Lenovo Y580 (want to upgrade HDD to SSD vertex 4) advise

[edwardamin13]

Hi guys,
My new lenovo y580 will be shipped in 2 weeks http://www.lenovo.com/products/us/tech-specs/laptop/ideapad/y-series/y580/

In the mean time, I'm thinking about upgrading its HDD to SDD. And after few hours reading review of some SSD about replacing it with OCZ Vertex 4 256 GB

My question is,
Does Lenovo Y580 support SATA 3 for Vertex 4? (will vertex 4 work in lenovo Y580?)
Is Vertex 4 a good choice?
If I'm going to clone my current laptop's 128 GB SSD to Vertex 4 256 GB, Can I copy the preloaded software from original lenovo HDD easily?

Thanks for your time

 

[seph4life]

I bought a Y580 a little over a month ago and immediately swapped in a Samsung 256GB 830 series.

Sata III works just fine with full speed and any 2.5 inch SATA III drive should pop right in the chassis no problem.

What I did was use a fresh install of windows 7 from a disk when I put in the ssd. You can use the windows serial on the bottom of the laptop for activation. Just make sure to install the same version that comes on the laptop. I then put the stock hard drive in an external enclosure for use as a external hdd. All the drivers and software for the Y580 is actually backed up on a separate partition on the stock drive so I was able to install all the software and drivers using the stock hard drive from that external enclosure.

In general it is better to use a fresh install than cloning your drive since we're talking about a brand new laptop with nothing personal on it yet. Cloning is really more for when you have a bunch of files and settings on your comp that you don't want to lose.

Its super easy to put an ssd in the Y580 and definitely worth it. Its 2 screws to open the bottom of the laptop and 2 more screws to pull out the little cradle that the hard drive sits in. The laptop also has an mSATA slot in case you wanted to go that route. You can find an ISO of windows 7 by searching google and it is perfectly legal to do as long as you are using a legit activation serial which you will since the laptop comes with one.

As far as Vertex 4 goes, i hear they are a little unreliable and don't last but that is only hearsay, as I have no experience with that brand or model. Hopefully someone who knows a little more about the OCZ Vertex can help you on that. I went with the Samsung because it was the cheapest 256GB SSD on newegg at the time and came with a free copy of Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, which I was planning on buying anyway.

 

[edwardamin13]

Best answer selected by edwardamin13.