which SSD to buy for M14X

Greetings All,

I am new bee to M14X and my configuration has 500GB HDD.
I am planning to buy SSD, I have few question/confusions, appreciate if it is answered.

1. Which SSD (brand, model no) is compatible with Alienware M14X?

2. What size of SSD is advisable? ( I am not a heavy gamer, but I play sometimes and I am a software developer )

3. Doses using SSD’s reduced heat generated and if so by what percentage heat is reduced?

4. SATA 3 or SATA 2, i have heard that using SATA 3 causes some unstability, can some one confirm?

 

1. Samsung 470 128gb works for sure, got mine for 150.00USD. It's only SATAII though

2. The Samsung 470 series comes in all the common sizes, 64, 128, 256

3. My right palm rest does not get warm anymore, which is about the best you will get from an SSD.

I have an 830 256gb in my desktop, but I never tested it in my M14x. YMMV as far as SATAIII speeds are concerned. Had the 470 left over after I sold my Asus G73JH, so I tossed it in the M14x...

 

cool.
but are there any options on SSD.
what if i want go for OCZ or intel
SSD 2 or SSD 3?

 

Don't go anywhere near OCZ.

Why?
- They have the biggest failure rate in the SSD market
- They bribe reviewers for positive reviews and ban those who have anything negative to say about their company
- They delete most complaints on their forum to give the illusion to new customers that their products are problem-free

Intel and Samsung are the most reliable, but quite expensive.

Something like this: http://canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=15_179&item_id=039124 is the best bang for buck right now.

I believe there was a Sata III issue with the newest BIOS (AO8) where it would only work at Sata II speeds.

 

one more thing...
should i go for SSD 2 or SSD 3...
i have read some where that SSD 3 causes unstability, hence they have disabled it with new BIOS update.
My current BIOS: Alienware A08, 24-12-2011

 

I am not sure about the stability issue, however I'd go for Sata III.

The reason being is AO8 is capped at Sata II if I'm not mistaken and Dell is aware of this, so I would expect a resolution in the near future in AO9. I'd hate to buy a Sata II only to have the Sata III fix months later in a BIOS update Would kind of regret my purchase decision, but it's up to you

 

but will support SATA 3, if i purchase intel SSD.

 

The m14x manual I believe says it only supports SATAII, but you can get it to run SATAIII on older versions of the BIOS.

 

Is there any visibility to support SATA III on BIOS update A09
currently using A08.
i don't wan't to purchase SATA II and then regret once SATA III is supported.

 

If you rewind BIOS it will support Sata III.

I reviewed about 5-6 threads on the issue and people who are using a Sata III SSD in AO5/6 have been successful in achieving Sata III speeds without any issues, so it's up to you if you want to rewind BIOS.

Posts such as:

 

i have got a copy of A05 BIOS, but can i downgrade from A08 for A05

 

I'm not sure how to do it myself, but I've read others M14X owners doing it successfully.

Here's a "How To" guide regarding BIOS (it mentions downgrading) as a reference tool (aimed at Asus, though):
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/174395-bios-update-guide-asus-notebooks.html


Edit:

 

i have been going through http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m14x/633710-survey-m14x-owners-ssds-forum-needs-you.html and i understand SATA II is very stable and there are few hickups on SATA III,
which will be fixed later. thaks for all clarifications.

 

Anytime

 

I would actually advise Samsung's 830 Series of SSD
While Intel is a popular name, I've heard a LOT of reviews about them slowing down or failing shortly, as in a few months at most.

Samsung makes their own memory controller, and this is exclusive to their brand. I've seen more success's getting SSD's to run at SATA 3 (or 6Gb's per second) than most other SSD's.

I bought a Samsung 830 SSD for my M14x, and it has run no problem so far. Good read and write speeds. No BSOD's or boot hangs or anything yet.

If your going to go for an SSD, I would REALLY recommend Samsung.

If you flash to A08, the SSD's sata 3 speeds will become useless. Running A05

 

I love my sammy drives... never had an issue with either the 470 in my laptop, or the 830 in my desktop. Both have been problem free from day one, and are fast and smooth. I couldn't be happier, but last I saw, on newegg.com, the Crucial M4 256gb was only $270USD (it was on sale), and I would have bought that just because it is 100 bucks cheaper...

 

i also receommend you the samsung 470 series SSD 128 GB version it works just awesome no problems at all.

 

I agree with Voodooi... if you get issues then just flash to A08...
I have had intel 520 for about week now...
I first had problems and a lot of freezing...
But now works fine at SATA 3 speed with A05... A06 worked fine too...
I had some issues at the beginning but turned out to be windows-related... even A08 didn't fix it... thats how i knew it is windows related...
Samsung 830 is a good option too...
About the size... I think 120 is enough for windows, a few applications and several games... Just in case you want a few movies, more games, or install ubuntu then get the 180 or 250... Keeping in mind that you keep your files on an external drive or the secondary drive on m14x...

About reflashing to A05, well it is the easiest... you just use the tool in dell downloads website... They have both A08 and A05... I think they know people still want SATA3 and thats why they kept it there...

Edit: This is the LINK to dell downloads website

 

If you want the best of the best ssds, which are the less value ssd's, get the intel 520 or the crucial m4. But if you want a better value ssd, get the corsair force series 3. I got the force series gt a few weeks ago, (a little more expensive than the force 3), but they're far cheaper than the 520 and m4. I paid 255 for a 180gb, and a 35 dollar rebate, so total was 220.

