[Experiment] OCZ VERTEX 3 in my P150HM

First of all - I have read all the comments and googled a lot of threads in different forums about the BSODs happening with OCZ ssd drives. I might have made a giant mistake, but today I went to buy a OCZ Vertex 3 60gb for my laptop (see signature).

Here is how I did everything:
1) Bought the drive, formatted it with my USB 3.0 external enclosure
2) Put the SSD in my empty P150HM ODD-caddy (needed to do this to flash firmware, flash utility requires AHCI)
3) Flashed to Firmware 2.15 (came with 2.11) with OCZToolbox_v2.40.07
4) Checked if BIOS recognizes it, it does
5) Swapped places with my HDD (put the SSD on primary SATA-3, moved HDD to the ODD-caddy with SATA-2)
6) Installed Windows 7 SP1 Ultimate x64 on SSD (used my brand-new Samsung DVD S084F USB 2.0 drive)
7) Used DEVICE MANAGER to install drivers manually, thus eliminating bloatware like Catalyst Control Center
**DIDNT INSTALL Intel Rapid Storage driver! In the OCZ forums, a moderator had stated that this driver can cause BSODs!

Installed all my programs, Starcraft 2, Office 2003, formatted my former boot partition in my Samsung HDD and extended its secondary partition so now it has its full 320gb in one partition.

Did a couple of restarts, no problems at all.
Installed TuneUp Utilities 2012, set up my computer properly, disabled following things in the OS:
1) Disabled Search Index
2) Verified TRIM feature was turned on
3) Disabled Superfetch
4) Disabled Paging File
5) Disabled Scheduled Defrag (tuneup recognizes the ssd and disables its defrag automatically for it)
6) Disabled Hibernation
7) Disabled System Restore
8) Set up Power Options corectly

I thought the processor was faster than my video card, but maybe its only the case in games In the experience index, Im bottlenecked only by the processor Here is my Windows 7 Experience index with that SSD:


I will keep testing this OCZ ssd and I am praying for stability. All the horror stories everywhere are very disturbing, but so far I have not experienced a single problem Maybe the new firmware does its job or maybe I havent had time to join the "BSOD Club" just yet.

I will be uptading the thread with status reports and hope everything continues to run perfectly like it is now. Im happy so far, that thing is blazing fast, installed problem-free and finally my system is complete!

Im off playing Starcraft 2 now......

 

Hi,
I have an OCZ Agility 3 240Gb with firmware 2.15, for almost a week, and until now no problems at all.
Very happy with it

Best Regards

 

I would like to point out that just because your CPU scored lower than your GPU does *not* mean it is a bottleneck. A bottleneck occurs when installing a newer more powerful GPU does not result in increased FPS in games. Since we cannot do this directly we will have to rely on indirect methods to measure this. A 3ghz 2nd gen core i7 is more than capable of pushing a desktop 6970 to its full potential so it is not even going to break a sweat powering what is effectively a downclocked desktop 6870.

An easy way to sort of support this is to monitor your CPU usage during gaming. If your cpu doesn't peak at 100% in the threads the game can use then it isn't bottlenecking anything. And what I mean by 100% in threads the game can use is that not all games can use the 8 threads a core i7 has to offer, most instead use 4 or even 2.

 

Seems like we both hit the jackpot! I hope for the both of us that we never get problems in the future Its just rad to see the Experience Index showing 7.9 ultimate score on the system drive

You are absolutely correct Yet I hoped the CPU would score a lil' bit higher, like my RAM 7.6 points. Strange...my RAM 1x4gb scored 7.5 and since friday its 2x4gb and now it scores 7.6. Guess that performance increase comes with the dual channel that is now online


BTW, check this out, my turbo boost is having a good time:

I guess the Arctic MX-2 thermal compound that I ordered with the laptop really does wonders! The cooler the system, the more turbo boost! Im really loving that laptop and Im never going back on other brands of laptops than clevo!

 

actually....you will turbo boost based on CPU usage, not temperatures...though the system is designed to prevent overheating.

Mr. Mysterious

 

I read somewhere months ago (I had my Acer 5742g back then) that if the temps go up, turbo boost is not used. So I assume the temps are low enough in my NEXOC and turbo is used whenever needed

 

OCZ SSD's for these Clevos seem to be a recurring topic on this forum...

I've had my Vertex 3 Max IOPS for almost four months, the stuttering problems I had with it went away with the 2.09 firmware. However, there are still reports of problems even with the 2.15 firmware on the OCZ forum. So its seems to be a kind of Russian Roulette there - it gives you a great rush in most cases, and kills you dead in a few.

 

That's correct. Turbo boost can be enabled whenever, but it's heavily dependent on thermal readings. The higher your average temps, the shorter the amount of time you can run your turbo before the extra heat causes it to clock back down. For the same reason, lower ambient temps tend to extend the amount of time you can be on turbo.

