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January 17th, 2020 14:00
Area-51 R5, SSD change, suggestions
Hi everyone,
I'm a longtime Dell customer and just recently bought an Area-51 R5 desktop. The Area-51 R5 came with a 256 M.2 SSD and a 2TB HDD. I would like to either change the 2TB HDD to an SSD drive, or could I just change the 256GB SSD to a 1TB SSD? Or should I get a 1TB SSD with a PCIe adapter card? Just trying to get the max performance from this PC.
Thanks in advance, Pete .
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Tesla1856
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January 17th, 2020 21:00
1. You can, but I would not bother with it unless running out of space on C: . It only needs to hold Windows and Apps.
2. Yes, that is still about 5-times faster than spinning HDD. It can hold your large game installs. Now-days, since SSD is so cheap, I don't even install spinning-HDD inside computers any more.
The old 2tb-HDD could be third-drive for data/media files, backups, or whatever.
little bo pete
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January 18th, 2020 16:00
Ok , Thanks for quick reply , I have to reinstall os the pc I got was new/used . Can I use the m.2 drive as a stand alone drive ? Thx , Pete .
r72019
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January 18th, 2020 20:00
Yes, you can do a clean install of the OS on an M2 drive, and use it as a standalone boot drive. If you use a PCiE adapter, note that some people (depending on brand, system, and willingness/ability to follow through with troubleshooting any issues that come up) have had issues getting those cards to work, so it's not 100% guaranteed it will work or that you will be able to boot from PCiE. Other people can and have successfully done this (myself included on an Aurora) without issues. If you install the M2 NVME drive on the M2 slot on your motherboard, there shouldn't be any issues. You can then format the 2TB drive and use it as storage, and if you really wanted you could also format the 256 GB M2 drive and try using it as storage via a PCiE adapter. Again, no guarantees with the adapter.
Tesla1856
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January 18th, 2020 23:00
1. Yes, upgrade your boot C-drive to 1tb NVMe SSD like you wanted to in the first place.
Yes. Easy clean-install windows-10 on new SSD.
https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-Desktops/Aurora-R7-M-2-NVMe-bootable-options/m-p/6073081/highlight/true#M3401
2. Don't make it over-complicated friend. Setup your new PC and use it.
Maybe later, install that old/small Dell-OEM 256gb NVMe SSD in a USB-3.0 external enclosure. Nice fast portable backup drive I say.