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    Sony Vaio S Series - SATA 3 Investigation

    Discussion in 'VAIO / Sony' started by Topper59, Jul 7, 2012.

  1. Technative

    Technative Notebook Consultant

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    No probs. I did a bit of googling myself before I posted in the forum... ;)

    It's European (Dutch, to be exact). It's one of the customizable machines, made to order. But the European support page for this model only lists drivers; no Bios update (yet).
     
    Technative, Aug 1, 2012
    #101
  2. gotmoo

    gotmoo Newbie

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    Is anyone with crucial m4 getting SATA3 speeds by disabling optical drive and sleep/wake? Or does that just not work with the m4...?
     
    gotmoo, Aug 3, 2012
    #102
  3. blurblur

    blurblur Notebook Guru

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    Does not work with my M4 as well. Interesting.
     
    blurblur, Aug 4, 2012
    #103
  4. scribble86

    scribble86 Newbie

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    Has anyone noticed that Sony released a new Sata driver version? I'm about to test it. Maybe sata3 will work now?
     
    scribble86, Aug 7, 2012
    #104
  5. EiSl

    EiSl Notebook Consultant

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    I suspect it is a BIOS (UEFI) thing, not a driver issue.
    But if its the driver... why I wouldn't be surprised that it would contain a SATA-3 fix but different as we think... That this fix would 'repair' the sleep-resume loophole so it remains SATA-2 :rolleyes:

    Why I say this?
    Because Sony has already once issued a BIOS fix that did remove the SATA-3 capability for 3rd party HDD/SSD.
     
    EiSl, Aug 7, 2012
    #105
  6. king2001

    king2001 Newbie

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    Look forward to the results scribble!
     
    king2001, Aug 7, 2012
    #106
  7. exProphecy

    exProphecy Notebook Consultant

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    Isn't the easiest way to check this is to format the Vaio completely and test the SATA speeds without any drivers installed? or has someone already done this? (I'm sure someone has; I'm just too lazy to go thru all these pages >_<) Can someone update the OP for updates/more info as we go along? That would be helpful ^_^
     
    exProphecy, Aug 7, 2012
    #107
  8. Pizzi

    Pizzi Notebook Enthusiast

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    Just wanted to add my stats:
    Vanilla:
    performance_vanilla.png
    After ODD disabled + sleep + wake:
    performance_ODDdisabled_sleep_wake.png

    Has anyone tried to see if this is possible with an 2nd HDD in the ODD bay enabled?

    Cheers


    VAIO S13P | 13.3" 1600x900 | i7-3520M | GT 640M LE 2GB| 12GB DDR3 | Samsung 256GB SSD
     
    Pizzi, Aug 7, 2012
    #108
  9. buiquanghung

    buiquanghung Notebook Enthusiast

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    It seems that the most important parameters - Access time and 4K speed are no different between Sata 2 and Sata 3. Then it must be difficult to point out the difference when using them.
     
    buiquanghung, Aug 9, 2012
    #109
  10. WBS10

    WBS10 Newbie

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    Intel SSD 330 could achieve 6Gbps mode with ODD disable/sleep&wake (from Japanese forum)
    SSD.jpg
     
    WBS10, Aug 12, 2012
    #110
  11. Amal77

    Amal77 Notebook Deity

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    Don't quite understand why it doesn't work on the M4.
     
    Amal77, Aug 12, 2012
    #111
  12. EiSl

    EiSl Notebook Consultant

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    Don't think too much about it except if you are a benchmarking addict. :)
    In real life usage you won't observe the difference, except probably when copying big files.
     
    EiSl, Aug 13, 2012
    #112
  13. Amal77

    Amal77 Notebook Deity

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    Yeah, quite happy with the laptop. :)

    Just wondering why it works on other SSD but not M4.

    Definitely can live without the SATA3 SSD speed(coming from a HDD user).
     
    Amal77, Aug 13, 2012
    #113
  14. blacknouvo

    blacknouvo Notebook Enthusiast

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    Vertex 4 128GB (firmware 1.5), Disable ODD from BIOS.
    The result is 3Gb/s. :((
    Why does someone can get the 6 Gb/s speed with SATA3 but other cannot?
    So confused.
     
    blacknouvo, Aug 16, 2012
    #114
  15. ngvuanh

    ngvuanh Notebook Deity

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    Disable ODD in bios is not worth to get SATA3.
     
    ngvuanh, Aug 16, 2012
    #115
  16. Deaks2

    Deaks2 Notebook Geek

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    Agreed. Real-world performance improvement from increased sequential read speeds is negligible.
     
