Dissapointed: Just received new Alienware 15: No raid 0 support?

I cant get my new Alienware 15 to setup Raid 0 ssd drive configuration. Nothing in bios or in intel rapid storage lets me attempt to make a raid 0 with my m.2 drives. Why would they take this feature out???? I may return my new laptop already..........

 

Yea, i'm shocked as well, I got a second m.2 to raid-0, i almost fell of my seat when I went into the bios to find out no raid option. I'm hoping next bios update might fix that.

 

Yes, at the moment there's no option for a RAID setup on that machine. We'll submit your feedback to the developers for them to review your comments.

Thanks for your feedback.

 

Thanks I really appreciate it. I purchased premium support so in the mean time I'll call them and see what can be done. Not too happy right now, however.

 

Seriously, these models are nearly identical to the 14, 17, 18. There shouldn't be an early adopter beta phase. Step up your game, Alienware, or get left behind.....

 

yes tell me about it

 

It feels like the latest 2015 lineup of alienware is completely not targetted for "us the enthusiasts", which begs to question who are these "gaming notebooks" aimed towards?

 

Their new Wal-Mart crowd, thus the Alienware display.......................

 

Let us take a moment of silence for our beloved brand that dell is adamant to drive into the ground and further.

 

just realized that they also took away the ability to turn off battery charging as well. There goes the battery life on all our laptops because they will all be forced to sit at 100% charge all the time....... feature after feature is getting axed.

 

sorry, new to AW.. what do you mean by this?

 

I see why alienware doesn't have Raid now, with being able to put up to 3 harddrives in there devices now, you really don't need it.

Plus Intel software that comes with the pc allows you to clone the drive

 

The number of drives really is independent of the functions of RAID. It is used for other needs.

 

Oh, I knew this was going to come up later.
For some reason Dell is using a really old firmware on their motherboard 17R2/15 R1 for Intel RST.

 

It's somewhat surprising the level of incompetence Alienware has shown with this lineup. So many things have been subtracted from the systems, it's almost unbelievable. And they are now going back and trying to make workarounds to comfort consumers. That's just ridiculous.

Sure, I'm happy they're listening to us, but they could have avoided all of this from the beginning by doing things right the first time, as one would expect from such a brand like Alienware - the "top dog" in gaming laptops.

Hope the future gets brighter for Alienware. I'm basically entering an observant stage.

EDIT: This "Service Unavailable" warning is extremely annoying. @brubenstein

 

Has there been any new updates from Dell/Alienware regarding RAID for the new AW15/AW17? I was really disappointed that Alienware did not include M.2 PCIe capability but not allowing RAID simply baffles me.

 

I'm looking for an answer to this as well. I ordered a second m.2 ssd simply for raid function. Totally wouldn't have wasted the money if I had known a month ago that raid wasn't supported.

 

previously dell had a feature that allowed you to turn off the charging to allow proper storage of the li-ion battery. (Studies show to store them at about 50% to maintain their life.) Some people just leave their laptops plugged in all the time and their battery sits at 100% for years on end, which is terrible for the health of the battery.

 

If you leave it plugged in all the time, the battery will not charge as it slowly discharges itself.

 

Maybe Dell think you don't need this battery save technology . The laptop need power from the battery. This is an Hybrid power laptop..

 

If you are mobile leaving it at 50% means it would not be ready to take away with you.

 

do you have a new generation alienware? or are you just speculating? because I have one, and what I said a few posts back is a fact. not sure where you are getting your "slowly discharges itself" info....

 

I am mobile and 50% is perfect for me. are you telling me what is good for me? lol
Plus I am able to "plan." If i need more than 50% I plug it in ahead of time....

 

The battery doesn't hold charge forever. It slowly discharges by itself. The standard Windows battery meter will not show any discharge until you unplug it, but some other 3rd party battery meters do. This happens slowly. If you keep the laptop plugged in all the time, it doesn't keep continuously "topping up" the battery. The lowest I ever got on my Dell was about 60% battery charge before the charger was disconnected.

So 50% battery life is "perfect" for you, but you are freaking out about minimizing battery wear? Tell me how that makes any sense!

 

It's odd because cycling the battery more often by taking it down from 50% to 10% more times than going from 100% to 10% it wears the battery down faster. It counts as a cycle regardless.

 

i'm so confused... so you only charge your notebook up to 50% only all the time?

 

http://www.batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries

studies have PROVEN that it is best to leave li-ion batteries at about 40-60% charge. So what I would would do is charge it to 50 and turn charging off. And if i needed a full charge I would charge it up ahead of time. After 3 years of having my computer, I was able to maintain battery health at 99%. But since you all seem to know it all, I will let you continue to do what you like.

 

read above

 

Yes, to make the battery have a longer life, get the battery to 40% charge, and then toss it in the freezer. It might make a big difference, a small difference, or it might make no difference. In general, you really can't do a whole lot about it. By far the most important factor in battery lifespan is the quality of its cells. I have the original battery that shipped with my Lenovo T500 in 2009. Getting close to 6 years later, it is still charging to 93%. Praise Sanyo lithium-ion cells and a little bit of luck.

 

Even that study says users should not worry about the SOC (state of charge) but should worry more about the environmental factors...

 

Just use your damn laptops and stop worrying about the battery, lol. You'll see negligible differences depending on usage. In every case you're using it. It's new, stop worrying.

 

^this.. i don't know why you'd worry about battery like that. i've owned a 5 yr old MacBook Pro that's still holding a good amount of charge, all without me scrutinizing battery charge and use... it's like those people who put plastic covers on their couches. just use the damn thing and enjoy it. but whatever.. to each their own.

