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    bought a m4 ssd for my m14x have a few ?s

    Discussion in 'Alienware 14 and M14x' started by mightymax86, Jul 27, 2011.

  1. mightymax86

    mightymax86 Notebook Consultant

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    hey guys i heard of a few issues with the m4 ssd. i just received mine about 5 days ago and was wondering how to find out if the ssd already has the latest firmware and the easiest way to update the drive if it does not?
     
    mightymax86, Jul 27, 2011
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  2. El Hondo

    El Hondo Notebook Enthusiast

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    mightymax86,

    To see what firmware your Crucial M4 SSD has... look on the bottom of the SSD and it will say "firmware 0001 or FW 0001".

    To update your firmware goto this site:

    1. Crucial.com Product Downloads - Firmware Updates

    2. grab the release notes, firmware zip file and guide, read the guide for instructions on updating your SSD firmware.

    3. follow the instructions and make a firmware boot CD or DVD. Boot from the CD/DVD (BTW this will also tell you what Firmware you currently are using) The Firmware updater will run and voila your SSD is updated.

    Hope this helps :)
     
    El Hondo, Jul 27, 2011
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  3. CC268

    CC268 Notebook Evangelist

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    I have the M4 and its awesome, runs perfect and super fast. As for the technical things follow the above post
     
    CC268, Jul 27, 2011
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  4. mightymax86

    mightymax86 Notebook Consultant

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    thanks guys i have read every review out there and when it comes to games fps that are effected by the HD and it isnt many but there out there and game load times the m4 is the best because of the access time and the random read and write. +1 for you both thanks again
     
    mightymax86, Jul 27, 2011
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  5. jemsiter

    jemsiter Notebook Enthusiast

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    I am thinking of buying a SSD and add it to my stock 500GB 7200 so the main is SSD and secondary 500GB 7200
    Which is the best SSD and how much is it? Is it worth getting a SSD and install it? I have no idea how to do it.
    What's the advantages? is it just bascially loading windows faster and loading games faster? no improved FPS?
     
    jemsiter, Jul 28, 2011
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  6. set128

    set128 Newbie

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    The m4 ssd is working perfectly well on an alienware m14x.
    But one very important piece of advice I can give you is to do the firmware upgrade from v001 to v002. If you don't do it, you'll get very long system hang. Once the upgrade is done, everything is running very smoothly and I haven't had any hag in the past week (compared to many hang per day).
    If your goal is to get higher FPS, you would probably be better investigating some potential overclock on your system instead of buying a ssd. SSD will bring you much faster application start time (when it's not in your ram), faster windows boot time, faster games boot time, faster unzip... in the end, the read and write speed is so incredibly awesome that it will be very hard for you to ever go back to a normal disc-based harddrive. In my case, windows is loading in 20-30s instead of 2 minutes (and I benchmarked both in a fresh windows installation state).
     
    set128, Jul 30, 2011
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  7. mightymax86

    mightymax86 Notebook Consultant

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    hey i noticed it said select ide mode instead of ahci but the onlu other option is ada in the bois, is that the same thing or am i looking in the wrong place?
     
    mightymax86, Aug 1, 2011
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  8. killbeagle

    killbeagle Notebook Geek

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    The M4 works very well for me, however I don't seem to be getting full SATA III speeds with it.

    This seems to be a general M14X problem and you can find more about it including a fix here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...parison-bios-enabled-disabled-discussion.html
    It's somehow related to the Intel RST driver.
    I however discovered that when I don't use Intel RST I get near SATA III read speeds but very poor writing speeds.
    With Intel RST activated the overall performance improves a lot but it's more SATA II speed.

    Intels own SSD as well as the Vertex 3 seem to be able to do "faster" with the M14X.

    Oh, and I would always do a fresh install on an SSD, if it's going to be the systems drive.
    I tried just duplicating the original drive, which works but performance suffers.
     
    killbeagle, Aug 1, 2011
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  9. mightymax86

    mightymax86 Notebook Consultant

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    this may sound sad but a am a noob i ahve not done a fresh install, how would i go about doing this? would i just use the disks that came with the system?
     
    mightymax86, Aug 1, 2011
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  10. killbeagle

    killbeagle Notebook Geek

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    Correct. Just throw it in and press the key when it asks to boot from CD.
    A google on "how to install win 7 from scratch" should also give plenty of tutorials.
     
    killbeagle, Aug 1, 2011
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  11. jemsiter

    jemsiter Notebook Enthusiast

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    so how do I install a SSD for my m14x (as the system drive, and stock 500GB as secondary)?
    after I install it, I have to use the system restore disc to install system in the SSD drive? how about all the alienware command center, etc programs that comes with the m14x and the login screen etc..? and how do I delete the system in the stock 500GB?
     
    jemsiter, Aug 1, 2011
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  12. mightymax86

    mightymax86 Notebook Consultant

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    ok and than just so i can keep the setting and the little alienhead in the start menu lol i just set up a restore point and save it on a disk and throw it in after it installs windows 7 right? i know its really easy i just dont want to make a mistake
     
    mightymax86, Aug 1, 2011
    #12