A15 R2 // A17 R3 - Storage options

Hey so I'm a little torn at the moment between the 15 and 17 Alienware machines I'm trying to figure out how much expandable storage each one has -

I'd be looking in either case to buy them with the 512GB PCIe SSD + 1TB 7200RPM drives. Do they have space for anymore drives additional to these two?

I would assume they have at least one additional slot each for mSata drives (the really small SSD's)?

 

The 17 R3 can fit 2 M.2 drives and 1 2.5in drive. I am not sure for the 15.

 

the 15 r2 can also fit 2 x m.2 drives (one in pcie x4 the other one just pcie) and 1 x 2.5 drive (this is the 1 TB storage drive that comes with that storage config you're looking at).

 

Cool cheers guys.

I would be tempted to try just getting the 1TB and doing an Acronis back up onto a 950 Pro but there are so many threads on here of people having problem after problem not sure I want the all the hassle lol.

 

You would be infinitely better to just do a clean install straight away, it seems the stock install is flaky at best so I wouldn't even bother using the recovery partition.

Just use the Windows 10 media creation tool and do a nice clean install, that way you know where you are!

 

I believe the same. I've always done clean installs when moving from HDD to SSD.

 

Hmm that's an idea it seems the 950 Pro has much better speeds than the stock 512 SSD and it's the same price as the Dell upgrade - though there still seems to be people that say the BIOS doesn't detect the drive and etc.

Have a lot of experience building desktops and etc but don't usually fiddle with laptops they always seem to be so...volatile lol.

 

No doubt, the 950 Pro is more or less the best out there, currently. As with most new tech, they take a bit of patience to get set up correctly. I have an NVME drive on my desktop and when setting that up, my main problem was my other drives "getting in the way". I would recommend pulling out all drives when setting up the 950 and once set up with windows, disconnect the 950, plug the old drive in and format completely. You should then be fine to put all drives in with no confusion.

 

How would that work with Windows 10 activation?

With the XPS I previously had from Dell it didnt come with a Windows 10 key so I assume it was activated based on the SSD serial no?

 

The key is stored in the BIOS and is picked up when you install windows.

 

I see thanks for the info buddy .

 

You're welcome.