SSD 6/gbs work or not?

I'm on the verge of buying an mx14x and have a couple questions and noticed how awesome this forum was well lurking.

1. Does installing an SSD 3 6gb/s actually work properly as in achieve the proper speeds and not crash constantly in the mx14x? I read that 35 page thread about 20 pages worth and it was hard to form an opinion.

2. A review I read said that the glossy screen can be quiet bothersome in any area with lighting (lol) is this an over exaggeration, is it really noticeable/annoying?

Thanks ;D

 

There is no definitive answer to this query. there are some people who are running SATA 3 - 6gb/s ssd with/without issues. While other are stuck with SATA 2 - 3gb/s speed only. Dell states that alienware M14x supports SATA 3 which according to them means, you can connect a SATA 3 SSD but its supposed to run at SATA 2 speed. Its a really wierd situation where system supports SATA 3 but forces it to run at SATA 2 speed. But i guess with few fixes you can somehow attain SATA 3 speed involving fresh windows installation and selective driver installation.

That is in no way an exaggeration. Screen IS super glossy.It reflects back a lot and can cause distraction in certain cases. But i guess this was perhaps done to compensate for contrast and color balance.



Overall, i would say that this is a brilliant piece of technology and i absolutely love it . Glossy screen or SATA 3/2 issue is not something that will make me regret my decision to buy it.

 

1. SATA 6Gbps Works. After some research and tweaking. And definitely no Intel RST.

2. No prob for me.

 

Nice

I purchased the m14x and pretty excited about it.

Got it pretty bare, going to upgrade the RAM myself.

Then hopefully go out on boxing day and try to find a deal on an SSD and see how that goes. ^_^

 

Tomorrow is the day for me lol I am getting Kingston HyperX 2x4 Gb 1600 pnp modules. My games start to say that I am low on RAM (pagefile off) so I hope everything goes well.

Crysis 2 & Warhead, BF3 and COD MW3 all complain.

 

Problems with the m14x:

The graphics card is soldered into the motherboard, so you are stuck with the GT 555m (no possibility of upgrading like with the m17x or m18x). However, I have had no issues running any games so far, except the Witcher 2 and apparently many people in this forum are running that game perfectly fine after driver updates. So for now the graphics card is performing acceptably.

The display has a very low color gamut, meaning it cannot display as many colors as other monitors. There are literally $600 computers that have a higher color gamut display, and this is unacceptable to me. That said, the screen is acceptable at best, nothing extraordinary like it should be (where is my RGB screen like on the other Alienwares?)

The screen is "glossy" but that personally does not bother me very much at all. It is not like you can see yourself like in a mirror when you are trying to play a game. So this is not really so much of an issue as the fact that there are cheap HP laptops with screens that have a higher gamut display. I personally recommened the 1600x900 display ofter the 1366x768 if you are comfortable with the smaller text because I think it looks better and is definitely better for work like Word, Excel, or internet browsing. Many games look better on it but some games run better at the lower resolution.

These are the only issues I have found with the Alienware m14x after just over 2 months of use. I have flown internationally with it and walked 1 or 2 miles everyday with it for the past month and can tell you that it is portable and small enough to be called a laptop. I have never seen the m17x but it has a better display and upgradeable GPU, but it is heavier and bigger and most people here do not consider it to be portable at all. Having seen 17 inch laptops that are much lighter I have to agree that those are not meant for taking with you everyday or multiple times a week.

The soft-touch coating feels great, just be sure to keep your laptop in the cloth protective cover when you move it and get a good bag (I got the Orion Messenger Bag with my purchase). A good warranty is also a good idea since this is a very expensive laptop. The build quality is superb and second to none. The keyboard is VERY good and feels extremely comfortable for typing or gaming. As far as PC keyboards go, this is the best I have ever seen on a laptop (some people prefer Apple's keyboards, however). The aesthetics are perfect, except it looks so attractive that it might as well come with a big sign that says "Hey everyone! This is worth money! Steal this!"

I have the SSD, 3.0 GB NVIDIA Gt 555m 1600x900 native resolution screen, RAM upgrade, Intel Core i7 processor and almost every other possible upgrade. This computer starts faster and loads applications faster than any other I have ever seen (because of the SSD). The i7 is a great buy but also means your temperatures while gaming will run high. The highest I have recorded so far is 91 degrees but it does not stay that high, and the i7 and i5 processors are built to run at high temperatures anyway so while it runs hot, it runs within safe limits.

I still would recommend this laptop over any other 14 inch laptop -- it is the best looking and most powerful 14 inch laptop available. However, if 17 inches and more weight are acceptable to you, then the m17x could be the better purchase. If you cannot decide between 14 and 17 inches, I suggest going to a store and seeing how awkwardly wide a 17 inch laptop looks, and then taking note of the fact that the Alienware m17x will be that wide, and longer, and much MUCH thicker, and MUCH heavier.

 

While for some, like myself, I simply dropped a 6Gbps drive in and did no tweaking and left RST installed and it works great.

 

You are the first M14X user who does get full 6 Gbps speeds with RST that I know.