Anyone here using Samsung EVO SSD?

[derdy]

I'm thinking of replacing the stock HDD with an SSD of some ilk and am wondering about the Samsung EVOs. I have a Sager with an Intel 520/240GB and it rips. I've heard good things about the Samsungs but am concerned about reliability. Anyone here running one? Thanks

[wannab]

I am currently running the 840 Samsung Pro. Absolutely love it.

As for reliability, i have had it for over 3 months now without any problems at all. (I know that's not really preaching much on longevity )

[Madfish]

Just installed the evo 840 120Gb ssd. It is very fast, but has some system instability. I am running bios A05, and there are I/O errors on cold boot. Don't install Rapid Storage Technology (RST), it slows things down. Overall, I am very pleased with the ssd performance. The only downside is the boot I/O errors, but there are mods to improve stability.

[NforceRaid]

Just installed the evo 840 120Gb ssd. It is very fast, but has some system instability. I am running bios A05, and there are I/O errors on cold boot. Don't install Rapid Storage Technology (RST), it slows things down. Overall, I am very pleased with the ssd performance. The only downside is the boot I/O errors, but there are mods to improve stability.

Hi, I have 16GB HyperX 1600Mhz Ram, Win 8.1 and Evo Samsung 500gb ssd, with bios A05, and all I works well, the only problem is that when you start R1 takes about 1 minute, but then everything is fast and no bsod and freeze.

How do you solve the problem at boot? mod that needs to be done to fix the problem

thanks

edit

You with Evo uses Rapid Mode?

[derdy]

Just installed the evo 840 120Gb ssd. It is very fast, but has some system instability. I am running bios A05, and there are I/O errors on cold boot. Don't install Rapid Storage Technology (RST), it slows things down. Overall, I am very pleased with the ssd performance. The only downside is the boot I/O errors, but there are mods to improve stability.

Well I went ahead and got an 840EVO/250GB and subsequently installed the Samsung Magician. This software is very similar in purpose to Intel SSD Toolbox. I also upgraded the RAM from the standard 4GB Micron which was faulty, to 16GB G.Skill 1600MHz. The laptop runs fast. I do notice however a Windows Experience Index score that is less than satisfactory in one area: GPU performance. What I know about the M14x and its bizarre GT555M/Intel HD mutant hybrid graphics is that the GT555M does not have discreet RAM, meaning that it shares RAM with the system. Also the core i5 inside supplies graphics whilst the computer is doing something other than playing games that are coded to utilize Nvidia Optimus Technology. What this means is some games may actually be trying to run on the Intel HD because of a failure to switch over to GT555M. This explains the low score in Windows Experience.

Does anyone know how to disable the Intel HD graphics? Surely there must be some BIOS repack available that allows this. I want the ability to force the use of the GT555M exclusively.

Also Madfish - the reason Rapid Storage Technology slows the EVO down is because it's a Samsung drive, not an Intel that the software was coded for.

[Madfish]

Hi, I have 16GB HyperX 1600Mhz Ram, Win 8.1 and Evo Samsung 500gb ssd, with bios A05, and all I works well, the only problem is that when you start R1 takes about 1 minute, but then everything is fast and no bsod and freeze.

How do you solve the problem at boot? mod that needs to be done to fix the problem

thanks

edit

You with Evo uses Rapid Mode?

I am using the ssd in Rapid Mode and optimized performance configuration. I further optimized the system for use of the ssd by disabling drive indexing, superfetch, etc, and got better speed numbers, but no effect on stability.

I have been looking for a solution to the boot errors. The M14x R1 unlocked A08 bios mod also improved overall performance, but the problem persists.

I found that disabling C-states in the bios appeared to lower the boot failure rate (~2 boot I/O failures vs. ~10). I will update if I find a solution.

[NforceRaid]

I am using the ssd in Rapid Mode and optimized performance configuration. I further optimized the system for use of the ssd by disabling drive indexing, superfetch, etc, and got better speed numbers, but no effect on stability.

I have been looking for a solution to the boot errors. The M14x R1 unlocked A08 bios mod also improved overall performance, but the problem persists.

I found that disabling C-states in the bios appeared to lower the boot failure rate (~2 boot I/O failures vs. ~10). I will update if I find a solution.

ok, waiting for your evidence.

thanks

[Avarice1of2]

I am using a samsung evo ssd and having issues when booting up. If m14xr1 has sat for any given amount of time greater then 10 minutes I will get an error where windows says it can not detect the ssd.