    Deaks2, Aug 16, 2012
    #116
  17. blacknouvo

    blacknouvo Notebook Enthusiast

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    I seldom use ODD, just only make soft copy for my project.
    So i think it's not a big deal for me if disable ODD to get Sata3 speed.
     
    blacknouvo, Aug 17, 2012
    #117
  18. theo.radu

    theo.radu Newbie

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    Hi all, I'm waiting for my Vaio to be delivered and I'm wondering what's the difference in performance (mainly boot-up times) on the Vaio S 15.5 (with an I7 proc) if you upgrade to a solid-state drive. Can you guys post your boot-up times here (both with SATA 2 and SATA 3 enabled)? I just want to know if buying an SSD is worth it, I ordered mine with the cheap 320GB HDD.

    Thanks.
     
    theo.radu, Aug 17, 2012
    #118
  19. Deaks2

    Deaks2 Notebook Geek

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    10-15 seconds from button press is the norm. 1 second resuming from standby.
     
    Deaks2, Aug 17, 2012
    #119
  20. theo.radu

    theo.radu Newbie

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    Cool, thanks. I assume it's pretty much the same when using SATA 3.
     
    theo.radu, Aug 18, 2012
    #120
  21. chowdarygm

    chowdarygm Newbie

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    hi all,

    after struggling so much with cloning, back, restore, finally installed my new Kingston V200+ 240G SATA III capable SSD drive in my Vaio SVS15113FXS machine

    when i booted it up and checked benchmarks, i am sure i have seen sata II speeds (seq 250~ read and write speeds)

    after reading a lot about SATA III disabling by sony and the workarounds you guys found, i tested it and it worked :cool:

    but to my surprise my seq read and write speeds are lowered and are nearly same in both 6gb/s mode and 3gb/s mode...below are the screenshots...can anyone of you tell me what is wrong with the speeds?

    I am satisfied with the boot speeds as i am coming from a longtime HDD use. but comparing to your results. mine is looking very poor..did i messesup anything in just 4 hours of SSD usage (rebooted 10-12 times in 4 hours to check the boot speed :D )

    please advise

    3gb/s mode (ODD disabled , after restart)

    as-ssd-bench KINGSTON SVP200S 8.19.2012 12-36-46 AM.png

    6gb/s mode (ODD disable and after sleep)

    as-ssd-bench KINGSTON SVP200S 8.19.2012 12-28-03 AM.png

    Thx
     
    chowdarygm, Aug 18, 2012
    #121
  22. blacknouvo

    blacknouvo Notebook Enthusiast

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    Based on these seq, i can say that is Sata2 speed.
    Please check in RST and look for your SATA transfer rate: 3Gb/s or 6Gb/s.
    I disabled ODD from BIOS but it didnt work to get SATA3 speed.
     
    blacknouvo, Aug 18, 2012
    #122
  23. chowdarygm

    chowdarygm Newbie

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    When I checked RST after disabling ODD and after sleep it was showing 6gb/s but still getting the above speeds. I checked the SSD specs and it clearly says SATA 3 :(
     
    chowdarygm, Aug 19, 2012
    #123
  24. gusf1

    gusf1 Notebook Geek

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    gusf1, Aug 19, 2012
    #124
  25. JaccoW

    JaccoW Notebook Geek

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    Samsung SSD 830 256GB (Speed).jpg
    Samsung 830 256GB, main power, speed mode and ODD disabled.
    No Sata 3 it seems.
    Doen't really matter, still fast enough.
     
    JaccoW, Aug 19, 2012
    #125
  26. Goku6574

    Goku6574 Newbie

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    Untitled.jpg

    just disabled my optical drive booted up and put to sleep and then woke decent from what i can see this is in stamina mode with power saver on battery its a new samsung 830 256 gb fresh install. I have 2 older 320 series from intel in my desktop there sata 2 and this beets both of them and there in raid 0 i hope sony addresses this soon as i would like to run this all times.


    on another note has anyone tried running legacy boot versus uefi?? i tried to change it but said could not find the OS wonder if its something tied to that? looks like to try it wouild be change it and install windows.
     
