OCZ Vertex 4 512GB SSD on W520 guaranteed BSOD--BEWARE!

[teksimple]

Just wanted to make a quick post to let prospective W520 upgraders know about Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) problems that occurrs when using a the 512GB Vertex 4.  This is an issue that affects more than just Lenovos (Alienware in particular). When resuming from sleep, the W520 will BSOD 100% of the time.  I have posted on the OCX forums along with others.  I went ahead and returned the Vertex 4 after I bought it from Amazon, since no amount of troubleshooting would fix it.  I am replacing it with the Samsung 512GB since there are many people on the forum who have had success with that. 

Bottom line: don't buy a Vertex 4 until Lenovo or OCZ come out with a fix, unless you don't mind testing manufacturer's stuff for free!

[fldevs]

Thanks a ton for the post!  I'm about to add some ssd goodness into my w520 and the Vertex 4 was near the top of the list!

[ColonelONeill]

I assume you tried the Link-State Power Management patch?

[huberth]

A new firmware came out today:

http://www.storagereview.com/ocz_vertex_4_ssd_review_firmware_v14rc

[huberth]

Benchmark comparision with Samsung 830 etc:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5719/ocz-vertex-4-review-256gb-512gb/7

[Jimbo]

I would go with Intel for reliability:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-reliability-failure-rate,2923-9.html

My next machine, which will be 17" Ivy Bridge/Kepler w/120Hz 3D display, will have dual Intel SSDs in RAID0, with probably an mSATA SSD for backup. And if you keep data/docs on a separate partition from the system partition, then you seldom need to backup the system (I dump my data/docs to a NAS each day, which itself is backed up).

The problem with less reliable SSDs is that SSDs tend to fail completely and with no warning, unlike hard drives. So, if avoiding downtime is important to you, then you want one of the more reliable SSDs. Overall, the more reliable SSDs (the orange line & dotted line in the chart, which should include the Intel 520-series SSDs) now appear to be more reliable than hard drives, under heavy use, according to that article.

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But, as with any computer-related product nowadays, I would make sure that users say that the current firmware/drivers are stable with your computer, before buying.