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    Late 2015 AW15 (R3?) SSD upgrade options

    Discussion in '2015+ Alienware 13 / 15 / 17' started by etern4l, Nov 26, 2015.

  1. etern4l

    etern4l Notebook Virtuoso

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    Hi guys,

    3 Qs in the context of my upcoming AW15 order:
    1. What's the fastest 2.5" SSD I can get?
    2. Ditto M2 PCIE
    3. Do the M2 drives support NVME?

    My plan is to initially replace the stock 7200rpm drive, then add 2 M2 drives in soft raid.

    Many thanks for your insights.
     
    etern4l, Nov 26, 2015
    #1
  2. Splintah

    Splintah Notebook Deity

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    Splintah, Nov 26, 2015
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  3. etern4l

    etern4l Notebook Virtuoso

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    Interesting - how do you plug it in as a replacment for the mechanical card? Some interposer card, or does it go directly into one of the 2 M2 slots?

    I was thinking of getting the 850 Pro as the SATA replacement:

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00...214&sr=8-9&pi=AC_SX110_SY165&keywords=850+evo

    leaving the 2 PCIE M2 slots for future expansion. Any flaws in this plan?
     
    etern4l, Nov 26, 2015
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  4. Splintah

    Splintah Notebook Deity

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    sorry didn't explain, I am going to leave the mechanical drive in there and just use one of the two empty m2 slots, change my boot drive to the m2 and install windows 10 on that and you should be good to go, don't even need to reinstall the stuff you have on the mechanical, just let steam know where the games are and boom you are back up and running
     
    Splintah, Nov 26, 2015
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  5. etern4l

    etern4l Notebook Virtuoso

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    Got it. I guess that would imply that your M2 ports are SATA rather than NVME. Is this also the case with the latest AW15 (is it R2 or R3 btw?) I guess so since I can't find any mention of NVME in the docs....
     
    etern4l, Nov 26, 2015
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  6. Splintah

    Splintah Notebook Deity

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    I believe they are SATA don't quote me on that though, I have admittedly never heard of NVME but shall research it
     
    Splintah, Nov 26, 2015
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  7. etern4l

    etern4l Notebook Virtuoso

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    A bit painful but would support my plan: 1 ssd to replace mechanical (for the OS) + 2X M2 drives in soft raid 0 for data.

    NVME is supported by the new XPS and Precisions. Transfer rates up to 2GB/s....
     
    etern4l, Nov 26, 2015
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  8. Splintah

    Splintah Notebook Deity

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    Ideally what you would want is one standard 2.5 ssd and 2 m2 ssds in raid
     
    Splintah, Nov 26, 2015
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  9. Splintah

    Splintah Notebook Deity

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    I know the 15 has the same motherboard as the 17 so that should be attainable
     
    Splintah, Nov 26, 2015
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  10. etern4l

    etern4l Notebook Virtuoso

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    That's the plan.
     
    etern4l, Nov 26, 2015
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  11. Punisher5.0

    Punisher5.0 Notebook Geek

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    The M2 ports are PCIe in which I believe are considered NVME
     
    Punisher5.0, Nov 26, 2015
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  12. etern4l

    etern4l Notebook Virtuoso

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    Awesome thanks
     
    etern4l, Nov 27, 2015
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  13. Ezio99

    Ezio99 Notebook Geek

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    Did you get the laptop(base model) without any M.2 SSDs? In that case, are these M.2 slots, pcie or not?
    I got the base model of Alienware 17 R3 and I bought 256gb PM951 ssd from ebay. Now I am worried if the base model has M.2 PCIE slots.
     
    Ezio99, Dec 20, 2015
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  14. komoornik

    komoornik Notebook Consultant

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    Every AW17R3/AW15R2 got 2 M.2 slots, supporting both PCIE and SATA.
     
    komoornik, Dec 20, 2015
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  15. etern4l

    etern4l Notebook Virtuoso

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    Yeah apparently, they differ in PCIe interface speeds though, according to someone on this forum (hence they can't be put in RAID). Haven't had a chance to play around with this yet.
     
    etern4l, Dec 20, 2015
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  16. komoornik

    komoornik Notebook Consultant

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    There is not enough free PCIE lanes to get two drives to work in x4 mode.

    RAID is possible with latest bios.
     
    komoornik, Dec 20, 2015
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  17. etern4l

    etern4l Notebook Virtuoso

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    OK, so how would that work? One M.2 is x4, the other is x2 - so when in RAID mode both would be x2, right?
     
    etern4l, Dec 21, 2015
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  18. komoornik

    komoornik Notebook Consultant

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    No, in RAID mode one is still x4 and the other one x2.
     
    komoornik, Dec 21, 2015
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  19. etern4l

    etern4l Notebook Virtuoso

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    That may be the case, but given how RAID works, surely, the overall performance will be limited by the x2 drive. Now 2 lanes = 2GB/s so that shouldn't limit a 950 pro I guess
    ..
     
    etern4l, Dec 22, 2015
    #19