When my Alienware 18 arrives...

I have a 128GB SSD in my desktop that is currently used as my OS boot drive. Since this laptop is replacing my desktop, I plan on transferring it to my laptop to use that for booting and leaving 100% of the 2TB raid 0/80gb mSATA SSD boot for pure storage.

1: I've replaced hard drives in laptops before, but never a high end gaming laptop with so much packed under the hood. Are there any obstacles I should worry about that would be different?

2: It'd obviously be a fresh install of Windows 8.1 to the 128GB SSD when I transfer it over, but when I install from their disc that comes with the laptop, will it be some custom image with a ton of fluff software? If so, could I use another 8.1 image with my paid license key to have a completely clean install?

3: Will I need to change BIOS settings regarding boot configuration beyond simply changing the boot order since it's originally going to be booting from a raid volume?

 

Installing a HDD/SSD in the Alienware 18 is easier than installing one in some desktops. It's super easy... just take 3 Philips screws off across the bottom cover, lift off the bottom covers (2 pieces) and the drive caddies are staring you right in the face. Everything at that point is business as usual for anyone that has replaced a HDD/SSD before (no instructions required).

 

Thanks for the reply. If only it wasn't 3 weeks for the build time. Can't wait for it to come.

 

For this high end laptop if you want to include a 3rd hard drive such as a 128GB SSD boot drive you will have to remove the slot loading Blu-ray reader to make room, because the 2TB RAID 0 set-up requires (2) 1TB 5400RPM drives that take both places in the hard drive bay; there is only 2 places in that bay. If you want to keep the Blu-ray reader then you have to remove the 1TB 5400RPM hard if you wish to use the 125GB SSD as a boot drive. The mSATA drive is installed in a different area than the hard drive bay is not a part of the hard drive bay. The top end A18 Quad-Play unit uses four 256GB drives: one 256GB mSATA, two 256 SSD in the hard drive bay and they rip out the blue ray reader for the fourth 256 GB SSD drive and run that all in RAID 0. The next step down uses 256GB mSata as boot and a 1TB 5400RPM drive with one empty space for another drive whether it be HDD or SSD. Hope this gets you back on track for your order process. Cancel and modify order if your not getting what you think you want.

 

Well that sucks. I would've liked to have known that. I definitely don't want to downgrade. I want the large storage space. I'll just stay with my 2TB/80gb SSD caching until SSD prices go down and I'll just replace everything with SSD and use network attached storage.

Thank you for the post.

 

The disadvantage of running RAID 0 is that it cuts your reliability in half, because if one of the two hard drives fail your entire OS gets hit. With your setup in RAID 0 and mSATA acceleration it will be relatively unnoticeable in terms of read/write speed compared to a simple mSATA or SSD boot drive, but the later is twice as reliable or more, because no moving parts. The cure for that is to backup your entire system with a reliable backup software such as Acronis 2014 to external hard drive. My friend had her 2 year old AW18 in Raid 0 using two 7200 RPM hard drives and one of them failed last week, so she ended up going with two SSD in RAID 0 and junked out the two HDD. She didn't have any mSATA to accelerate her RAID 0 so there was a huge jump in speed by about 10x.

I use a 3TB USB external hard, the prices of the 4TB Seagate units are relatively inexpensive at $158. I you look at today's price on SSD the Samsung 1TB Evo cost about $470 but it uses Rapid making it faster then mSATA, because its like using RAID 0 SSD with only 1 drive. You could buy three 4TB external hard drives for the same price, or 12TB for the same price as the 1TB EVO. The EVO has the advantage of being 2-3 times quicker in read/write speeds with increased reliability, at the cost of price.

 

I've been running HDD and SSD in RAID0 for about 5 years on multiple systems without issue. RAID0 does nothing to cause or increase the chance of a HDD or SSD dying. If your OS volume fails, it fails, whether in RAID0 or not. Same is true for a separate data volume. The only truly reliable way to be safe is back up data you don't want to lose. If you want to simplify OS installation in the event of hardware failure, the only way to be safe is to have an image on hand. Putting the OS and critical data files on the same disk is not a good idea whether you run RAID0 or not.

 

...immediately return for a full refund and get an M18x R2 with 3920/3940XM and 780M SLI instead.