Sure people are going to hate on the corsair force series because of the sand force controller and the ssd isn't the fastest out there, but when using bios a05, in atto bench mark, i get the 515mb write and 555mb read. Did a clean install, no issues ever, running sata 3 very stable. After the bios posts, start up takes less than 10 seconds. Newegg actually has the same deal on my corsair force gt 180gb.

Corsair force gt
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233211

But if you want the crucial m4 or the intel 520, and can afford it and don't need much space, its a very fast drive that will be with you almost forever.

 

Intel 510
Crucial M4
Samsung

Thats the order I would choose my SSD. Intel has a higher price but had good luck with.

 

M4 gets my vote. I have 3 of them.

 

Crucial M4 512GB here

Has been so good, not one error boot or bsod since I installed it. Also have updated the firmware twice from 0900 to 0309 - and no failures.

 

For Canadian SSD shoppers:

The best place I've found for SSD's is "Canada Computers". I cross referenced nearly every site I could find and no one came close.

Here are two sales:

Corsair Force Series 3 GT 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (SSD), Read: 555MB/s, Write: 515MB/s, includes 2.5" to 3.5" bracket (CSSD-F120GBGT-BK)
@ 149.99$.

Patriot Pyro 120GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (SSD), Read: 550MB/s, Write: 515MB/s (PP120GS25SSDR) @ 129.99$.

There's also an Adata for 124.99$ with the same specs, but I've never heard of them.

They're a cheaper alternative to super expensive Intel and Samsung SSD's.

(remember to avoid OCZ everyone)

 

Has everyone tried the 120GB SanDisk Extreme SSD?
Max Sequential Read
Up to 550 MB/s

Max Sequential Write
Up to 510 MB/s

Granted it's SandForce but it's got 5 stars on Newegg. Would anyone recommend?

 

I wouldn't really trust newegg reviews, yes you can use them as a reference to judge a product. But try to stay with intel, samsung, or crucial.

M4 also gets my vote, i have one in my 14x, my desktop, and my work computer.

 

after looking in the forums for a long time I got the samsung 830(256GB). Haven't installed it in my laptop yet because it is in the dell factory (being fixed for the 5 time now technicians sooo bad ). It's working great with a usb 3.0 case though

 

whats wrong with ocz? i have an ocz agility 3

 

OCZ has big mouth about almost all systems (with problems) not being compatible with their SSDs LOL

However, after changing for another SSD brand everything is mostly ok. Suddently lol

But, OCZ RMAs SSDs without too much hassle. I have Vertex 3 MI 120 and it runs ok. According to the specs. Only problem is that from being cold, the computer starts up Win7 at third try only. After that, everything runs smooth.

If I were buying now, I would go Intel 520 or Samsung 830 - both use Sandforce and use their own parts in the SSD.

 

I would go with Samsung. Or Intel. I've gotten my Samsung 830 to run at Sata 3 without issue. Just do a clean install with the proper BIOS.

 

I've had nightmares with OCZ and Corsair SSDs. My supplier tells me that the OCZ failure rate is 33% and in my experience with their product its more like 50%. As for Corsair, in a batch of 4 SSDs, three failed within the span of a month, at the rate of about one per week. I'll admit that I am not a casual user - I push the system to the max - but still, a week long longevity is unacceptable. To their credit, Corsair did directly refund the drives I purchased from them, I don't know what OCZ might have done had I tried to do that with them.

What's proven itself over time under my intense use - the shortest usage period of which is six months and the longest running so far about three years - has been Intel and Toshiba. In fact, right now on the m14x where I'm typing this, I'm running two Intel 600 GB 320 series SATA-II SSDs. I love the Intel SSD Toolbox which can TRIM the drives even under Windows XP, and the drives are rock solid so far. I do push this system to the limit pretty much on a daily basis, and the hard drives have more than once run out of empty space, which is a condition that typically slaughters Sandforce products. Not so with Intel.

I'm curious about the Crucial/Micron m4's though now after reading all the compliments on this thread. Its a pity that they don't have 600 GB capacity or larger.

 

If you want something more affordable I'd recommend the SanDisk ultra, it's only Sata II, but a good reliable drive. I have been happy with it and I'm never going back to regular hdd.

 

i gave in on a samsung 830 128 gb...it's on sale for 139.99 on amazon with FS if you have prime for any1 interested.

 

Awesome drive!You will love it! I have 2 830s in raid0 in my m18x and the speeds are sick almost 1k read and writes and iops WoW! I also had an 810 and an 830 in my m14x and they both were awesome! I am a samsung fan now I have intel also in another laptop and it's very good also.I ran bios A06 in m14x btw.

 

Wish I am about to get a A06 on my m14x

 

I have AO6. if you have any ideas on how i can make a copy or if that's even possible then i'd give it a try. Im also looking for the a06 file because i'm planning on migrating to an ssd.

 

If you want to squeeze some more space onto that SSD, check out the Drive Press tool that is included in MagicRAR ( Simon King`s MagicRAR) - it can run with multiple threads (up to twice those available on your CPU, including hyperthreaded cores). So this makes for very fast conversion to/from compressed NTFS state (no comparison with standard NTFS converters).

 

A05 runs well with SDD's as well. Again, it depends on weather you get the right brand. But I actually installed my SSD running Bios A03. And then switched to A05. No problems what-so-ever. you don't need a06

 

That's good to hear! I just thought that since my system came with a06, it is the best suited for me. Anyways what ssd do you have?

 

I have a Samsung 830 SSD. 128Gb.


I did a fresh install of Windows. Worked smoothly

 

how did you get a06 after installing ssd?

nice! i'm consideriing samsung intel and crucial dependeing on what's available in my country. so far i've only seen corsair ssd's :|