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    Changing optical drive for a hard drive

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by matthab, Nov 19, 2012.

  1. matthab

    matthab Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hi

    I've got a m17x r4 on order which will be here beginning of December.

    I've got it coming with a 500gb hd. I I'm putting a ssd in the 2nd bay. I want to change the optical drive for a 3rd hard drive. Is this possible?

    Also what bay converter would you use?

    Matt

    Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2
     
    matthab, Nov 19, 2012
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  2. ratchetnclank

    ratchetnclank Notebook Deity

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    ratchetnclank, Nov 19, 2012
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  3. matthab

    matthab Notebook Enthusiast

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    Is the ODD bay Sata2 or 3?
     
    matthab, Nov 19, 2012
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  4. DDDenniZZZ

    DDDenniZZZ Notebook Deity

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    SATA II, the 2 main HDD bays are SATA III.
     
    DDDenniZZZ, Nov 19, 2012
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  5. Alienware-L_Porras

    Alienware-L_Porras Company Representative

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    It is SATA II, if you are planning to put a regular HDD there you should be fine.
     
    Alienware-L_Porras, Nov 21, 2012
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  6. matthab

    matthab Notebook Enthusiast

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    Yeh I was going to put a 500gb caviar black in and put a ssd in to the hdd bays.

    Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2
     
    matthab, Nov 21, 2012
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  7. radji

    radji Farewell, Solenya...

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    The way I did mine was I put the SSD in HDD bay 0, then one of my WD Scorpio Blacks in HDD Bay 1, and the other in the ODD Hard Drive Caddy. If you do it the same way, your SSD will run at SATA III and your HDD's at SATA II. I went RAID 0 with my two HDDs to give 'em all a bit of a speed boost. The ODD's SATA port will only ever run SATA II speeds max since there's no optical drive that can currently run at SATA III speeds. But if your only running standard hard drives on the ODD bay, then SATA II is sufficient for them since no normal hard drive will ever make SATA III speeds on its own. Only those hybrid hard drives in RAID 0 will ever have a chance to make SATA III speeds. Here is the ODD hard drive caddy I got for my m17x. I know the title description says its for an m15x, but it is also meant for the m17x: 2nd HDD or SSD Caddy for Alienware M15x (replaces optical drive) [OBHD-SATA12-SATA-NF] - $43.00 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks
     
    radji, Nov 21, 2012
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