Adding 5TB to my Dell XPS L521X...all internal (56K beware)

Not really...for now, I only have 4.5TB theoretically.

The Dell XPS L521X is such an amazing machine. Recently, I had thought about upgrading to the Dell XPS 15 9530 or the M3800, but was hesitant to do so because there's so much more potential left for my L521X. The only reason I was considering the newer Dell machines because of bettery battery life and more CPU/GPU power. However, after some reviews, I read that battery life is not that big of a difference, unless I get the 9-cell battery setup, which loses an optional hard drive. Also, the i7 and 640M on the L521X will suffice for quite a few years.

With that said, I wanted to try something that I believe not many people have tried--I wanted to build a 5TB (all internal) XPS laptop. I know what people would say at the least--why not just use external hard drives? Well, external hard drives are a dime a dozen nowadays. I have about five of them, a few terabytes when combined.


^The XPS came with a 128GB mSSD + 1TB HDD. Plenty of room for common use. Also it has a Blu-Ray drive, which I rarely use. So I'm getting rid of it.



^All of this will go inside it:
- 500GB Samsung EVO mSATA SSD ($236 used shipped from Amazon)
- 2TB Seagate external HDD USB 3.0 ($119 shipped from NewEgg)
- 2.5" HDD caddy from Amazon ($7.99 shipped from Amazon)

The 2TB Seagate HDD (unlike many Western Digital) is a special external hard drive because it can be opened up and inserted into a SATA port in laptops and more. Another big factor is that it is, I believe, the only 9.5mm 2TB drive out there at the moment. Unlike many other 2.5" 2TB drives, which are 15mm thick and won't fit inside many laptops. Also it is SATA III!



^Ready for surgery.



^Package opened. Arctic Silver 5 ready.



^Bottom plate removed from the XPS.



^Weak mSSD...time to go.



^Side-to-side comparison of the two. Interesting that the orientations of the SATA port are upside-down between the two.



^Battery removed.



^Wish this was lighter.



^Blu-ray drive removed.



^2.5" HDD caddy vs. Blu-ray drive.



^Heat sink and fan removed.



^Looks like a bad job at pasting thermal stuff.



^Removing motherboard too so I can tighten down the LCD hinge screws. Might as well while I am at it.





^







^Much better.





^There we go.



^Clean the thermal paste on these as well.



^Ready to open up the 2TB external HDD.



^The other side of the cap.



^Look at what we have here...a Samsung hard drive. No wonder they advertise the external hard drive as "Seagate/Samsung". Neat!



^We can use the case as an enclosure too.



^The hard drive fits in perfectly.



^Taking out the SATA plug from the Blu-ray drive.







^SATA plug goes right on the caddy.



^Try fitting the caddy in.



^Shoot. There is a problem here. The extra corner hinge on the caddy is blocking the way.



^The solution.



^The two hinges removed.



^Might as well take out the useless "pretty" plate. Weight reduction!!!





^TADA!!



^Putting it all together.



^Yummy!



^A total of usable 3.2TB to be more precise. Not bad.



^Let's see the benchmark on the Samsung 500GB mSSD. Not too shabby...but shouldn't I get around 500 Mb/s as advertised?



^I heard BIOS A16 was bad because it does not utilize SATA III, but SATA II. A suggestion in the forum said to use A11, so I downgraded the BIOS to that version. Long and behold, the new benchmark. I'm happy.





Well, I hope you enjoy this thread. Maybe with extra cash, I can get the 1TB Samsung mSSD (to replace the 500GB mSSD) to achieve my ultimate 5TB machine. In other words:

- 1TB Samsung EVO mSSD
- 2TB Seagate/Samsung HDD
- 2TB Seagate/Samsung HDD

Cheers! :hi2:

 

UPDATE 6/26/2014 - Bought a 2TB Seagate Expansion 3.0 external hard drive ($84.99).






^Another Samsung drive in a Seagate enclosure. It is the exact same drive as the one from the Seagate Slim Plus.



^2TB vs. 1TB side by side.





4.5TB!!!!!!!

 

thanks for sharing.

Questions:
* How did you clean the paste? It's a very clean job.
* I was thinking of replacing the HDD with a SSD. But after all the reading I may have to go back to an old BIOS version, it seems going the mSATA route is better and just keep the hdd as additional storage. I figure you put your OS in the mSATA?

There's no need for IRST if I go SSD route. I read in another site that SSD + mSATA still had some benefits. Not sure why there would be a need for IRST if you're on SSD already and IRST was targeted to speed up boot-up for regular hdd, right?.

Is the L521X sensitive in parts compatability? I noticed Samsung EVO SSD are listed as compatible but not many else. I saw deals today for Crucial and Sandisk SSD since I was thinking SSD earlier before reading your thread.

 

@Mrputtputt,

- I cleaned the paste simply by using a napkin (I know, it's not recommended ). I did this by wiping the edges first and then work my way through the center.

- I put the OS on the new 500GB mSATA, just as I did with the old 128GB. The other two HDD serve as storage. I believe this is the best setup as it utilizes the mSATA for its form factor and speed. Do you have the A16 BIOS? If so, you won't benefit the full potential of SATA III speed--only SATA II speed. I am not sure what you lose by downgrading though. So far, I haven't had any issues.

- My boot time is very fast with the mSATA, probably around 15s from a cold start. I haven't really timed it yet. But I know for sure it is reduced by the initial boot of the bootup process (hardware, BIOS checking, not Windows). Also, I don't think we need IRST if using SSD. IRST is benefited from RAID configurations though. Not sure how big of a difference that would be for SSDs.

- I don't think the L521X will have any issues with big brand SSDs such as Intel, Samsung, Kingston, Crucial, Sandisk, etc. If it does, it most likely because of the SSD's firmware/driver.

Hope this helps!

 

Did you downgrade like that?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/xps-15-l521x-owners-lounge.673630/page-581#post-9274017

I tried that and now the Notebook is dead (power button does not work anymore).

It beeped 2-3 minutes, but after that it did not restart. I waited 10-15 minutes and finally I removed the AC cable.

 

Wow, very impressive. I thought about upgrading to one of the newer models also, but my l521x has so much life left in it.