my Alienware m5750 laptop is nearly 9 years old. i have finally decided to switch from 2 raided 750GB HDD's to a single SSD.

first attempt.

updated my system BIOS to the latest version. disassembled the RAID 0 array in VIA RAID Utility (hit TAB on boot). removed both HDD's. installed SSD.
the SSD is an old Kington SVP100S2 256GB Sata 2, that i purchased used.
SSD was detected in BIOS. unfortunately, there's no AHCI mode option for my AHCI capable chipset, so the drive came up as RAID: Kingstonxxxxxxx...
next, booted from Win7 x64 DVD for a fresh install. the drive showed up in Advanced Options. i deleted all existing partitions and decided to do a quick format. this is where the Windows installer stops responding. gave it about 10 minutes and rebooted. on next boot, the drive seemed to have new partitions, which made me realize that i interrupted the formatting process. delete the partitions again and proceed with install - Copying Files - 0%... for about 30 minutes. i gave up and rebooted.
finally grabbed one of my old 750GB drives, installed Windows quickly and connected the SSD on the second channel - BSOD before Windows even starts. Safe mode takes a little longer, but still BSOD's as soon as i try to access the drive in Disk Management.

same SSD on my desktop - perfect! was able to format, read/write flawlessly. no firmware updates available from Kingston. on to attempt 2...

second attempt.

after spending all day with the first drive, i barely made it to BestBuy and grabbed a PNY Optima 120GB Sata 3 SSD.
everything went smooth and quick - formatted and installed Windows within 20 minutes. perfect, except it's a small drive and my laptop is only capable of Sata 1 speeds. it was just a test and the PNY is going back to Best Buy.

third attempt.

back to the Kingston. after some searching i ended up downloading 11.2.0.1006 intel package and selected Load Driver in Windows installer. none were compatible, but i chose the ICH7M/MDF AHCI anyway. it's working. as i sit here and type, it's been about 90 minutes into the install and it hasn't gotten to the first reboot yet. i have a feeling that everything will go ok, but why is it SO SLOW??? just because it's so old? once Windows boots i will test performance, but i don't like this kind of a start...

the Kingston 256GB was $70 off Craigslist, and the PNY 120GB was $65.
the same person that sold me the Kingston has an OCZ Vertex 240GB for almost the same price, and i now have a chance to exchange the drives or get my money back... not sure what direction to take. the PNY is new, and works flawlessly, with no AHCI drivers needed, but is small and even with an extra 750GB for storage, i know i will run out of space quick.

all i'm looking for is a couple of answers and some advice...

1. since the Kingston started working after loading the intel AHCI drivers, did i actually enable AHCI mode? NONE of the people with the same system as mine have been able to do so. btw, 1hr 45min into the install and still Completing Installation...
2. is this obvious speed difference related to one drive being a Sata2 and the other a Sata3? with my controller (VIA VT6421A) being Sata1, i didn't think it would matter...
3. am i taking a risk by purchasing a used SSD to begin with? these OCZ Vertex Sata3 240GB's are going at about $95 "new" on eBay, and i can get one for $75. is it worth it?

almost 2 hours into the Windows install at this point and the laptop didn't restart yet... faulty drive??? i saw it write at about 180MB/s on my desktop from another SSD. what the hell!!!

EDIT: and it all ended with an error for Kingston - corrupted installation file - contact Windows vendor. will be on my way to get the OCZ Vertex in a few minutes...

well, you're probably right about it being an ICH7, even though the original laptop manual mentions ICH7M in the 56k modem description - "Intel (ICH7M) integrated Modem Controller with Castlenet MA820 MDC, support" and the audio controller - "Intel (ICH7M) integrated audio controller". in any case, there has never been a Storage Configuration option in my BIOS.

