Alienware 17 R3 - Replace Hard Drive with SSD?

Question

Hi All, I recently cloned my C drive (SSD) to a larger one, so now I have two SSD's, and a 1TB hard drive. I'm thinking of replacing the 1TB hard drive with a Samsung 960 Pro 1TB. I know how to do the clone, but what hardware is needed to mount the SSD in the large area where the current hard drive is? And is that even possible? I would imagine I need some kind of adapter to go from the hard drive cable to SSD? Anyone ever do this? Thanks!

JOcean · Accepted Answer

Spot on exactly! One drive out and the other in. No cable or bracket needed as it is already there. And you are so right about HDDs. The old line about there are 2 kinds of hard drives. Those that have failed and those that are going to fail.

AlienwareDave · Answer

Thanks!

So I'm guessing this simply replaces the current hard drive - so no extra hardware needed:

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Inch-Internal-MZ-76E1T0B-AM/dp/B078DPCY3T/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1548340964&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=samsung%2Bssd%2Bsata%2B2.5&th=1

My main goal for this is I'm always expecting the hard drive to eventually die - so many moving parts, etc - so replacing with SSD put my mind at ease.

JOcean · Answer

That would not work. The HDD is plugged into a SATA port and the 970 is NVME/PCIe. And even if you had an adapter and an M.2 SATA SSD the performance is the same as a 2.5' SSD.  The easiest method is to simply replace the HDD (SATA) with a 2.5' SSD (SATA). There are a number of quality SSDs in the market but if you want to stick with Samsung then possibly the 860 Pro or 860 EVO.

jphughan · Answer

EDIT: Never mind.  I somehow missed the note in the original post that the OP already has 2 SSDs.

ilovedell954 · Answer

MZNLF128HCHP works! I've done it

JOcean · Answer

Well done! Glad I could offer a bit of help.

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