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Please Help With M18x R2 SSD Upgrade
I recently received my Alienware M18x R2 laptop which is awesome and very happy with. My problem is not really about the laptop or performance but due to circumstances it came with a 64Gb msata boot drive which is totally inadequate for the programs I run. My laptop is mainly used for business running MS Office Pro 2010, MS Project Pro 2010, AutoCad 2013, Adobe Acrobat Pro, Adobe Photoshop Essentials, Quickbooks Premier + normal Dell programs which came with the lappy. Gaming I only play BF3 and hopefully one day Mechwarrior (if it ever sees the light of day). Despite installing the majority of the above programs on the secondary drive at the moment I only have 2.6Gb left on the 64Gb msata drive and I am constantly having to delete temp & Internet temp files just to maintain some free space which is an enormous pain plus with programs distributed between main and secondary drive I believe the performance is degraded. I would like to upgrade to a 512 SSD which would alleviate the majority of the problems. Finally to my questions:-
1. Is this possible - I have looked at the manual and it says that there are 2 9.5mm bays and one 7mm bay, do i actually have these and what slots (9.5mm or 7mm) are my 500 GB are located. What size should the SSD be?
2. I cannot buy an SSD from dell Australia because they have no SSD's listed in either spare parts or electronics & upgrades nor can i buy from US because I'm from OZ. Great place to live but not for Dell customers.
3. If I purchase an SSD from Intel, OCZ, Kingstone etc and if its possible to install (see above) , will it void my warranty and support from Dell. I think I can purchase the hardware install through Dell OZ called Gizmondo I think but I don't know if it has to be dell supplied.
4. If all above is possible and warranty is OK can you recommend a quality 6Gb/s SSD drive?
If only I lived in the US this would be only a simple click on the screen or a phone call and not so convoluted just because we live in OZ
Regards, Mutumba
Dells Unofficial Ambassador in OZ
DELL-Frank Lz
208 Posts
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June 19th, 2012 16:00
Hello Mutumba, in order:
Opening your computer wont void your warranty unless in the process of replacing or fixing you damage something. In which case it will only be temporally disabled until the system is working again. So voiding is really difficult to accomplish.
Thank you
Mutumba
48 Posts
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July 1st, 2012 06:00
Dell advertise that the M18x R2 with 3 x 6Gb/s ssd's in a raid array. From what I have read and also investigated in my own M18x R2 is that the middle bay or interposter is a SATA II connection.
Wouldn't this mean even though top bay (0) and bottom bay (1) are SATA III @ 6 Gb/s the raid array would only work at 3 Gb/s SATA II speeds or am I missing something here? I am just trying to determine which way to go and what size SSD to choose ie 3 x 7mm SSD's or 2 x 9.5mm SSD's + 1 x 7mm 500 to 750 GB HDD or 1 7mm SSD + 2 x 9.5mm 500 to 750 HDD or or or........I have read so much information about this, and much of it conflicting, that my brain has become addled.
I have seen pictures with an M18x R2 with 3 x 9.5 drives installed, another with 2 x 9.5 HDD's and a 7mm SDD but the more I read the more confused I get. Does anyone have a definitive answer as to what can actually physically fit and 6Gb/s or 3 Gb/s outcome for configuration without posting the standard link to the picture of the interposter connection in the manual.
PS Currently have installed :-
Hitachi 500 Gb Sata II 3 Gb/s Model HTS 727550A9E364 in Top Bay (0)
Hitachi 500 Gb Sata II 3 Gb/s Model HTS 727550A9E364 in Bottom Bay (1)
mSata 64Gb
Thanks
Cenobitez
348 Posts
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July 1st, 2012 07:00
OCZ are having many issues at the moment with quality control (no clear sign if they have sorted yet), which leaves Intel and Samsung which are both rock solid, the samsung has shown its better with uncompressable data tho, altho its write speed is marginally slower, its iops is higher, I'd go with the Samsung 830 myself.
Intel (in the uk at least) are offering cashback which puts their price point way down, which maybe a factor.
Good to know Dell ditched the Seagate Trash and moved to Hitachi :)
DELL-Chris M
Community Manager
Community Manager
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54.9K Posts
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July 2nd, 2012 06:00
Mutumba,
SATA 3.0 (6Gb/s) x2 (HDD0, HDD1)
SATA 2.0 (3Gb/s) x1 (HDD2)
mSATA SATA 2.0 x1 (3Gb/s)
Three 7mm on Primary HDD-0 sata3 6Gbs, Secondary HDD-1 sata3 6Gbs, Tertiary HDD-2 sata2 3Gbs
Mutumba
48 Posts
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July 2nd, 2012 08:00
Thanks Chris, but could you expand & explain in laymans terms
Mutumba
48 Posts
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July 5th, 2012 02:00
Should I take this to the hard drive forum?