Which Aurora Model do I have?

adroi13,

Send me your service tag via a private message and I can look it up. Or, tell us what CPU is installed and we can figure it out from there.

1. What exact processor is installed?

2. Are there motorized fins on top?

Thank you for the reply. I was able to contact dell by phone and they said my comp is an R1.  my next question is what is a mio-board communication cable? :)

Thank you for the reply. I was able to contact dell by phone and they said my comp is an R1.  my next question is what is a mio-board communication cable? :)

First, I suggest you stop using RAID. Install a nice 128gb-256gb SSD (Intel, Samsung, Crucial) as your C: drive and load your OS and main programs on it. It will be faster than a RAID. Use the spinning drives for large game installs, data files, media files, backups, etc. Keep the C: drive lean.

If you ignore the above advice ...

Setup RAID-0 in BIOS.

If the Win-7 OS won't install without problems, try using the Intel-RST "F6 Floppy 64bit" files from an USB drive. On Win-7 you load them from the screen where you select partition ... something like Advanced/Load Driver iirc 

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?ProductID=2101&DwnldID=22194&lang=eng&iid=dc_rss

Hello Tesla,

The guide im going by is:
http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/p/19376654/19866250.aspx#19866250

One of my harddrives had a 2000-0142 error and was causing bluescreens.  I
bought a new hd set it up for raid 0 and now im up to the point where
windows cannot configure to my drive because i need to put the drivers in
first?  So i was going to do it by the guide..

:)

Hello Tesla,

Ok so if i buy this SSD, I see that you need to make sure you have SATA 3 cables for the optimum speeds and make sure the drive has the latest updates? how do i know what i have and what i need?

I am a complete beginner in any kind of not out of the box computer. (the only reason i bought an alienware is cus i got an amazing deal)

Actually you need a SATA-3 controller to get optimal speed from a SATA-3 SSD. But, remember for many years all SSDs were capped at SATA-2 (300).

A SATA-3 SSD on a SATA-2 controller is still really fast (and likely faster than two 7200rpm spinning HDD in RAID-0). Plus reliability is not spread across 2 discs and I think latency is also better. With the SSD/HDD combo you end up with 2 physical discs, each on it's own channel, accessing separate partitions.

Here's mine on Aurora R1 (x58-Sata2):

Compared to a single 7200rpm spinning drive it's around 100% faster. IOPS are off-the-scale better. I can't give you RAID-0 numbers because I don't have one, but that is the comparison YOU need to make. When the RAID-0 is working, what kind of speed to you get?

Research on the net. Your Alienware is no different than any other machine.

Added HDD speed to table above

On the SSD ... cool ... it's fast, right?

On the HDD ... is it detected in BIOS?

Is it detected in Device Manager ?

Is it detected in Admin Tools / Computer Management? If so, Initialize and delete all existing partitions on it... then setup fresh.

Ok I took your advice and bought a crucial 128 gb sdd  and hooked it to the #1 slot on my computer, i also used a sata 3 cable to hook it up just incase.  I installed it non-raid.

I've been able to install windows and all of my critical drivers.  I hooked my old HDD into the computer and now i get an error cannot read device (this is the HDD that had no errors and still worked).  Now what? :(  Do i just need to find a driver for it?

it is detected in cmos setup utility.  because it was setup for raid before is there some additiongal setup in bios i have to do to the hdd?

Ok! so I have formatted it and now it is a seperate volume... so next question :? i have unknown device error in my devices and printers.  calling it the standard usb host controller. port_#0001 Hub_0005  (in the same spot "gaming" used to be)

it is detected in cmos setup utility.  because it was setup for raid before is there some additiongal setup in bios i have to do to the hdd?

Ok! so I have formatted it and now it is a seperate volume... so next question :? i have unknown device error in my devices and printers.  calling it the standard usb host controller. port_#0001 Hub_0005  (in the same spot "gaming" used to be)