    Goku6574, Aug 19, 2012
    #126
  27. slim7000

    slim7000 Newbie

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    Hi,

    I am a new owner of the vaio s premium and after reading so many threads about upgrading to ssd, i would like to install it on my vaio but could someone please tell me how to get the sony preinstalled software like movie studio for example back after fresh os install
     
    slim7000, Aug 21, 2012
    #127
  28. Deaks2

    Deaks2 Notebook Geek

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    Deaks2, Aug 21, 2012
    #128
  29. slim7000

    slim7000 Newbie

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    slim7000, Aug 21, 2012
    #129
  30. Deaks2

    Deaks2 Notebook Geek

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    Deaks2, Aug 22, 2012
    #130
  31. irrequieto

    irrequieto Notebook Enthusiast

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    Disabling odd in bios + suspend did work for me, but ibernate don't work!!!
     
    irrequieto, Aug 25, 2012
    #131
  32. jcX4ever

    jcX4ever Notebook Enthusiast

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    It's kinda defeat the purpose; I want the SATA3 6Gbps because I want to shave few seconds from loading/starting/booting windows... now SATA3 works but I don't shutdown windows anymore. Not to mention the ODD is gone.
     
    jcX4ever, Aug 25, 2012
    #132
  33. darxide_sorcerer

    darxide_sorcerer Notebook Deity

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    how many times per day do you reboot your machine for it to justify disabling the optical disc drive?! besides, it doesn't shave "a few seconds" off compared to SATA II. it's about the same speed.
     
    darxide_sorcerer, Aug 25, 2012
    #133
  34. EiSl

    EiSl Notebook Consultant

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    It has already been mentioned a couple of times...
    (and also tested by a software engineer running e.g. compile jobs including VMware images)
    You won't be able to sense the difference under normal usage.
    Only if you run benchmarks (which most the time do not represents real life usage)...
    My laptop boots within 10 seconds (SATA-2). No way a SATA-3 (with same 830) will decrease that, Windows 8 might decrease it and maybe RAID-0 might do a little bit.

    The reason?
    The SSD might have a SATA600 interface, but cannot use that to fullest (because hardware is slower). Apart from that (especially during startup): Windows does quite some initialization during startup, which also eats some time.
     
    EiSl, Aug 26, 2012
    #134
  35. jcX4ever

    jcX4ever Notebook Enthusiast

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    If you can't feel the benefit of SATA3 or shave atleast 1 second when booting then there's more chances that you cannot feel it when it is already booted assuming you have plenty of RAM and reduced the usage of pagefile.sys or Virtual Memory like what I do. Unless, your laptop main job is to transfer huge files, but then again, transferring files using USB2.0 and giga-network or less will defeat the purpose of SATA3.

    So if you don't feel the benefit of SATA3 in normal use vs the SATA2 and you don't reboot your PC anymore then what's the point in disabling your ODD just to get the SATA3?
     
    jcX4ever, Aug 26, 2012
    #135
  36. EiSl

    EiSl Notebook Consultant

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    I'm not disabling anything and so running SATA-2
    We just did try it at the beginning of this thread because someone asks us to proof something (namely that there is a glitch that SATA-3 gets enabled)
    And yes: only if you do big file xfers you will feel the difference, like USB-3 will definitely benefits with external HDDs.

    I think some people are too much focussed on those booting time. Apart from speedy disk, it also depends on your installed software. Like VMware, it installs some virtual network adapters and those are also eating some booting time. So talking about 10 seconds or 12 seconds... what are we talking about then?
     
    EiSl, Aug 27, 2012
    #136
  37. lovelaptops

    lovelaptops MY FRIENDS CALL ME JEFF!

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    Couldn't agree with you more! I have a Z1 with SATA2 SSDs and a Z2 with SATA3, both 256GB 2-drive configuration. The Z2 boots up in 15-20 secs and the Z1 in 25-30. That's way more than the differences people are reporting here with the S15s and I can tell you, your boot times with Samsung 830s running at SATA 2 are phenomenal, and the couple of seconds difference are absolutely meaningless. Further, in the majority of uses it's the 4k random read speeds that you notice the most and unfortunately these are all about the same among all SSDs, SATA 2 and 3 (keep in mind, 20 MB/s 4k random read is about 70 times faster than the average HDD, while even 800MB/s is only 10 times faster than a slow, 5400 rpm HDD. Sequential R/W times are mostly for "bragging rights," rather than noticeable performance.

    In sum, my Z13 does about 350 MB/S Seq R/W and my Z22 does 800/700 Seq R/W and, other than the boot times (again, recall that the "slow" 12 secs. from the SATA2 in the S15 is still way, way faster than my Z22's and I find even 20 secs feels like "instant."

    I know it's frustrating that Sony has, as usual, done the stupid, illogical thing as far as putting out a late 2012 IB high end computer that doesn't support SATA3 entirely, but as for feeling confident that you have chosen an extremely fast, state-of-the-art machine with crazy-fast speeds, a phenomenal screen, unlimited upgradability, unimaginable light weight and a truly reasonable price. If you haven't made the purchase decision, I say do so and don't look back. If you have, and you are upset at the "limitation," get over it! You've got a dream machine that will give you years of great, very high end performance!