 

Most new laptops are designed so that once the battery is charged, the A/C adapter bypasses the battery and just powers the laptop. A lot of the info about removing the battery and whatnot stems form older models where the battery was being continuously charged.

And these batteries can still be replaced. If it does come to the point where it only holds a charge for 30 min, buy a new one.

 

Dang the Alienware nut Huggers coming out of the woodwork. Knew you were out there somewhere.

Telling someone not to worry doesn't change the fact that the feature was previously there, and they took it away for no reason. A lot of people found it useful. Look back at the alien ware 14 and m14x forums. Those people aren't here because they decided a long time ago they would stay away from the new watered down laptops. Keep defending dell And you will keep getting subpar computers. I'll be returning mine and getting a aorus x5 unless dell can rectify this for me.

 

And to the other nay Sayers, if your other computers laptop wasn't saying 99% health or higher after any years of use, then obviously your method of maintaining it isn't as good as mine. Bottom line. I was able to maintain it to my liking and now I cannot. Could be a simple fix for dell but instead you guys defend them in taking away features and not listening to what the community likes. Would this feature negatively effect anyone here? Simple answer is no, you can chose not to use it. good day everyone . I do like the 4k screen atleast lol

 

They've gimped the entire lineup. I don't recognize this Alienware anymore. This Ain'tware.

 

Alienware is destroyed as the brand right now .. Sadly. Hope Dell in the end realize the mistake.

 

Hey has m.2 raid 0 been enabled in the BIOS yet for the 15?

I read somewhere in here that it was in the works, but don't know if it's actually going to happen or not!

 

If you properly handle the battery in the firmware it's not a neccessary feature.

You want me to go on about the changes they have made recently? I could, but people need to vote with their wallets rather than try and post messages here.

That does not mean I will defend things I don't believe are important however just to seem popular, I'm not that sort of rep

 

I don't understand why all this foolishness about battery life is going on and charge cycling. The heat on your battery will far more likely affect your battery's life or health more than the charging you do on it. Laptops get pretty hot, especially when they are smaller and the battery is internal, it's going to heat up.

Now with the new hybrid technology batteries will drain even faster because they'll be discharged more often AND subject to heat.


I wouldn't call Meaker an alienware nuthugger either, he is just telling the truth and is a respectable member on this forum. He knows what he is talking about, he has a lot of experience with this stuff. I would show him more respect than to call him a "nuthugger".

 

Some 'rep' they have lol

I give people the same respect they show me. If I bring up a issue that I find compelling, I don't expect someone to write it off for me. I expect them to listen and to atleast try to be understanding of consumer requests. Any functioning adult in this world knows it's about give and take. Anyone that cannot attempt to understand someone else's perspective, and backs a company that is clearly killing a brand, will remain to be a nut hugger in my eyes.

Any other concerns with my comments? lol

 

I have done nothing to maintain my laptop's battery, yet it is better than yours. So by your logic, my method is better than yours. Bottom line.

Sure, trying to keep the charge at a certain level may have some sort of effect, but it makes a negligible difference compared to all the other factors that determine battery life. But because it is one of the only things that you could have control over, some people like yourself seem to take the difference it can possibly make WAY out of proportion. The most important factor is the quality of the cells used, which depends mostly on what cells from what manufacturer are used and also just luck based on average manufacturing variances and quality control done on the battery back. Then there are other important factors such as the control circuitry and battery firmware, heat/temperature, and time. Number of cycles may also play a role, but with newer Li-ion cells this is less critical than it used to be. Also discharging the cells past a certain point can cause problems too. Finally, keeping it at a constant 40-50% charge could help too, but it would be almost impossible to tell without a controlled experiment since there are so many more things that are far more important.

If you do use the battery but never need the full capacity, you should just stop worrying. Who cares if the capacity drops to 50% if that is all you need? Also what you want to do might do more harm than good, since taking the battery from 100% charge to 50% charge and then back up again is a lot less stressful for the battery than taking it from 50% down closer to 0% and then back up to 50%.

 

Your comment holds no validity unless you can provide proof of your battery health. I'll be waiting. My battery was showing 99% after 3 years of use as well. I assume yours was used just as long If not longer

 

And I do use the battery fully charged sometimes, as I clearly stated in this thread. Only when I need it though... Haha next!

 

Don't worry about it, some people get really attached to ideas and even if they are shown it does not quite add up they get defensive, I've seen it before and will likely see it again. It does not bother me and I'll help them later if they have other issues.

 

If I can say something about battery. I have M18xR1 for about 1,5 year. It was shipped with new battery. After this whole time I've used battery maybe six or seven times. In AIDA64 it shows "Wear level: 0%, Battery Health: 100%" and it's plugged 24/7 in laptop.

Designed Capacity 96000 mWh
Current Capacity 95660 mWh (100 %)

 

+1

I've had very similar results leaving laptops plugged in. Even with cheap laptops like XPS, the battery has always been at 99% or 100% life. I think leaving it plugged in actually keeps the battery healthy (to a certain extent) because the system is utilizing the PSU 99% of the time and not the battery, as it stops charging. But sometimes you just get a bad battery.

 

Still no raid 0 support for AW 15/17 R2 2015? Will it ever come?

 

It should be raid support in a pc in the year 2015..LoL. Just not in a 2015 mod high end Alienware... Welcome to the past or future.

 

I have just placed an order for AW15, and was expecting RAID support without thinking about this one. You mean there really isn't any RAID support with a machine that has dual M.2 slots!

I hope you guys at Dell get this sorted otherwise I might have to cancel my order and buy MSI instead.