Comments on: Viliv S5 3G Confusion: When Is an SSD Slower Than HDD?

By: Genghis Khent

Genghis Khent — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:46:56 +0000

Just FYI. You can get the X70 with a 128GB SS but with XP instead of Vista. Just don’t get the Win7 Home upgrade SKU. That’s what I did, because I was concerned Vista would be a dog on the X70 (only 1GB of RAM) and I needed the Business rather than Home version of Win7.

By: HeartBeat

HeartBeat — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:50:02 +0000

I got my S5 128GB SSD 3G for a lot of money $1300 and I am not happy with the performance. It is Slow!

But just for those who don’t know, the 128GB 3G Viliv S5 comes with Vista! Believe it or not!

It is too Slow and unusable! It even got much slower when I automatically updated windows!

why they installed vista on the 128GB ? In my opinion not for the fun of it but just to give us the free Windows 7 license .. so I will hold on Vista till windows 7 is officially there and install it .. Wont even bother to downgrade to XP now!

Now regarding the 128GB SSD! I dont think it is super fast but for sure should not be slower than the S5 HDD .. the idea was to make room for the 3G module not to have super-fast SSD which should not have been the case considering the high price we paid!

I am not happy!

By: HeartBeat

HeartBeat — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 01:19:43 +0000

it seams that the option of SSD on Viliv S5 was not meant for better performance but was used to have more space to install the 3G module as the SSD is smaller than the HDD and that was the only option available to have enough space to install the 3G. but given the price of the SSD Viliv I wonder why they did not chose to have faster SSD!!!

By: ben

ben — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:02:42 +0000

i received this from JK, the author of this article:

The 32GB version is just fine, the SSD settings were not correct and it runs fine now. That said, the 60 GB version is just as fast.

James Kendrick

Disclaimer: it is not my intention to act/speak on behalf of JK or this website. I respect the work he has done and hope that i am not stepping on any toes or doing anything inappropriate by posting his comments. This is merely to help others. Thanks again JK for all of your help/work.

By: lomaster

lomaster — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:22:50 +0000

I would also like to have some clarification on this, just ordered SSD 3G model and am concerned now about its performance. Also how do you turn of power-saver mode to get the full performance out of it? Thank you.

By: benben5

benben5 — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 21:30:34 +0000

hey, so wait…regarding the performance. i am about to pull the trigger here… so do i get the 32 3G one or the 60gb? please JKK or anyone. i read this whole article… seems like the 2nd to last post is nixing the whole article.

By: HeartBeat

HeartBeat — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 09:40:31 +0000

Thanks JKK,

Is the power save mode talking about the one from within Bios?

C-State Tech [Enables]
Maximum C-STATE [C4] values available C1,C2,C3C4
Enhanced C-States [Enabled]

Cause I cant find anything from within windows to control power saving like the Eee PC.

By: jkkmobile

jkkmobile — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 07:38:34 +0000

He was running it on power save mode. Both Steve and I tested it. There is nothing wrong on 3G/SSD versions.

By: Guest

Guest — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:44:12 +0000

Yes same here, I’m interested in the SSD S5 model as well, and this article should concern anyone wanting to buy until we learn more.

Both Viliv and Dynamism should be concerned about this article and find answers, since this will affect their sales.

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:47:03 +0000

I was looking to buy the 32GB SSD S5 model without the 3G, so I am very interested in this topic. Has the issue been resolved? Was the processor underclocked? Have you heard anything from Viliv? Thanks.

By: SB

SB — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:03:21 +0000

Any further information? One question is whether new S5 model with SSD but not 3G shows the same issue, which might provide some clue as to the cause. The benchmarks indicate no problem with the SSD per se, but simply tossing an SSD into a system designed and optimized for a HDD sometimes creates subtle timing interactions which can destroy much of the benefit. Generally solvable, but a lot of work and expertise can be required. See the OCZ forum the last several months.

By: Anton Tomov

Anton Tomov — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 14:37:11 +0000

SSD memory is notorious for having slow write time. There are algorithms for improving SSD write speed mainly dealing with flash block alignment and free space defragmentation. We have published a detailed article on the subject on our site:

http://www.wizcode.com/articles/flash_memory_fragmentation_myths_and_facts

Will be happy to follow up in a discussion about the topic.

By: James Kendrick

James Kendrick — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:36:44 +0000

No and I just don’t have time to troubleshoot this for Viliv. They are going to check on it on their end. Besides, I have to play with the X70 that just showed up. Video up shortly.

By: James Kendrick

James Kendrick — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:35:54 +0000

These were all run on battery power so that is a possibility. I don’t see any obvious way that a power mode is under-clocking though and since the device is handheld it is basically always used on battery power.

By: James Kendrick

James Kendrick — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:24:03 +0000

You lucky dog. I used to visit Paris at least 5 times a year when I worked for a French company. Very nice place.

By: James Kendrick

James Kendrick — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:22:52 +0000

Here’s what worked for me (quoted from Viliv):

There are two steps in order to use a third party softkeyboad.

First, delete the vilivsoftkeyboard software.
1. Close the vilivsoftkeyboard. If there is “v” icon at the right bottom of task bar, click the right button of mouse and click “exit”.
2. Delete the folder of C:\Program Files\vilivSoftKeyboard.

Second, register and link the third party softkeyboad to the user key on S5.
1. Close the viliv manager. You can see the icon of it at the right bottom of task bar.
2. Install the your softkeyboard s/w and make the direct-icon at desktop.
And then, Property -> Short-Cut-key option -> Register
3. Delete the icon of vilivsoftkeyboard. Pls, erase the short-cut-key option of vilivsoftkeyboard not to preempt this short-cut key before deleting the icon of vilivsoftkeyboard.