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ADATA S599 SSD (128GB)

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JCLW

JCLW

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Joined
Apr 1, 2002
Anybody have any experience with them?

Typical 120GB (8GB over-provisioning) SandForce-1222 drive with 34nm intel flash.

On sale this week for CAD$210.

TechPowerUp review here: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AData/S599_128_GB_SSD/1.html

Newegg reviews seem overall positive, with some users complaining about firmware issues on non-intel controllers: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211471

I'm thinking about using them to replace drives on two laptops; one iGS45 based and the other i945GM based.

I've used ADATA memory as well as SD/CF cards before and never had any problems.
 
I bought one today.

First thing was to use a desktop to flash the firmware to the latest (went flawlessly).

Swapped it into my laptop (i945GM based) and tried to install Win7-HP-64. After the files copied and the laptop restarted I was greeted by a blue screen notifying me that my processor doesn't support x64. Googled it and sure enough my trusty T2050 Core Duo is only 32bit. :cry:

So I'm currently searching Kijiji for a socket M Core 2 Duo. If I can't find one I'll try and borrow a 32bit Win7 disc (I believe my Home Premium key should work with both 32bit and 64bit installs?)

I'll try and do a fullish review when I get everything sorted out, but for now all I can say is that the firmware update works (on an AMD SB600 SB) and that the file copying part of Win7 goes really quickly.
 
i have one and its bad ***! just make sure to secure erase it before fresh install for ultimate performance. and let win 7 create its 100mb partition to properly align the partitions.

Also note that i had an issue or two with the firmware update... turned out that running the firmware update tool within win 7 64, it needed to be ran as administrator and in vista sp2 compatibility mode for it to detect the ssd
 
Nice purchase, its a good drive for the price.

Just a side note, the 100MB partition does NOT align anything (for SSD's). Its only there for some windows features (bitlocker and boot recovery IIRC). Again it does NOT align the drive.
 
EarthDog said:
Nice purchase, its a good drive for the price.

Just a side note, the 100MB partition does NOT align anything (for SSD's). Its only there for some windows features (bitlocker and boot recovery IIRC). Again it does NOT align the drive.
Click to expand...

the 100mb partition does not directly align the main partition.... but creating one single partition without letting the windows installer auto do it will result in an offset of 63kb which is not aligned.... unless you manually go into diskpart and create a partition with 64kb or 128kb offset... when you let it do it auto partition you get a 1024KB offset then 100mb, then the main partition starting at 101mb which is properly aligned.
 
nd4spdbh2 said:
the 100mb partition does not directly align the main partition.... but creating one single partition without letting the windows installer auto do it will result in an offset of 63kb which is not aligned.....
Click to expand...
Ive installed plenty of W7 without the partition and it aligns fine. Again, its not for alignment. Please take a google gander when you have the chance. This has been a topic a few times already. i would link myself but Im about to run, sorry man. Also note, the 200mb partition in the beta wasnt for alignment either (nor would that math work out, would it?).

The 100MB volume is labeled as System Reserved with NTFS file system, and System, Active, Primary partition attribute with no drive letter in Disk Management. The 100MB system reserved partition is only available for Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows 7 Business and Windows 7 Enterprise editions. The 100 MB system partition is used primarily as BitLocker partition for BitLocker encryption. Additionally, it also holds the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) and boot files with boot manager for booting up the computer for troubleshooting when there is no Windows 7 installation DVD disc on hand.
Click to expand...
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/...reserved-partition-when-installing-windows-7/

Ok, did one.
 
EarthDog said:
Ive installed plenty of W7 without the partition and it aligns fine. Again, its not for alignment. Please take a google gander when you have the chance. This has been a topic a few times already. i would link myself but Im about to run, sorry man. Also note, the 200mb partition in the beta wasnt for alignment either (nor would that math work out, would it?).


http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/...reserved-partition-when-installing-windows-7/

Ok, did one.
Click to expand...

like i said... the 100mb partition is not directly related to alignment.... but its what is created when you take a raw disk and let the installer setup the partitions automatically. in doing so you get a 100mb partition with a 1024Kb offset, and a big partition just after the 100mb partition aligned to 101mb... thus subsequently through being "stacked on top of each other" being aligned.

