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    HD options / combinations

    Discussion in 'Alienware 14 and M14x' started by sprucejuice, Jul 27, 2012.

  1. sprucejuice

    sprucejuice Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hi All,

    I've yet to receive my M14X R2 but I'm getting some prep done ahead of time.

    As stock it's coming with the 500gb drive though I'm looking to put in my own SSD variant.

    My plan is to use the stock HD as the storage with the SSD running the OS and progs.

    Is a 256Gb mSATA maindrive and 500Gb 2nd 'storage' better than taking the optical drive caddy route with a standard 2.5" SSD in the primary and the 500GB in the caddy?

    I worry about the quality of the caddy and the loss of data throughput by using one. Though this is the cheaper option for me as I have a spare 120GB SSD i can make do with so the cost is just the Caddy. (is the optical drive SATA II or III?)

    otherwise the cost is the mSATA SSD but allowing me to keep the optical drive (which I would rarely use anway) though I've read issues about the mSATA only being rated as SATA II.

    any suggestions and input appreciated.

    s
     
    sprucejuice, Jul 27, 2012
    #1
  2. smokeydogsmokey

    smokeydogsmokey Notebook Consultant

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    optical on r1 is sata 1.5gb id image it would be the same on the r2 but im not sure. I was actually quiet surprised about the transfer speeds of the drive in the caddy there alot better than i thought they were going to be
     
    smokeydogsmokey, Jul 27, 2012
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  3. the_psychologist

    the_psychologist Closed Duplicate Account

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    Natalia from AW confirmed that mSATA and primary bay are SATA III, and ODD is SATA II.
     
    the_psychologist, Jul 27, 2012
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  4. Alienware-L_Porras

    Alienware-L_Porras Company Representative

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    This is accurate.
     
    Alienware-L_Porras, Jul 27, 2012
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  5. sprucejuice

    sprucejuice Notebook Enthusiast

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    Nice, thanks for that.

    I've since noticed that my M4 mSATA plan is scuppered in light of alledged incompatibility issues. Does anyone have any experience of this? Are there 256GB alternatives that are more recommended?

    s
     
    sprucejuice, Jul 27, 2012
    #5
  6. shnarf

    shnarf Notebook Consultant

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    I went the aftermarket route and did RAID0. first with a caddy and 2 Corsair Force3 SDD which would have issues even installing windows but was most likely due to one of the SSDs having a known issue it was recalled for or that they were running @ different SATA speeds. Just a couple days ago I got a Mushkin Atlas mSATA and did a RAID0 with a Corsair Force GT both 120's. the results are sick. In ATTO I can hit 1GB writes 680MB reads, but the best part is the small file size performance.
    on the .5k size I can 70MB write and 80MB read
    1k 125MB write and 145MB read
    2k 255MB write and 295MB read
    4k 492MB write and 590MB read
    8k 945MB write and 622MB read
    I seem to get a weird anomaly on 16k whre read drops back down to around 550MB, at 32k its back 600MB with writes breaking 1GB.

    all updates.JPG
    really happy with the performance given I already had the Force GT and got the Atlas for $139 from newegg. also dont forget to enable the Intel RAID controllers Write Back Cache, it drops the read speeds a hair but almost doubles the low size write speeds.
     
    shnarf, Jul 28, 2012
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  7. sprucejuice

    sprucejuice Notebook Enthusiast

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    my head hurts a little after reading that :D

    I'm plumbing for my crucial M4 SSD in primary with the stock HDD in an optical caddy, so not quite as impressive as yours but hopefully speedy enough =] I've never dabbled with RAID setups so i wouldn't even know where to begin or if it's an option with my setup.
     
    sprucejuice, Jul 30, 2012
    #7