[tone007]

Just bought a 250GB EVO SSD for my M14xR1 and it's working flawlessly.

[lftft]

I just went through the decision (samsung 850 vs 840/evo vs pro/256 vs 512). Ended up purchasing the 840 evo 500gb. I decided that although I think I can get by with 256 gb, I would rather have the capacity and sacrifice some performance (pro/850) to meet my budget. From what I saw, although the benchmarks were better, day to day performance probably wasn't as significant. Plus, coming from an HDD, I don't see how I could possibly be dissapointed!

[SilentExodus]

I go for the Samsung Evo 840 too, the performance boost in writing data for the Samsung pro isnt worth it, the Pro is too expensive

[patelyo]

I currently have the samsung evo and it is flawless. Had it for just about four months and no problems(thank god). Anyways, upgrading to a SSD is always great. My boot time is less then 20 seconds

[myevo8u]

As LFTFT said, i just decided to go with the Samsung Evo 840 256 GB as well. I put all my big files on my external drive. Still have 190 gigs of space left. So far everything runs good no problems yet.

[DonPrimo]

Im currently also running an EVO (840, 250GB) and so far it runs flawlessly. No problems with booting or anything else. My next step would be flashing the BIOS with the Sata fix to get Sata 3 speeds. Im a little afraid tho, because i never went with a bios flash yet. Also, is the rapid mode of samsung magician contraproductive to the lifespan of my SSD? What exactly does it do?

[spel]

I have the Samsung Evo 840 250GB, I use my laptop several hours a day and It has improved my productivity immensely. I have it since 1st October and magician says 0.91TB written. No performance drops until now and my boot time (w8.1) is about 15seconds.

[DeadGeneration]

Mine just arrived. I am looking forward to installing it after I get my BIOS fixed up good. Much better than dropping another 2 stacks on a laptop when stacked DRAM is just around the corner.

[stoyan]

I have terible expirience with Samsung... Maybe it's just me...

[Aerostang]

I'm running Samsung EVO 840 SSD 500gb, although I've only had it for 3 months now, after a 3 minute install and fresh installation of windows 8.1 pro it's ran beautifully. No stability or booting issues. I have turbo/rapid mode enabled as well. Huge improvement over HDD. Computer boots in seconds.

[jp200482]

Im running same Samsung EVO 840 Ssd 500gb in win 8.1 for almost 1 month with bios a08 l, so far so good at sata 2, I don't know if hacking the bios for sata3 made any performance jump. The only tweak I made is the ssd performance restoration from samsung, cause I read the old data read went slower from a bug. I'm so happy for the change to ssd, everything go FASTER

[hongp]

I do not recommend samsung ssd. it's very much overrated! I started to have issues copying big files after I switch from kingston ssd to samsung 840. most of the time, the big files get corrupted, and I have to do checksum to make sure the files are copied to external drive correctly. It's very time consuming! Not sure if others have the same issue.

[AnonVendetta]

I just figured I'd chime in to say/confirm that I'm currently using a Samsung 850 EVO 1TB (not the Pro version) with my M14X R1, and everything is working flawlessly. I've only had it installed for a day, but things are working out great so far.

On an unrelated sidenote, I'm also using the modded BIOS A08 (M14xR1_A08_[unlocked]_voltmod_incl_GF116_&_SATA_fix.zip) from svl7 (http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware-m14x-aw-14/561-%5Bmod%5D-voltage-increase-nvidia-gt-555m-7.html#post12003). His mod allows for the M14X R1 to take advantage of the full SATA 3/6GBPS that the 850 EVO 1TB has to offer. An added benefit of his mod is that you can also install Windows in UEFI mode on GPT partitioning, instead of being stuck booting in BIOS/MBR mode. I tried for quite awhile to boot Windows in UEFI mode on the R1, thinking it wasn't possible, until I found svl7's mod. It turned out the UEFI option was simply hidden in the BIOS by Dell.

At first I tried installing/booting Windows in UEFI mode via a hack called TianoCore DUET (see my post at Need Help Setting Up UEFI DUET On Alienware M14X R1 - Boot from USB / Boot anywhere - reboot.pro), which essentially boots the PC in BIOS/MBR mode, but tricks Windows into *thinking* it's running in UEFI mode. But later, with svl7's modded BIOS, I discovered that using DUET wasn't necessary, since the R1 is indeed capable of booting an OS in native UEFI mode on GPT, after having flashed that. I suppose that some/any of the other files on his page (linked above) might also unlock/enable UEFI mode.

Just my 2 cents, hope that helped someone!