If you go in yourself and format the disk before the installer without proper knowledge on how to properly align the partition, the partition will be non aligned to an offset of 63 kb sectors.... or 31.5KB ...

this is NOT to say that you cant just make one single big partition and have it aligned properly... you can do that in diskpart with the command "create partition primary align=1024" this will make an offset of 1024KB .... really any multiple of 64K will work just fine.


I was just trying to keep this thread simple and forgo all the intricacies of partition alignment and just say "let the installer make its own partitions including the 100mb partition... this aligns everything proper"

Edit- just realized i was saying 63KB instead os 63 sectors which is proper... a raw disk without additional setting to create a proper offset will be aligned to 63 sectors... or 31.5KB. which is not divisible by 4kb (the default allocation size for ntfs) ... what happens when your aligned to 31.5KB is you will create a slight over use and over head on the disk... as the last 4KB of what ever file your writing will span 2 blocks.



Also note - that in that link you provided, using method 2- there is no use of the align= assignment when creating the partition... i can GUARANTEE you that any partition created that way will be aligned to 63 sectors or 31.5KB. method 3 MIGHT produce a 1024KB aligned partition simply because thats where the 100mb partition was aligned that you deleted.... this is only a side effect.
 
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Got your point in it all, and I hope the OP did too. Since the 100mb partition doesnt really do anything, which note making that partition isnt a visible option to users in the first place, wouldnt be a mention in my KISS method I suppose. :)
 
Gotta love Kijiji:
t7200.jpg


img7950wc.jpg


img7951p.jpg


Installing now...
 
It keeps throwing me an error:

"Windows could not configure one or more system components. To install Windows, restart the computer and then restart the installation."

I'm going to try a 32bit version...
 
32bit installs fine. Odd. There are intel Win7-x64 drivers for the chipset so the chipset must support it. Still playing...
 
I launched the installer from within Win7-32 and it successfully installed Win7-64. Maybe because it went online and downloaded updates?

Anyways. I'll play more tomorrow.
 
Well, 64bit W7 works fine on the i945GM.

However, I have some legacy applications that do not work in 63bit W7. After playing all day trying to get them working I'm going to give up and go back to 32bit W7.

It's a pity because all the hardware drivers seem to work really well.

Oh well. I think I've already used up half the writes in my NAND cells. :rolleyes:

The i945GM only seems to support 3.25GB of memory anyways.

Here's an AS SSD run (Win7-x64). The ICH7M does not support AHCI so they're not too impressive from an SSD point of view. Compared to the old HDD they are night and day.
adatas599win7x64.gif


Now I'm going to install Win7-x86, again. :rain:

I bought a 2nd drive for my wife's laptop today. I'll be able to do direct before and after comparisons since the drive will be the only thing changing on hers (Mine went 2x512MB -> 2x2GB, T2050 -> T7200, WinXP -> Win7 in addition to the SSD upgrade).
 
did you secure errase the ssd before doing a final install of win 7?

edit... btw for comparison... an atto and as ssd bench on my main rig.... ICH10R in RAID mode.... ssd is not a member of any raid array.

also i would recommend to make sure that the ssd is aligned.

Its as easy as going to a cmd prompt in windows and typing..

diskpart

list disk

select disk # ...... where # is the # of the ssd

list partition

and it will give you the offsets
 

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Got 2 of these 64gb (open box) from microcenter for 79.99$ each. Both had the 3.1.0 firmware - no wonder it was returned.

Flashed it to 3.4.6 firmware then secure erased it. Now running raid0 on my main rig. Love it. WEI 7.9
 
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