Dell Inspiron 7720 SE SSD upgrade

Hello, soon I'll buy a 120gb SSD for my laptop. I have a few questions.
Which hard disk bay is primary? Do I have to put the original 1tb hard disk into the second bay, or I can put the SSD into the empty one and it'll act as a primary?
I'm thinking to buy this SSD OCZ Vertex 3 Low Profile 7mm SATA III 2.5" SSD - OCZ
What are your opinions?

 

Do you plan on using your SSD and have the HDD being cached by an mSata ?
I don't know if there is such thing as a primary bay, as you can select from which hard drive you want to boot from into the bios. One thing for sure, is that you will either need to clone your HDD to the SDD, hoping you don't have a larger image as we speak on your HDD than the capacity of your new SSD.
Now, if you plan on installing windows from scratch, i would recommand to put the SSD in Bay-0, the HDD in Bay-1 and use the smart response technology to cache data from your HDD using the mSata port.
As for the OCZ Vertex 3, i got 2 of those... 120gb also, and they work perfectly.

 

I don't have mSata cache drive. I want to install new windows and programs on the ssd and use the hdd for data.
As for the SSD, I found Vertex 4 with 5 years guarantee, the price is good, so maybe I'll buy it.
Thanks!

 

In general I still wouldn't recommend buying an OCZ SSD. Their track record really hasn't been good, and what use a 5-year warranty when you have to replace it every year?

 

Rassal,

Does the 17r SE come with a second HDD caddy, or did you have to order one when you added your SSD? I just got the laptop and I'm ready to add a SSD. After reading your posts, it's obvious you have put the time in testing the ins and outs. If you get a chance would you be willing to answer a few questions?

 

Sounds like this is different for everyone. Mine came with a 2nd caddy installed. I read here that some didn't get the 2nd caddy. Some didn't get it and called Dell and got it for free...

Who knows... but i indeed got mine so i am happy about it.

 

For all dual hard drive bay systems, Dell always includes it, usually in the accessory box. Worst case call up Dell if it's not there and they will overnight it to you.

 

I had the second caddy installed in my 7720, which was delivered with one 750gb disk. However, the second caddy did not have the screws that hold the disk in place (the caddy is pretty much just a thin metal bracket that wraps around the disk). No big deal, either find similar screws, or use two out of the four screws holding in the original disk.

 

I tore it apart and located the caddy. Intel 520 series SSD installed with the 1TB factory HDD in the 2nd slot. What is the process for making the 30g boost the 1TB hard drive now that it's in the second slot? All the drives show up on Intel RTS but there is no options to do anything.

 

Update, I read the post regarding setting the BIOS setting to Intel RST, however I get a blue screen when it's on that setting and resorted to AHCI. I swear it was already set to RTS, saving and exiting must have implemented it. Have you had this happen? Could not having the proper driver cause this? Thanks!

 

Never happened to me, as i ordered my laptop with the mSata in place, so it was already configured with the Intel RST in bios.

Indeed sounds like improper driver is installed.

 

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[Solved]Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it.

I came across some information regarding a registry edit that allows you to boot in RAID (Intel RST in our case). I implemented the edit(s) rebooted, changed BIOS to the RST option, boots perfectly. Intel RST software didn't acknowledge any 3 of my drives names. Uninstalled Intel RST software > reboot > Reinstall RST version just uninstalled, this time with all drive information and the accelerate tab!

Also, Rassal- are you running A03 or A08 bios? I've read mostly negative things about A08, but I'm curious what you have found to work for yourself. I currently have A03 and the SMBIOS version is 2.7. The Dell site is terrible for listing improvements like patch notes that the driver addresses, where would I go to get detailed information regarding what A08 implements? Thanks again, I appreciate it.

 

From what i've seen yet, A08 is enabling mSata for people that didn't get it configured when they bought it... so if you didn't bought the 17RSE with mSata, you couldn't select Smart Response Technology in bios... Other thing, they improved the UEFI booting with A08, i managed to find that when you actually use the BBS F8 option when you boot... the menu is totaly different...

And over the top, sounds like A08 has a bug with the Mobile options button in hardware (the 1st button on the left in the 3 dedicated buttons doesn't work anymore).

Also, i noticed that i got from 7.1 windows index to 6.9 when i flashed A08... so they might have changed the bios of the 650... who knows... but it didn't fix the 835mhz boost for it... If you can, stick to A03... if you must (like i do... ) then do A08... not a big of a difference on benchmarks, i ran my usual PCMark, Vantage and 3DMark11 tests with A03 and A08 and performance is the same...

Sounds like the WEI score down to 6.9 is related to the 306.23 drivers, as i installed the 306.97 drivers today and i am back to 7.2 again. So not bios related, but driver related.

 

Awesome, thanks I can't tell ya how much I appreciate your help. Everything is running smooth now, I'll stay with A03 until (if they ever do) address the bugs in A08.

 

Zanthros
#Idonotworkfordell
#Iamunemployed
#Iamlookingforajob

 

I'm also at 7.2 now with the new driver, and still with A03. System is running solid. Did they address the clock issue our 650 is having in this update?

