Upgrading Alienware M17x R4??

Hi Paul,

 The Alienware M17x R4 has one hard drive slot and two Solid state drive slots. These options are available for hard drive upgrades:

You may have to select another solid state drive as 128GB might not be compatible. This laptop supports up to 32 GB memory up to 1600 MHz, unbuffered non-ECC, single-channel and dual-channel DDR3 configuration memory. The supported memory configurations are 4 GB, 6 GB, 8 GB, 12 GB, 16 GB, 24 GB and 32 GB.

You can also refer to the owner's manual on this link: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/Alw_M17xR4/en/index.html

Hope this information helps.

Do write back for any further queries.

Thank you for the response.

Please tell me that the 128GB SSD is a SATA II or a SATA III. I mentioned that 128GB SSD might not be compatible. I have re-checked; it should work. Apologies for the information given earlier. You can try to swap the SSD in both the mSATA slots as the SATA II and SATA III drives are backwards compatible with the ports. You can use the 500GB hard drive and install the additional 128GB SSD.

Do write back for any further queries.       

It is SATA III. but 2.5'' SSD won't fit to mSATA slots though... I'm just asking if M17x R4 has 1 HDD slots or 2 HDD slots. thanks

Thank you for the response.

The 2.5 SSD looks like as shown in the image. This SSD  is to be installed on the SATA port and not the mSATA port. 

The mSATA drive is smaller than the normal SATA drive and looks like as shown in the image.

So you can use 500 GB on the SATA port and get another mSATA SSD .If you would like to use the 128GB SSD , the 500 GB will have to be uninstalled.

Hope this helps.

Do write back for any additional queries.

yes I get that, but others are saying that there are TWO HDD slots, so if i order one 500GB HDD , there will be an another empty HDD slot that I can put my SSD in, not mSATA. I'm only checking if M17x R4 has 2 HDD slots or one.

I saw it has Dual HDD slots in tearing down video by Alienwaresupport .

It does

Does M17x R4 support SATA III?

Hello,

        I'm Manish, I bought an Alienware M17x R4 in August last year and now I'm facing some serious problems regarding graphics and hard drive.

First is my Graphics card is Nvidia GTX 675M and it does not support certain software programs actually it does support it but the programs run very slow and can't work in the program that slow. Is it possible to replace it with new D drive so i Wanted to upgrade my primary hard drive to Solid State Hard drive of 256gb. And I don't understand what is Raid 0 or anything relating to it, mine is Raid 0 2x500gb HDD drive. Now I was told by service team it won't be done But I saw your comments on exactly the same issue so I thought you might be able to Help me out of my troubles.

 Thank you , Reply soon.

Hello Manish,

Yes you can upgrade to a SSD of 256GB, but you won't be able to keep the RAID configuration because your system has only 2HDD slots and right now, with the RAID you are occupying both. My recommendation is that you set the solid state as the primary drive and then use one of the 2 500GB that you currently have for storage. These upgrades are not covered under the warranty, you would have to purchase the SSD drive.

Hey Natalia.

I have a few questions. I now have two Alienware M17xR4s. One for work, and one as a desktop. I am thinking of buying a smaller, perhaps the new Alienware 14 for work, and sell one of my M17xR4s.

To save on costs, I was thinking of downgrading (specs wise) my current M17xR4 just a lil bit so that I can sell it at a lower price. My specs are as follows;


• PROCESSOR: 3rd Gen Intel Core i7-3820QM Processor (8MB Cache, 2.7 GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 3.7Ghz).
• RAM: 16GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM (4x4GB).
• FLASH MEMORY: 32GB Samsung mSATA SSD.
• HDDs: 2TB 7200RPM. (1TB x 1TB, RAID 1)
• GRAPHICS CARD: 2GB DDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 675M.

Is there anyway I can safely downgrade it & keep the parts like spares?

I was thinking like downgrading it to like;

• PROCESSOR: 3rd Gen Intel Core i7-3820QM Processor (8MB Cache, 2.7 GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 3.7Ghz).
• RAM: 8GB (4x2GB).
• FLASH MEMORY: NIL.
• HDDs: 1TB 7200RPM.
• GRAPHICS CARD: 2GB DDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 675M.

What do you think? o.O

Rav :)

Hey Natalia. I have a few questions. I now have two Alienware M17xR4s. One for work, and one as a desktop. I am thinking of buying a smaller, perhaps the new Alienware 14 for work, and sell one of my M17xR4s. To save on costs, I was thinking of downgrading (specs wise) my current M17xR4 just a lil bit so that I can sell it at a lower price. My specs are as follows; • PROCESSOR: 3rd Gen Intel Core i7-3820QM Processor (8MB Cache, 2.7 GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 3.7Ghz). • RAM: 16GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM (4x4GB). • FLASH MEMORY: 32GB Samsung mSATA SSD. • HDDs: 2TB 7200RPM. (1TB x 1TB, RAID 1) • GRAPHICS CARD: 2GB DDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 675M.   Is there anyway I can safely downgrade it & keep the parts like spares? I was thinking like downgrading it to like;   • PROCESSOR: 3rd Gen Intel Core i7-3820QM Processor (8MB Cache, 2.7 GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 3.7Ghz). • RAM: 8GB (4x2GB). • FLASH MEMORY: NIL. • HDDs: 1TB 7200RPM. • GRAPHICS CARD: 2GB DDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 675M.   What do you think? o.O Rav :)

So,, have any1 upgraded their m17x r4 with their own SSD, Memories???   Was it hard??      I just have spare laptop 8GB 1600 Memories and 128GB 2.5'' SSD..     Do these fit perfectly without any problem if I replace it with the default one from Dell???     Also, for hard drives, If i chose simply 500GB HDD, is the other HDD drive empty?? becasue M17x has i believe 2 slots for HDD/SSD right??