SATA2 or SATA3... they're hooked up to a SATA1 controller!

the Kingston SSD worked absolutely fine on my desktop - Rampage Formula III mobo by Asus - X58 chipset. i have exchanged it for an OCZ Vertex 3 240GB and it hasn't been going too well... couldn't format it at first, even with intel drivers loaded first. rebooted a couple of times - it was fine. after first restart got stuck on the "Setup is updating registry settings" screen. gave it half an hour and turned it off. will be starting all over again in a few minutes.

frankly, i'm surprised by your suggestion at a new laptop. i just put in the fastest Core2Duo(not the t7600G), an HD4670 512MB GDDR3, it has a WXUGA screen, and with the PNY SSD Windows install the system felt really fast! i would dare say it felt smoother than my wife's brand new i7 Toshiba Satellite whatever series... i paid $2800 for this beast back in 2006 and it has so far met my every need, except the x1800 was getting old for gaming. i know i can squeeze a few more years out of it. could even improve on the SATA1 limitation by going two SSD's in RAID 0, tough i don't think i will ever need it. thanks anyway...

EDIT by Fernando: Unneeded fully quoted text deleted (to save space)

i didn't mean SATA port numbers. i meant that my SATA RAID controller is only capable of SATA-I speeds and both SATA-II and SATA-III drives should be limited by that.

in any case, i tried another SATA-III drive next - an OCZ Vertex 3 240GB. better than Kingston, but still nothing but trouble. took 3 hours to install Windows 7 with a few hangups between restarts, and when it finally booted it was SLOW! i mean it was worse than my 7200rpm! got my money back the same night and kept the PNY Optima 120GB. the thing flies. Windows boots in about 14 seconds, shuts down in 3. haven't done any actual benchmarking, but it's obviously working well.

so why didn't the Kingston and OCZ drives work? i have a buddy with an OCZ Agility SATA-II SSD on the exact same machine and his works fine. is it because those drives require AHCI mode and are really confused by my RAID controller running regular IDE mode? it's just strange. and again, both of the "unlucky" drives were absolutely fine on my desktop.

I actually ran into @p377y7h33f on another forum. I am the guy with the other Alienware M5750 who had the OCZ Agility 2. Recently the Agility crapped out on me and when I tried to replace it with an Intel 535 drive I had the same exact issues as @p377y7h33f. I found this thread when googleing for a solution and wanted to post here in case anyone else ever finds this.

With the new Intel 535 drive I noticed like @p377y7h33f my Windows installation was very slow and all my applications were taking MUCH longer to open, especially on a fresh Windows 7 install. I decided to benchmark the Intel drive. The results (below) were terrible. 7.23 MB/s Read speed. Well at least I knew what was going on. I tried the same drive on my newer M11X and got 223.21 MB/s read. From reading @p377y7h33f posts and from my own testing there seems to be an incompatibility with newer SSD's and older laptops or at least this laptop. Just something to watch out for.

@p377y7h33f Said the a PNY Optima drive worked great for him so despite the controller controversy those drives have I grabbed a 480GB one from Tiger Direct. Was only $140 after rebate. I threw in the drive and the Windows 7 install flew. Everything is now opening as fast as it did with the Agility. I ran the benchmark tool and got 84.72 MB/s. Not bad for a 9yr old laptop without the AHCI option. My PNY Optima firmware is showing as N081 which from this thread seems to be the structure for SMI firmware.

I hang around the legacy Alienware notebookreview forum if any of you old Alienware guys have more questions.

M5750 SSD Compatibility list:

List:
Working:
OCZ Agility 2 - Controller: SandForce 1222 - Tester: Protivakid
PNY Optima SSD7SC480GOPT-RB - Controller: SMI (Firm: N081) - Tester: Protivakid
PNY Optima 120GB - Tester: p377y7h33f

NOT working:
Intel 535 SSDSC2BW480H601 - Controller: Custom Intel (Firm: RD20) - Tester: Protivakid
Kingston 256GB SATA-II - Tester: p377y7h33f
OCZ Vertex 3 240GB - Controller: SandForce® 2281 - Tester: p377y7h33f

Intel 535 on my M5750


Intel 535 on my M11X



PNY Optima 480GB on my M5750