W520 support for SATA III or 6GB with Vertex 3 240GB SSD

[sargethomas]

I need a laptop that supports 16GB memory, HD display (1920 X 1080) and SATA 3 with 6Gb speeds to leverage my existing Vertex 3 240GB SSD.

Looking up PSREF, I find the W520 specs state SATA 3Gb/s (SATA II?) while the chipset is QM67 which is supposed to support SATA III 6Gb/s.

So the question is, does the W520 support SATA 3 at 6Gb/s? I need the throughput to leverage the throughput of the Vertex 3 240GB SSD  for multiple VM's on my laptop.

Thanks and regards

Sarge Thomas

[thitiv]

I have a 256GB Crucial M4 SSD and another 256GB Crucial C300 SSD on my W520. Both are SATA-III 6 Gbps drives. I confirm that my W520 supports SATA-III 6 Gbps in the primary bay *and* in the Ultrabay tray. Your problem would be that the exterior housing of the Vertex 3 240GB SSD is approximately 1 mm wider than standard hard drives and it would not fit into the primary bay with the two rubber rails in. You will have a hard time securing your Vertex 3 in place!

[gan Guru]

Just for the record i been using several SSDs with the W520 including the OCZ Vertex 3 and OCZ Vertex 3 max and they both fit fine with the rubber rails in the W520. Just don't mount the case that is normally around the HDD/SSD. You won't need that case anyway when using the SSD in the W520. Use only the rubber rails and the SSD will fit fine and should be seated fine as well.

-gan

[thitiv]

@gan, Nice trick! Thank you very much!

[sargethomas]

Hmm..just want to double-check that the SDD's are not running at a slower rate (ie: SATA II). Most of the SATA III SSD's will run in SATA II or 3Gbps mode if connected to a SATA II bus. Would you be kind enough to confirm that they are running in SATA III mode?  I presume there are utilities out there that can measure SATA speeds. Thanks for your patience. Regards, Sarge

[thitiv]

---

sargethomas wrote:

Hmm..just want to double-check that the SDD's are not running at a slower rate (ie: SATA II). Most of the SATA III SSD's will run in SATA II or 3Gbps mode if connected to a SATA II bus. Would you be kind enough to confirm that they are running in SATA III mode?  I presume there are utilities out there that can measure SATA speeds. Thanks for your patience. Regards, Sarge

---

Trust me. I just traded my W510 with SATA-II in to a W520 with SATA-III. See pictures in the threads below:

This is W510 + Crucial M4 in SATA-II mode: http://www.thaithinkpad.com/forum/index.php/topic,17624.msg196800.html#msg196800

This is W520 + Crucial M4 in SATA-III mode: http://www.thaithinkpad.com/forum/index.php/topic,17624.msg196851.html#msg196851

[gan Guru · Accepted solution]

I can confirm as well that i used the Intel 510, OCS Vertex 3 and OCS Vertex 3 Max among others in a W520 running at SATA III speed (6Gb/s). The psref is wrong if it says SATA II only. You can easily check this using the RST console as well as running benchmarks that will show results way above SATA II speed. Both the W520 and the Vertex 3 support SATA III.

My experience with the Vertex 3 running at SATA III speed isn't that good though. Lot of stability issues even if a lot better using the latest Vertex 3 firmware. Using the Intel 510 SSD it's working great and no such problems.

-gan

[sargethomas]

Thanks everyone. A W520 it is, for me:-).

[techscotty]

great info !

I am putting an M4 in mine when it arrives.....

btw, any special settings or tweaks to run at Sata III ??

in regards to Lenovo, Win 7, or the M4

as far as stability reasons, setup, etc.

thanks

[podehnal]

Hello,

I have a new W520 and want to install the Vertex 3, 240gb drive.  I've been checking the Vertex forums and have seen many problems with SATA III performance and BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) with this drive on Windows 7 systems.

As you have a W520 and Vertex 3 running well (I assume from your responses), I just wanted to ask you about your experience with W520 and the Vertex 3?  

a. Any BSOD?  

b. Any Windows stuttering or hesitating?

c. What did you do to install the Vertex 3?  Did you just clone your original drive that was shipped with the W520 laptop?  Did you re-install Windows 7 from scratch?  I would appreciate an overview or steps i could follow to get the same successful results you seem to be having.  

Thank you.

Peter

petero@virtual-vendor (dot com)