 

Nope, the nvidia boost issue is still there in A08... and i heard of a A09 somewhere, and still with A09 it seems it`s not solved...

 

In case you or anyone else got everything running, could you share the steps you followed, particularly:
- did you restore an image of your previous installation on the ssd or a fresh install? Which imaging software
- If you restored image, why. Because I hear Windows should be installed fresh on SSD for best performance since it makes some settings accordingly. If you installed Windows fresh, what media did you use for installation?
- Does it make a difference as to which bay we install in?
- Any BIOS settings need to be changed after installing SSD and before installing Windows?
- The registry edit you mentioned, is it really required and if so please point to the source
- Did you change any msata settings after installing the SSD?
- Any change in Intel rapid storage settings?

 

I moved the factory HDD to the second bay, the SSD is installed in its place as the primary drive.
I installed a windows via the Dell provided Windows 7 disk (no image)
I kept the factory HDD out of the machine during the process of formatting windows onto the new SSD, once at desktop the priority was to update the SSD's firmware which turned out to be uptodate out of the box. (No BIOS changes yet)
System was stable so I shutdown and installed the factory HDD into the the second, and previously empty bay. Upon booting to desktop everything was running stable, and both drives were recognized and functioning.

At this time when I went in IRST software, the drives were showing up however, there was no "accelerate" tab. I did some extensive searching and found an article (that I can't relocate) discussing the BIOS raid setting being a factor that would affect that particular installation of Windows (if you instal on a "non raid" bios setting, you would be required to reformat under the raid setting to have it function). The article mentioned a "fix" of a simple registry edit changing one value from a "1" to a "3" (or vice verse I don't recall) that would enable you to change the bios setting to raid. In my case, the bios raid setting is called Intel RST. When I set that option before the registry edit I would get a blue screen boot loop. After reviewing the two registry files indicated in the article (one of which had the proper value already) I made the necessary value change, which then allowed me to reboot and select RST (raid) without any blue screen. At the desktop, I opened IRST software which now showed no information on my drives. I uninstalled and reinstalled the same version, this time all the drive information was there along with the accelerate tab. Here lies the only real setting within the software to select the drive of your choice and set it to be cached by the msata in a raid 0 fashion.

Hope that helps you enough to have an idea of what you might be dealing with. Sorry I can't find that article.

 

Thank you for the detailed reply. I think I will be able to manage it now. I intend to follow the same procedure except the registry edit part. I'll try to select the correct option in the BIOS before going for the Windows installation.

Also, I'm planning on using a native Win 7 SP1 USB drive for installation instead of the provided Dell DVD, and installing the required drivers manually. Anyway once Windows 8 is released on Upgrade Offer, I intend to install that clean so might as well try this now. I'm waiting on my Samsung 830 128GB now. I wonder if the Dell Windows 7 key would work with the USB installer. Otherwise I do have a Win 7 Pro license available.

 

latest driver from Nvidia is not a very good gaming driver (give me a 5fps drop)........how in HELL can Nvidia live with their self ????

 

The Nvida card we have is 2 gigs, correct? I'm trying to play Diablo3, and I'm getting only 40 frames with the settings maxed. I can't imagine this game is so demanding this card can't push it, is there something I'm doing wrong. I have the Nvidia settings to "Use High Performance Nvidia Processor", rather than the Intel HD. The laptop is always plugged in and on "High Performance". Is there something I'm missing, the gpu sucks worse than I thought?

 

got my 17R SE yesterday and I'm going to be doing this SSD change tonight with a Samsung 830 256GB drive. It'll be my first time doing anything like this, so hopefully it goes smoothly.

The 17R SE I got off the outlet is the one that comes with two 1 TB HDDs and the 32GB mSata, so I'm planning on pulling the OS HDD (drive 0) and installing the SSD there and doing a fresh install of Windows 7 from the disc Dell sent with the computer. I'll leave the other HDD in for data and use the mSata to cache it.

Should I go ahead and pull both HDDs before installing Windows on the SSD so it won't get confusing when doing the install or does that really matter?

 

I also got a Win8 preinstalled 17R SE with 1TB 5400 rpm hdd , which comes with an empty hdd bay, so I'm thinking to add sdd in slot-0 moving hdd to slot-1 so to install a clean Win8. My question is since my laptop hasn't any cd/dvd my only option is to backup and restore my actual 1TB hdd into sdd , is this a viable solution or is it better to perform a clean Win8 installation ? In latter case I don't know how to do since as I said I don't have any win8 physical dvd. Does Dell support send Win8 dvd or is there a way to flush preinstalled win8 to dvd ?

Cheers,
Giacomo

 

Just chat online to Dell and tell them the recovery disk you created does not work, and they don't fuss they just send it you out.

 

Oh ok thx for smart idea

Cheers,
Giacomo

 

I don't like W8, but there was no downgrade option on the Inspiron 17R SE I just ordered (not many options at all in fact), will Dell send me a W7 Reinstallation DVD (with key) if I ask for it?
I would like to move the primary disk to bay 2 & replace it with a 128GB SSD then install W7 on it, using the old Cache disk as a regular 32GB drive (for apps) as I need to change the BIOS from UEFI to AHCI to keep TRIM working on the new SSD.