    Even though I don't have one nor have a need for one, I felt strongly that people on this thread should hear this perspective.
     
    lovelaptops, Aug 27, 2012
    #137
  38. umzyi

    umzyi Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hi everyone

    I think i have resolved the mystery and have an answer to this question.

    After having a long chat with sony I have found out there is slightly different motherboard sent out with the ssd drives, that enables sata3 speeds.

    there is no bios lock or anything, its just a different mobo.

    Now we need to confirm it with someone who has bought the laptop with the ssd installed by sony to check it against the other variant and try comparing the serial or batch numbers for the mobo to confirm is this is actually the case.
     
    umzyi, Aug 28, 2012
    #138
  39. ruffy91

    ruffy91 Newbie

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    It is possible to activate SATA-III Speeds with the ODD/Sleep Workaround, so the mainboard supports SATA-III

    Has anyone tried replacing the Intel SATA RAID Option ROM with a newer one?
    Version in the BIOS is 11.0.0.1339, the newest version from Intel is 11.5.0.1582, there were some improvements to SSD and >2TB support.
    If anyone would like to try i can make a BIOS with this Option Rom, but I can give no warranty that this doesn't brick your BIOS, as I have no S15 to try.
     
    ruffy91, Aug 29, 2012
    #139
  40. zOlid

    zOlid Notebook Consultant

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    If this was true how come there accually is a way to get sata 3 speeds?
    If the ssd version of the vaio is the only one with sata 3 enabled, we wouldent been able to get sata3 no matter what we did. But now we get it by disableing odd and setting it in sleep mode.
    So there must be sata 3 suport in the vaios without an ssd delivered with the laptop.
     
    zOlid, Aug 29, 2012
    #140
  41. nosebleedXD

    nosebleedXD Notebook Enthusiast

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    hi i have a crappy ssd, the ocz agility 3 120gb. i was wondering, i got 178mb/s, should i be expecting more?
     
    nosebleedXD, Aug 29, 2012
    #141
  42. Amal77

    Amal77 Notebook Deity

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    My SSD speed :p

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
    Amal77, Aug 29, 2012
    #142
  43. JaccoW

    JaccoW Notebook Geek

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    Haha, that's cool. What did you do?
    Hook up 20 SSD's in Raid-0 through an adapter? :D
     
    JaccoW, Aug 29, 2012
    #143
  44. Amal77

    Amal77 Notebook Deity

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    No way. Lol.
    Was playing with an application called FancyCache. :p
     
    Amal77, Aug 29, 2012
    #144
  45. vaiousersb4

    vaiousersb4 Notebook Enthusiast

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    My VAIO: Sony : Specification for VPCSB4L1E/S | VPCSB4L1E/S technical specifications
    Intel Bridge HM65 (SATA3 supported)
    HWiNFO64 says: SATA Ports 2 and 3 supported, SATA Port 1 6Gb/s, SATA Port 0 6Gb/s supported - So it is supoorting SATA3

    Had HDD, but bought Vertex 4 SSD 128GB (SATA 3 supported) because thought my system will support it, but the speed is for SATA2 :S
    Have no idea how to put it work in SATA3.
    Tried:
    1. Trick to disable ODD, but nothing.
    2. Updated BIOS R2086H4 to R2087H4

    More solutions what to try ?
     
    vaiousersb4, Aug 30, 2012
    #145
  46. oozijk

    oozijk Notebook Enthusiast

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    BIOS R1031H4 - which Has SATA 3 capability

    [Request-Camilo] Sony Vaio SA/SB/SC/SD/SE series R2085H4 Advanced Menu + Sata 3? Plz
     
    oozijk, Aug 30, 2012
    #146
  47. jay_brubin

    jay_brubin Notebook Enthusiast

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    put it to sleep and then wake it
     
    jay_brubin, Aug 30, 2012
    #147
  48. vaiousersb4

    vaiousersb4 Notebook Enthusiast

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    oozijk - Can I understand right that if my BIOS right now is updated to R2087H4 then I must downgrade it to R1031H4 to get SATA3 to work ?
    If so, then is there any easy tutorial ? Can someone confirm, that this trick works :) ?
     
    vaiousersb4, Aug 31, 2012
    #148
  49. vaiousersb4

    vaiousersb4 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Tried it too - nothing...
     
    vaiousersb4, Aug 31, 2012
    #149
  50. oozijk

    oozijk Notebook Enthusiast

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    Yes Confirms it works..I downgrade and upgrade between them. Works fine. I stay with R1031H4 because it runs fine for me and it is the ONLY one with SATA 3 speeds
     
    oozijk, Aug 31, 2012
    #150
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