Questions regarding SSDs, RAM and M.2 slots

Hello, I have ordered the BASE MODEL of Alienware 17 R3 from newegg.com and not yet received. Now I want to upgrade my RAM and SSD.
I have a few questions.
1. Does the base model come with m.2 pcie slots or just the m.2 sata? I ask this because I have read somewhere that m.2 pcie slots come only if the laptop is ordered along with the default PM951 ssd.
2. How does the REAL-WORLD boot times, read and write speeds compare among the PM951, 850 evo and 950 pro? And will I notice any difference considering I only use it for casual gaming and android programming?
I saw that PM951 write speed is slow around 280 MB/s. In what way this will affect me/will I notice any difference?
3. Is 8 gb RAM not sufficient for any games? If yes, how much is sufficient and suggest me which RAM can I buy(link if possible).

Any help would be appreciated
Thanks

Edit: I just bought 256gb PM951 from ebay(removed from XPS 15) after writing this but worried if this is going to be compatible with my laptop. Please check and say if this one is compatible.

 

That SSD should work fine.

1. m.2 support is from chipset of HM170. Both pcie/sata supported. I don't think Alienware can remove it.

2. You will see absolutely ZERO difference in fsck-all-anything if you have $100 SSD or $900 SSD. In IT, latest and greatest is mostly a gimmick done for morons with lots of money. If you were using a mechanical drive, a PM951/950PRO, being SSDs, will make a real difference. If you have already been using an SSD, a 950 will make no difference in nothing. I have both 950PRO (2500 MBps) and Crucial MX200 (600 MBps), exact clones of each other. Benchmarks sure look great, but I cannot tell which one is plugged in and I have server VMs running inside these drives. I use MX200 SATA SSD (it supports hardware encryption) and 950 Pro is just in a cupboard.

3. I have 32GB RAM. 2 x 16GB Samsung M471A2K43BB1-CPB

 

Thanks. Do you have any link on how to setup this SSD(not mechanically but in terms of hdd cloning etc)? I have never owned an SSD before.

 

Counting Crows is right. You're not going to notice any difference between SSDs. The jump between a mechanical hard drive to an SSD is huge. But the difference between SSDs is negligible, unless you are running benchmarks to specifically find the difference.

As for installing windows on an SSD, I would recommend that you just do a clean install. I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but if you're asking how to get windows onto an SSD, then the process is probably too complex for your current skill set. To give you an idea, you're going to need to deal with things that are far more complicated than just a simple drive image. There are a ton of things that can go wrong, such as corrupted bootloaders, 4k cluster alignment, detection problems, etc.

Since you are working on a clean system without any data that you care about preserving, you might as well just do a clean reinstall. Just reinstall windows off of a USB flash drive like you normally would. B

ut be sure to completely remove all other drives from the system, except the SSD where you want Windows to go. The reason is because Windows setup will put the bootloader information on the first drive that it sees in the system. And you cannot control what Windows sees as the first drive. So you may end up with a situation where your windows install sits on a different drive than the bootloader. This is undesirable. You can avoid this problem by making sure that the only drive in the system during a Windows install is the one drive where you want Windows to actually be. Just a little tip from somebody who's done this a few times

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

 

Solid advice from kent.

 

hi, these are only the bench, but I assure you that there is a difference and is also found in normal, I agree that the biggest difference you see it going from a HD mechanic to a PCIe SSD, and I can assure that the difference between an SSD 850 EVO and 950Pro PCIe, and there you see, then that is not marked as in the first step is true, but it is evident.





Info for "CountingCrows", the 32gb of ram you have them on the AW17 latest version ? and they will work without problems?

Tnx
Ciao

 

I assure you that you won't be able to tell the difference between SSDs in real-world performance. If I put you in front of a computer with an SSD, you would not be able to tell me whether that computer has a Samsung 850 EVO, or a Samsung 950 Pro in it. The only way you'd ever be able to tell is to run a synthetic (unrealistic) benchmark.

In addition, the only number that matters for SSD performance is random read performance. Measuring IOPS is also a very close approximation of this key metric as well. And even from your charts, random read and IOPS performance is nearly identical for all drives.

The only difference you'll find between top-end SSDs is sequential read/write performance. And I can guarantee you that faster sequential read/write performance will not matter at all for real-world performance, unless you are doing very specific things with your SSD (e.g. large photo / video editing). For everyone else running regular OS, applications, games, etc, there will not be any noticeable real-world performance difference between SSDs.

 

I put the part number of the RAM, you can see it is DDR4 which is available only with Skylake chipsets. Now if you cannot figure something as simple as this out, your opinion will not carry much weight in anything else. I do computers for a living.

Any difference you see in anything is probably because you are doing a clean install on a new drive before you load up gazillions of crap. Guess what, if you take your old drive and do a clean install on it, you will also see a difference than what it was before! In my tests, both drives had identical data on them and there is no difference in nothing and a 950Pro has a handicap of not supporting hardware-encryption. So if I did software encryption on it, it probably was going to be worse than a MX200. That is why it is sitting in a cupboard.

In my opinion, masses are confused with these benchmark drivels. A good example is OP. He was asking about the difference between 840/950/SM951... but then in another thread, he wants to return his mechanical drive due to noises when the drive is doing what all mechanical drives do: "seek"! That is why I said go with a $100 SSD in the first place. Because, you will notice a difference: The drive will no longer have rotating parts, hence it will make no sounds. That is a much more important aspect then looking at useless benchmarks.

 

I understand that you're a little angry. When I asked if 32gb of ram are fine on the new AW17 is why Dell provides them (for now) with only 16GB on top range, that's why I asked politely if everything worked at 100%.

Certainly I did not want to offend you, but your answer is a bit sour.

In this thread I think we have to ask questions and to help.

For the rest, although I understand what you said, I do not fully agree, because to me the 950Pro seems faster and the whole system seems faster, this is my impression, yours is different and I respect it, you should do it you.

You are peaceful and happy living.

HI