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    Sony SA290 supports SATA III??

    Discussion in 'VAIO / Sony' started by kennytran91, Oct 12, 2011.

  1. kennytran91

    kennytran91 Guest

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    Hello,
    I currently have a Sony Vaio SA290X (VPCSA290X) and opted to get the standard 500GB 7200RPM hard drive and get an SSD and replace it myself instead of Sony's prices.

    I currently have 2 SSD's in mind, OCZ V3 Max IOPS Edition
    Newegg.com - OCZ Vertex 3 Series – MAX IOPS Edition VTX3MI-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
    or the OCZ V3
    Newegg.com - OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
    I asked a representative and they said that the only difference is the first one is faster, and they said that my laptop seems to only support SATA II and I won't be able to reach the speeds they advertise since that's SATA III.

    Funny side note, I contacted a Sony representative and she told me the SA290 only supports SATA I, no II or III.

    But does the SA290 really only support SATA II? And if it does, is it not really worth getting an SSD then if I can't even reach those speeds..?
    Odd how the 2nd flagship laptops on Sony doesn't even support SATA III if that's true :/
     
  2. jeremyshaw

    jeremyshaw Big time Idiot

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    Both Vertex 3 drives have well reported BSOD issues related to the Sandforce controller. At the moment, it's adviseable to not buy them.
     
  3. lazybee

    lazybee Notebook Consultant

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    The SA290 supports SATA III. If you replace the CD/DVD drive with a caddy, and add a SSD/HDD that port is limited to SATA II.
     
  4. kennytran91

    kennytran91 Guest

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    Well thank you for the heads up about the BSOD's, and I'm not in a hurry to get an SSD right. Maybe they'll drop a couple bucks by the time a fix comes around.

    And I'm just looking to replace the HDD that came with the laptop, I think it's Toshiba. I have a blu-ray drive, so I'm not touching that at all. But I'm glad to know that the SA290 supports SATA III.
    Just odd how an OCZ representative said it only supported II and a Sony rep. said it only supported I.
     
  5. TeamFTL

    TeamFTL Notebook Geek

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    with the latest BIOS it seems that they disabled SATAIII, my OCZ Agility 3 SSD is running on SATAII only. Confirmed by another forumer using a Crucial M4. You had best ask tech support to confirm this, their sales reps don't know any technical details
     
  6. jeremyshaw

    jeremyshaw Big time Idiot

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    May I request you run benchmarks to see if they are at SATA II speeds, or is that just power saving (LPM)?
     
  7. TeamFTL

    TeamFTL Notebook Geek

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    Really wish I could. Intel RST reports 3gbps, AS-SSD can't get me >SATAII speeds, and the benchmark with compressible data (ATTO) hangs when i run it. Had none of these problems with the old BIOS =(
     
  8. kennytran91

    kennytran91 Guest

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  9. kennytran91

    kennytran91 Guest

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    So what do you guys think?
     
  10. kennytran91

    kennytran91 Guest

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    Well can anyone else recommend the best SSD? I'm looking for around possibly 120GB-240GB SSD. If the Vertex SSD's are the best, then I'll just wait until this wave of bugs and BSOD errors are over and an update fixes it.
     
  11. jeremyshaw

    jeremyshaw Big time Idiot

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    M4 Crucial... as fast as the Vertex 3 MAX IOPS, while not having any current issues.
     
  12. kennytran91

    kennytran91 Guest

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    Would you say the M4 Crucial would rate higher than the Intel 510 and what about the just released Kingston HyperX? People have been saying they're interally almost exactly identical to the Vertex 3's but have worked out some, if not most of the kinks.
     
  13. jeremyshaw

    jeremyshaw Big time Idiot

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    ^^ Depends on which capacities we are thinking about. 120/128GB, the Vertex3/HyperX should be faster. At 256/240GB, the M4 should be faster (and depending on the compressability of the data.