Aftermarket SSD suggestion for M17x?

Going to get the m17x without the Dell SSD as although it's based on a samsung P810 it has been bodged by Dell to give it dell firmware so you can't apply samsung updates.

That, and I'm sure I can get cheaper, better SSDs elsewhere. But does anyone have any advice as to what SSD to get? I'm not needing tons of space, I uninstall games after finishing them so 128gb is probably fine. I also have NAS for photos/files/music etc.

 

Intel makes some very nice, high speed SSDs. Not the cheapest around, but definitley worth looking at. I've heard some people are having issues with one particular brand of SSD in their Alienware (thinks it's Crucial) so it might be worth avoiding them.

 

OCZ is the one everyone is having problems with. Not crucial. I am ordering a Crucial M4 as soon as I have the money. It is a very nice ssd.

 

Yeah sorry, it was OCZ.

 

I have a Crucial M4 SSD 128GB and its a great SSD and one of the cheapest out of the "big brands"

Awsome speeds, my quickest boot is 21 seconds to windows (where everything is all up and running) and about 12-15 sec on aerage to actually log on.

Ive had just one issue with this SSD, a very minor one might i add, if the SSD of the firmware is 0001 it cause Windows to stutter. You just need to upgrade it to0002 and that will sort it. very simple and easy fix.

Hope this helps.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/576859-some-crucial-m4-128gb-results.html#post7736454

 

Certainly does help - however, and not meaning to belittle your kit, but I'd thought booting into windows from an SSD would be considerably quicker than 21 seconds? Reason I say that is my desktop PC with it's 6 year old CPU, 55gb IDE hard drive and 2gb RAM boots up into Windows 7 in 28 seconds.

I'd have thought it would have been around the 15 second mark or faster?

Again, absolutely no disrespect intended and it's probably my expectations that are off, but that wasn't the performance boost I expected!

How about launching games/apps etc?

 

LOL i feel totally belittled now........

21 secs for me is when boot racer says its done. Thats usually 4 seconds after i have logged on. Like i say 15 secs to actually get to the login screen.

Though you are right, someone said its should boot in 12-14 secs but i havent really optimized the drive as much as others. And im a newb at this.

It is a snappy dirve. All programmes running off the SSD are snappy as hell. Although thats v little as im only using it for windows and avoiding installing as much as poss on it.

 

haha sorry, I genuinely meant no insult - I actually think the reason it's so fast is the HDD is so small I can only fit windows 7, WoW and vent on there! I have maybe 8gb free and most of that is page file!

genuinely meant no offence! I'm the most newb of all

 

LOL none taken at all, i post these time so i can gauge if there good or bad so your input is great.

Compared to my Stock HDD its super fast so im fairly pleased. It was something like 45sec to a min on the stock HDD thats now down to 21secs.

 

Been using Intels 510 series SSD with zero issues.

 

I have the crucial m4 and I am extremely satisfied with it. I can actually tolerate waiting for itunes to load now haha. I get like 413k read speeds too which is phenomenal.

 

I get like 17 seconds with my Crucial M3. I'm shocked you got 28 seconds on an oldschool drive...was your Windows heavily optimized?

 

Not optimised, just absolutely nothing on it but a fresh install and WoW, oh and chrome. I'll try and get a video.

And re-time it, now you have me doubting myself

 

Check here: Second-Gen SandForce: Seven 120 GB SSDs Rounded Up : A Lot More SandForce. Covers and compares most of the current SSD's, not just the SandForce models.

 

OK I'm a complete . It wasn't 28 seconds. It was 1.28 but while doodling I appear to have turned the 1 into a giant horde symbol from WoW, I only figured it out when I saw the decimal place.

I might change my username now out of shame

 

1.28 seconds......wow that is crazy