 28, 2011
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  9. PatchySan

    PatchySan Om Noms Kit Kat

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    I'm suffering restart issues with the Intel 510 SSD as well but on a T420 instead. On a normal startup and shutdown it acts fine but it has trouble with restarts when it hangs in the BIOS for a while, quite similar to the symptoms others facing on their W520.

    As a test I also used an OCZ Vertex II SSD on the T420 and it had no problems going through the restart phase so it definitely linked to the Intel 510 SSD.
     
    PatchySan, Apr 28, 2011
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  10. Thors.Hammer

    Thors.Hammer Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thanks for the information. I hope Intel and Lenovo resolve this soon.
     
    Thors.Hammer, Apr 28, 2011
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  11. marcob

    marcob Notebook Geek

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    Well, I hope the 320 is not affected by this. I already have it, but I'll only have time to install it this weekend, for now I can tell you that the Crucial C300 256GB works fine without any issues as the main drive inside my W520
     
    marcob, Apr 28, 2011
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  12. drunckenmonkee

    drunckenmonkee Notebook Consultant

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    I hope they resolve this issue as well as I was planning on raiding two intel 510s. If one has a good chance of causing problems, I'm not liking my odds now that I will have two in RAID.
     
    drunckenmonkee, Apr 28, 2011
    #12