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    m14x r1 2 hdd owners

    Discussion in 'Alienware 14 and M14x' started by smokeydogsmokey, Jun 26, 2012.

  1. smokeydogsmokey

    smokeydogsmokey Notebook Consultant

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    can you run games off the second drive? just looking for some extra space, i tried to read the whole installing a second hdd thread but i has no time got to page 9 :(
     
    smokeydogsmokey, Jun 26, 2012
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  2. laz91

    laz91 Notebook Evangelist

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    Well that depends - if u want the max speed possible its better to play on the primary SSD but obviously its still possible (with minimal quality loss) to play on the secondary hd

    Also depends what ur secondary HD is. Mine for example is a 5400rpm 1TB drive - 5400 is fairly slow and so im opting for a SSD to replace it. Others (US customers) come with a 7200rpm 500gb secondary drive which is better (though still nothing compared to a SSD)
     
    laz91, Jun 26, 2012
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  3. smokeydogsmokey

    smokeydogsmokey Notebook Consultant

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    thanks for the reply i wanted to keep the ssd for windows/programs etc and as clean as poss, i have a 500gb seagate momentus 7200rpm drive to put in, just wondering if its was worth putting them on the second drive or if i would be waiting ages for them to load up
     
    smokeydogsmokey, Jun 27, 2012
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  4. laz91

    laz91 Notebook Evangelist

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    No worries. Personally, I would put the 1/2 games u play the most on the SSD to take advantage of the speed then the rest on the HDD
     
    laz91, Jun 27, 2012
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  5. copper7op

    copper7op Notebook Consultant

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    It wont normally affect the QUALITY of the game. It will however affect the load times. The downside is more likely to be the SATA1 issue. In the 2nd Drive bay, most users have complained they need to run SATA1 Speeds to make the system boot (I'm one of those). So even though I have a 7200rpm drive, its all pumping through a SATA1 connector at 150mbps max.

    Upgrading to an SSD for the 2nd drive has seen very minimal performance bumps for any large file transfers.
     
    copper7op, Jun 28, 2012
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  6. Alienware-L_Porras

    Alienware-L_Porras Company Representative

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    Agree with copper7op. The load times will be more on the HDD than the SSD but you can run games from either one of them. I would leave the SSD for programs and Windows as you do and use the HDD only for pics and music and all that.
     
    Alienware-L_Porras, Jun 28, 2012
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