 

Just wanna report back - the Vertex 3 is performing flawlessly. So far, I've not experienced a single problem with it

 

Newegg just posted a sale for the vertex 3 120gb for $170 after MIR. i believe this is the cheapest price to date.. i've been waiting for the Crucial m4 to go back on sale.. but now the vertex 3 is reaaaally tempting me..

should i risk it..??

 

Follow my install guide for problem-free work! Install it in your SATA port, flash it to 2.15 firmware with OCZ's official program and then install your OS on it.

 

I have my eye on the Samsung 830 512gb ssd, waiting for newegg to get them in. They're currently listed as out of stock at the moment but I'm on the auto-notify list for one. Tried a 250gb Max IOPS but it died minutes after being out of the box, luckily Ihave a 120gb Max IOPS that's been working flawlessly so that I put it in my P170HM as the main drive.

 

Still workin' without a hitch. Playin SC2, rebootin', cold starting'....simply workin!

 

bob, can you describe your computing usage? how often and how long do you have your laptop on and active ?

 

Sure, here's what I do:

1) Go to work, take the laptop with me and turn it on in the morning
2) Turn off, go to my 2-nd office, turn laptop on again
3) Install something, restart (got more stuff to install, didnt have time in weekend)
4) Turn off, go home in the end of day, turn on when at home (maybe restart after installing something new)
5) Turn off, go to bed

So you see, quite a few turn on, turn off's. Playing SC2 when I have 15-20mins time, browsing the net, doing office work on it....

No problems whatsoever

 

My problems have come when I am coming out of sleep. It will wake up, work for 2 or 3 seconds, start to freeze, then BAM, BSOD.

Have you had any stuttering or hiccups when coming out of a sleep state?

 

Nope, none. The system works like a charm.

 

I read online Q. Should I disable Superfetch if I have a solid state disk (SSD)? that you don't need to disable the superfetching if you are using Windows 7 as it's smart enough to disable it if you are running it on an SSD. Just FYI. Nice guide.

 

what kinda speeds are you guys seeing with these sataIII ssd drives on these p150 and p151?

 

Why would you put your SSD to sleep? Unless you are doing something crucial and it depends on each second of your lifetime, I would recommend to turn off and turn on. Much easier, even thought you lose ~10 - 20 sec

 

Hi,
I have an OCZ Agility 3 240Gb (firmware 2.15) on my Sata 3:



Until now very fast and stable!

Best Regards to All

 

That's why I gave up on SSDs... Between sleep, superfetch, ramdisks, and striping I couldn't see a huge difference between an Intel 320 and WD Black performance-wise (disclosure: I'm not a PC gamer). I did like how the SSD was dead silent but my loud laptop kinda negated that benefit ;p

 

I purchased an OCZ Vertex 3 240GB Max IOPS and put it in my SAGER 8150 and moved the 750GB drive it came with to the optical bay.

The latest 2.15 BIOS was already on the drive.

I have had ZERO problems. Not one freeze or any thing else. Installation of Fedora 16 x64 went without a single issue.

 

It has been 10 days since install.

 

Um This is only correct when the temperature of any core reaches 100 c.

The TjMax for all of the mobile I7 processors is 100 c. When this temperature is reached PROCHOT# is asserted, and the Thermal Control circuit (TCC) is activated, reducing core power consumption until TCC is deactivated. The TCC will remain active as long as any core exceeds its thermal limit (TjMax) 100c.
Additionally Intel recommend that full cooling is initated within 10C of TjMax, i.e. 90C.

If the TCC is activated and the temperature remains above TjMax, Critical Temperature Detection is triggered and the processor will perform a 'graceful' shutdown (Intel's words!).

In the event of a total failure of the cooling THERMTRIP# is activated and the processor will instantly shut down.

The bottom line of all this is if your temperature is up at around 90c at full load, it is not a cause for concern as you are within the operating limits of the i7 processor. Turbo boost will not be throttled back by temperature until 100c is reached on any core.

 

I'm going to monitor this thread carefully for a month or so and check the results, its very tempting to get the OCZ...

 

hello!
I´ve just installed a Vertex 3 240gb 2.15 BIOS in my clevo and it has started to increase its noise and temp. At the beginning I didn´t care about this, but there is a lot difference with the HDD Western Digital, that came with the computer, and the SSD. Do you think this is normal? The temp of the SSD is stable at 30ºC.

And how can I avoid those "graceful" shutdown that use to happen when I´m rendering with 3dsMax in summer? I don´t know how to control the TCC

Thank you.

 

For your SSD temps, I wouldn't worry about it. 30C is only a few degrees above ambient room temperature, so it's still quite cool.

 

Just subscribed to this thread. The prices are tempting indeed and so far its positive feedback on this thread