Guide for Dummies like me: How to get even more M14x awesomeness!

Hey all,

My m14x is now fully installed and working great! Yesterday I received a Intel 320 SSD and a 2nd HDD caddy. I wanted to share how a total noob like me could do this. I hope this convinces some people to also want to change their hdd for a ssd and their optical drive for a 2nd hdd, but don't think they can do it. Btw my specs are in the sig.

Keep in mind, this is the first time ever I opened a computer, installed hardware and installed a clean windows in my life! Luckily a friend of mine with more experience in building computers, watched over my shoulders and gave me the much needed mental support

First of all, I read a lot of guides here in this forum. Starting with this guide from TitanGod. This convinced me to change the DVD drive into a 2nd hdd.

This guide from BatBoy helped me reinstall everything on the SSD. I never ever installed a clean windows before in my life, so this really helped me out a lot.

I also used these Youtube videos from ragingazn628 for more visual help:
Tutorial - Taking apart your Alienware M14X and Changing Hard Drive
Tutorial - How to install a second Hard drive on your Alienware M14X

So this is what I did:

1) First I ordered everything online. The caddy was the hardest part to find, but on eBay they are cheap. I actually ordered one in a dutch webshop, but it shouldn't make any difference.

2) Checked if I had a screwdriver which fitted inside the screws on the back of the m14x.

3) Follow the forum/youtube guides to take everything apart. The most difficult thing to do, is getting the orange sata ribbon out of the slot. The first time I pulled it out without lifting the white slot, but if you lift the white slot it's actually really easy. Just be careful not to break it, but it should come up really easy.

4) Install the SSD in the place the HDD was and put everything back into place.

5) Boot the laptop with the Windows DVD which came with the m14x

6) Install windows using BatBoy's guide. Btw with this CD you automatically get the alienware look and feel (which I personally like a lot).

7) Don't install any drivers yet, but turn off the laptop and take everything apart again.

8) Install the HDD caddy with the old hdd you just took out. (You don't need to format anything or change anything in the bios btw. It all worked great without changing anything.)

9) The most difficult part is again the ribbon, but now I knew what to do and it took only a few minutes. The screws in the hdd caddy didn't fit very well, but the entire thing fits very well into place, so it isn't a problem.

10) Put everything back and turn on the laptop again.

11) Now I felt really stupid for 2 reasons. First I forgot to take out the Windows DVD from the DVD drive I just removed. Second I forgot to copy all the drivers from the Resources DVD. The second part didn't really matter. I copied the entire DVD to a USB and ran the Autorun on the USB and it worked just like a DVD.

12) Install all the drivers using BatBoy's guide again. This was amazing, the SSD is so fast you hardly have to wait for the installations or reboots.

13) Install Microsoft Security Essentials

14) Update all the drives where necessary from the Dell Drivers page

15) Download and Install CCleaner, Fraps, Core Temps, Synaptics Driver (Download from their site, for pinch zoom and 2-finger scrolling).

16) Install 3dMark06 to test everything: 12450 Marks

17) Download and Install BF3 which came for free with my SSD! Works great, but I have to update the newest Nvidia Drivers to really test it. The Dell Nvidia drivers are outdated. I got around 30fps on medium settings, but the CPU reached 96 degrees max (only for short periods). When I put my laptop on my NotePal U2 cooler it reached 86 degrees max, so thats a lot better.

18) Install Skyrim from my USB, Ultra settings with AA2x and shadows High around 35 fps and cpu temps around 75-80.

So this is where I am now. I'm really happy with the results. It's a little soon to say, but everything works like it should and I didn't encounter any real problems so far. The only issue I have, is with the Command Centre, it won't install with the Dell drivers. But I don't really care, because my lighting effects are just the way I like.

The only real tip I have for other noobs like me is take your time! Read/watch all the guide carefully before you try it yourself. Then it should be really easy. It took me about 3-4 hours to get where I am now.

I hope you liked reading this (sorry for any bad grammar, I'm not a native enlish speaker ) and I hope it helps some people out!

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask and please comment!

 

Thanks for sharing your experience/knowledge. It's got me thinking now about doing the same. I suppose if I need to use an optical drive I can just use the external one I've got lying around doing nothing.

 

Yeah when I got my m11x, I bought an external dvd drive. I probably used it 2 or 3 times for installing an old game or playing a movie. Nowadays with steam/itunes/etc there is hardly any use for optical drives in my opinion. But be sure to install Windows first on your ssd before removing the optical drive, unless you use a bootable usb stick

 

sweet! I was wondering are you able to get SATA III speed?

 

vortexblade good one!! +rep

 

The Intel 320 is a SATA II ssd, so no. The reason I chose a SATA II ssd and not a III (like the crucial m4) is because I read here, people are having trouble getting SATA III speeds. This is my first ssd so the difference between my hdd and this would be huge anyway and it's cheaper than the crucial m4 (and I got bf3 for free with this one )

 

I could not see any REAL WORLD diff. between SATA 3Gbps and SATA 6Gbps. Only in benchmarks. I think it is all about the access time, which should be pretty similar.

 

nice guide, repped. The only thing is that I burn/rip cd's all the time and need my cd drive! lol