Aurora R14, Storage?

Question

I haven't been able to find out anywhere for sure what the R14 desktop has available for storage. According to the Alienware/Dell website, it has a m.2 2230 slot for the wifi/bluetooth card and a m.2 2280 slot for an nvme drive. One place I found while researching suggested that there might be an additional m.2 2280 slot for a second nvme drive, but most websites I've found report that there's only one m.2 2280 slot. How many nvme slots are there on the desktop R14 motherboard? And if there is only one nvme slot, are there enough pcie slots to add an adapter and an additional nvme drive?

Thanks

JOcean · Answer

The specs are here on the Dell support site. And to quote:

Your Alienware Aurora Ryzen Edition R14 supports one of the following storage configurations:
● One M.2 2230/2280 PCIe NVMe solid-state drive
● One M.2 2230/2280 PCIe NVMe solid-state drive and one 3.5-inch hard drive

So there is only 1 M.2 NVMe/PCIe slot for an SSD.

As for other PCIe slots there are 3. A x16 slot and 2 x4 slots.

Vanadiel · Answer

And then the confusion starts:

R14 service manual

So it looks according to the service manual and the pictures from the actual inside of the case (part of the service manual):

It supports also 1 x 2.5" SSD's.

So to me it looks like it supports 1 x 3.5" HDD, 1 x 2.5" SSD, 1 x NVMe 2280 SSD and 1 x NVMe 2230 SSD

Everything up to 2 TB, except for the 2230 which is limited to up to 256 GB.

Rabbitdude · Answer

Just because it has an m.2 2230 slot for the WiFi chip doesn't mean Dell has allowed storage support through that slot. More than likely they have not seeing as it's Dell and generally they haven't in the past

Vanadiel · Answer

@DELL-Chris M Hey, it's somewhat confusing to me. That information you posted shows 3 SATA headers (#5, 6 and 7) in that picture. So those are not usable?

The service manual also shows how to install a remove a 2.5" hard drive, and there's a special caddy for it. R14 storage

I am confused...

Vanadiel · Answer

Looks like they are supporting it, but only up to 256 GB. It's normally where they put the wireless network/BT card.

Somewhat confused by the support documents as they do not line up with the service manual or the service manual pictures.

Rabbitdude · Answer

You can use them. There's just not enough caddy spots to fill them with 3 sata drives. Same with the R12, there's more sata ports than there is available standard SSD slot spaces

Rabbitdude · Answer

Believe they limited expansion drive bay's to make room for more cooling options, which isn't a bad design choice since Alienware Auroras are designed towards standard gaming not generally catering towards graphics design or what have you where most use more than just one NVME and 1 SSD/HDD. Throw in a 1TB NVME and a 2TB SSD and most gamers that just game are covered. If they came out with a new 51 series and it had the limited expansion then I'd be raising concerns since that's designed towards more than just gaming

PCRead · Answer

If you need more storage, then a NAS makes more sense. Even an older PC running Linux, stuffed with HDDs is a reasonable option. FreeBSD/FreeNAS for example. Others are available.
The Alienware is a racing car, not a minivan.

DELL-Chris M · Answer

There will always be a difference between what Dell supports versus what might be possible in a DIY configuration.

Vanadiel · Answer

That's why I am confused. The service manual has instructions for installing and removing a 2.5" SSD, but at the same time they do not support that frame size according to the technical specifications.

That makes it a bit odd.

Alienware Desktops

Aurora R14, Storage?

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