M14x R2 Msata Question Boot Drive

Which Msata drive does alienware ship with?

Would it be better to install my own? If so Which Brand/Size/Sata 2/3?

 

Wow, I never knew the r2 came with msata support, I posted a thread a while back about the r1 not having msata. Thats cool. Definetely buy your own, the prices on the dell website are outrageous. Try newegg, i saw some there a while back...

Newegg.com - msata

Just get a small one for the os and maybe a few games. Definetely sata 3, at least 30 gigs depending on what you want to store on it. I say just the 30/40 gigs for the OS to keep costs down, but you can go as high as you like. Go with the intel brand as well. Saw a nice 40gb for under 100.

But for a better value, 2.5 inch ssd's are coming down in price as well, may want to consider that.

 

A 120GB SSD is the sweet spot.

If you're on a budget, then I would avoid Intel and Samsung, as they're some of the most expensive on the market.

Here is a good reference point - some are priced around 1$/per GB:
Canada Computers | Weekly Specials
Although this is in Canada, prices in the US should be near identical. It'll give you an idea of what brands/prices to look for.

An SSD brand you may want to avoid is OCZ due to terrible reliability (1/3 users report issues on newegg reviews; sample pool of 100's).

 

Thanks for the advice, I already own SSD's (Crucial M4s) but was interested in this new msata thing, doesn't seem to be worth it tbh