M18x R2, NVMe Boot Drive

Can I double check as my M18 assume R1 (it's not R2) works with Nvidia GTX 1070 with unlocked bios.

Summary

• Operating System: Windows 11 Home 64-bit
• CPU: Intel Core i7 4940MX @ 3.10GHz 54 °C Haswell 22nm Technology
• RAM: 32.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 798MHz (11-11-11-28)
• Motherboard: 
  • Model 01W2J2 (U3E1)
  • Version A02
  • Chipset Vendor Intel
  • Chipset Model Haswell
  • Chipset Revision 06
  • Southbridge Vendor Intel
  • Southbridge Model HM87
  • Southbridge Revision C2
  • BIOS
    • Brand Alienware
    • Version A12
    • Date 04/09/2015
  • PCI Data
    • Slot PCI-E x16
      • Slot Type PCI-E x16
      • Slot Usage Available
      • Data lanes x16
      • Slot Designation J5C1
      • Characteristics PM
    • Etc
• Graphics:
  • C49RG9x (3840x1080@59Hz)
  • Intel HD Graphics 4600 (Dell)
  • 4095MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (Dell) 44 °C SLI Disabled
• Storage
  • 1863GB Samsung SSD 860 QVO 2TB (SATA (SSD)) 32 °C
  • 232GB Samsung SSD 860 EVO mSATA 250GB (SATA (SSD)) 50 °C
• Optical Drives: M A T S H I T A DVDRWBD UJ167AM
• Audio: Realtek High Definition Audio

I already have the 1070 graphics card and unlocked bios thanks to you guys help.

I was replying / checking if can now use spare graphics slot for MXM to NVMe? 

@Vqmp you have the Alienware 18 (no M in the name).

Yes, the 1070 works perfectly fine in the 18. It's basically the same process as the M18x R2. 

You need the unlocked system BIOS as you have to switch the video mode to SG before installing the 1070. Then you just need a modified Nvidia driver. 

Yes you can use the adapter, the only problem is that the V2 card has the constant power draw issue. This is more of an issue with the 18 as it has an internal system battery so you'll really need to keep the battery unplugged all the time. Apparently the V3 adapter fixed this issue but I haven't seen 100% confirmation on this. 

You may want to contact @BufferMod about the adapters that he has shown below as these may be a better option. 

Ordered version 3 of the card for my Alienware 18.  V3 supposed to fix the battery issue, fingers crossed.

What NVMe hard disks do you recommend, thinking 500gb

Also is a heatsink needed for these disks?  Never known hard disks having heatsinks in the past!

Do you have a link to the heat sink please? 

These drives produce way more heat than older HDD's and SSD's. I have the red heatsink on my drive, as you can see in the original images. We found that the higher capacity drives heat up more so sticking with a 500gb to 1tb would be best. The Samsung 970Evo seems to be a good one to go for. 

My heatsink came with the V2 card. I believe most computer stores stock NVMe heatsinks though. 

Looking on amazon uk does not come with heatsink.

Thinking perhaps this one?

https://www.samsung.com/uk/memory-storage/nvme-ssd/980-pro-with-heatsink-1tb-black-nvme-pcie-gen-4-mz-v8p1t0cw/

If you need long life SSD,consider the MLC chipset SSD,for example SM961/960PRO/970PRO,the 970PRO is the most,speed up to read 3600 MB/S,write 2300 MB/S

about heatsink ,see here