The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    "Interposer" for SATA III SSD on M17xR4

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by zarkov2k, Jul 31, 2012.

  1. zarkov2k

    zarkov2k Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    4
    Messages:
    48
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    16
    Hi,
    I just ordered a M17xR4 with a single 1TB HDD (instead of the 2x500GB RAID 0 they were offering me). This is becuase I have a OCZ Vertex III 120GB SSD lying with me and want to use that as the primary boot drive when the machine arrives.

    Looking through the service manual of the M17X R4 that I downloaded from the Dell support site, I see that the hard disks need an "Interposer" to work.

    The question is: will the machine come with a spare interposer (since I have ordered only 1 drive and the other drive bay would be free), or do I need to obtain this elsewhere? Where would I get this?

    A related query is: I've read about some major reconfig required to run the Vertex III on the M17xR3 with BIOS updates, Registry entries etc. Do I need to do all of this on the R4 as well or will a clean install of Windows (probably 8) do it?

    Thanks
     
    zarkov2k, Jul 31, 2012
    #1
  2. aznpos531

    aznpos531 Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    457
    Messages:
    636
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    31
    The laptop should come with the interposer. There will a pot metal frame screwed into the unused HDD bay with the interposer.
    If there isn't one, contact Dell and they'll send you one.
     
    aznpos531, Jul 31, 2012
    #2
  3. SkylineLvr

    SkylineLvr Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    446
    Messages:
    896
    Likes Received:
    203
    Trophy Points:
    56
    All that's needed with the R3 is a modded BIOS. Never heard of needing to edit any registry entries. Seeing as you have an R4, it will just be plug and play. As aznpos531 said, your spare bay should have all you need in it.
     
    SkylineLvr, Jul 31, 2012
    #3
  4. zarkov2k

    zarkov2k Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    4
    Messages:
    48
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    16
    Thanks guys. That clears it up lots! :) Now just waiting for the machine to reach...
     
    zarkov2k, Jul 31, 2012
    #4