Upgrade Questions

Wow, this site is alot more useful than most forums I've been on. I'd like to thank everyone for that.

But, back to the main focus of this thread, I got my M14 about two weeks ago which means its time to rip it apart and change out all the stuff I wasn't paying Dell for

I just like to get alot of actual User feedback before I pay for parts. Companies can say whatever they want (and yes, I know there are alot of reputable companies out there), but the best way to judge a product imo is the users. So,

I'm thinking about changing my optical drive out for a SSD, doing a RAM upgrade, and applying thermal paste (especially after reading that Artic Silver 5 thread, those results are amazing).

So, are there any sudgestions? I've seen Artic vs Diamond before on the paste, and although I know a good bit about Artic (Me and some friends have used before on desktop builds) I've never had any personal experience using Diamond.

For the RAM I was thinking about using 8GB HyperX 1833.

And, I really have no clue about the SSD as far as laptops go. I tended to stay away from building/upgrading them until now lol. So, any advice here would be greatly appreciated

Current System:
i7 2630
6GB 1600
Intel Wireless card (Ordered literally a day before they released killer )
750GB 7200RPM HDD
3.0 Nvidia 555M
And thats all that I can think of that could be relevant.

 

Just to make certain, you'll want to replace your original HDD with a SSD and put your old HDD where the optical drive is. The reason for this is because the sata port for where your HDD is now is faster and the optical is slower.

I'd personally go with Hyper X 1600 instead of the 1866 because the timings on the 1600 are tighter vs the faster speed on the 1866. So in reality the performance is balanced out because of this and you save about $40.

As far as the thermal paste, I'd google that and look at reviews. I've found Arctic Silver 5 to be good, but it doesn't mean it's the only one that works. It's funny because some chemical tests on thermal pastes I've seen show that even though the box says "Contains over 90% silver" it actually contains less than 1% if not less.

 

Thanks I always love saving money and that HDD lesson helped alot. Will I have to reinstall Windows 7/Alienrespawn?

And, in addition, when I was looking through the Windows7/Alienrespawn threads it said that with some people AlienRespawn told them that the HDD didn't have enough space. So, as far as my SSD goes, what would be a good size for it? And a recommendation towards a particular one would be nice.

 

You can try to clone your HDD to your SSD but honestly I wouldn't try, it messes up a lot because the destination drive is smaller (Even though it's big enough for all the data) and honestly you don't have much on it to reinstall since it's new. I'd just take out the old HDD and install the SSD and close it, then install W7 and alienware stuff from the disk then after it's set up remove the optical and put in your 500gig unless you have an external DVD drive already then it doesn't matter.

For your SSD how much are you looking to spend and what size do you need? I had a 128gig in my G73jh and honestly that was the bare minimum I'd put in a gaming computer because it only fit like 4-5 games max plus all my Adobe stuff. I'd go with a 256gig personally if I buy another. Right now I'm content with my Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid drive for the performance/price ratio.

 

Agree about reinstalling it.
I first tryed cloning it aswell and even after realigging it I never got the same performance as after a fresh install on the SSD.

Before I bought my SSD I did a lot of research as well and IMO there were only 3 to 4 good options that did jump to me for the M14X:

OCZ Vertex 3:
Seems to be the fastest for certain scenarios (not all).
Also seems to give the most trouble regarding the Intel RST problem, but working fine with the fix of course.

Intel 510 Series:
Most compatible to the controller (Both Intel) but also by far most expensive option.

Curcial M4:
Seems to have the "best balanced" overall performance but in some scenarios slower then the Vertex.
THis is what I have.

Crucial S3:
Precessor of the M4, has proven itself very reliable which probably is, why here in Germany it's sometimes priced a little bit higher than the M4.

So perosnally I'd go with the Vertex 3 or the M4.
If money is not a mather at all I'd go with the 510.

As for size I'd definately suggest above 200GB.
I have only Win7 and around 7 games installed and moved all my other data to an external drive but my 256 GB is already used 65%.
So 128GB wouldn't do it for me.

I'd also instead of replacing the optical with the other HDD just get one of those nice little external 2,5" cases for it and connect it over USB, but that's a personal choice.

Oh, and by the way, after reading the Arctic Silver 5 thread I also decided to do a repaste on mine and I just ordered some IC Diamond 24 yesterday.
Once I have it, I'll of course share the results, so if you're patient a bit..

 

Thanks bud That was exactly the kind of comparison I was looking for. And I thought about the OCZ SSD, but a surprising number of reviews said it got bogged down pretty fast

 

Newegg.com - Crucial M4 CT256M4SSD2CCA 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

-or-

Newegg.com - Crucial M4 CT256M4SSD2 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Can anyone tell me the difference in these two drives? Ready to order, but I'd like to doublecheck everything and I can't figure out why one is $50 more expensive than the other. Sorry, never been great at reading tech specs.

 

Same exact drive, the more expensive one comes with a kit to clone your old drive to the new one.

 

Which is not recommended anyway ;-)

 

Don't know how I missed that one lmao. Any point in that considering all my games are from Impulse/Steam and I can just Redownload them? Kinda want to do a clean windows 7 reinstall and remove all the bloatware/junk this time. Was to excited about my laptop so forgot to last time lol.

 

Yea lol, I was looking at the specs and didn't see a difference then I looked at the pictures.

Yea you can delete and redownload steam games all you want, I did a clean install on my m14x and it was totally worth it IMO.

 

The steam thing was supposed to be a . not a ? lol. And ok, that' the plan. So I need the SSD, the caddy for the optical port, and some artic silver 5 (might as well redo the thermal paste while some of the laptop is open). That's all I need for the SSD change, correct?

 

Yep that's correct it should only take you a total of maybe 10 minutes to do the hardware swap, the install is going take the longest.