I was curious if the M17X R4 is SATA III compatible? I'm looking at two different documents that contradict each other.
This states that the HDD are only SATA II and the MSATA is SATA III:
Which are the main differences between the Alienware M17x R3 and the M17x R4 platforms? | Dell
This states the HDD are SATA III:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/Alw_M17xR4/en/specs/specs_en.swf
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DirtyTrickster Notebook Evangelist
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That's because HDD's aren't quick enough to hit SATA III anyways. I'm sure that the R4 has all SATA III.
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DirtyTrickster Notebook Evangelist
I meant the physical bays, I guess I should have omitted the HDD reference.
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HDD 0 and 1 are both SATA III, the MSATA is SATAII. But you can only use SATA II slot with an MSATA drive and the SATA III .drives with SSD's if you want to utilize the increased throughput. From what I understand.
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The Revelator Notebook Prophet
Yes, main drive bays are SATA III compatible. That first document, purporting to show the differences between the R3 and R4, is often misleading, incomplete or incorrect. Hard to believe that document made it through whatever editing and quality control process applies.
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DirtyTrickster Notebook Evangelist
Thanks -
Just thought I'd chip in - yes the two drive bays are SATA III, but the mSATA slot is advertised SATA III by Dell, but whoever seems to have tried it says its running at SATA II. Doesn't make much of a difference really but still... maybe a BIOS update will rectify that? Idk. HP for example disabled SATA III support from their f.22 BIOS onwards, which is why I flashed back to f.20. Oh the stupid things they do...
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i can verify:
normal 2 bays SATA3
MSATA = SATA2.
im running a crucial m4 msata unit and runs on sata2...
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...3-r4-owners-lounge-thread-10.html#post8553643
see there my screenshots of intel rst showing that msata runs 3GB/s -
DirtyTrickster Notebook Evangelist
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you will get max write speed with triple m4's and read will stop at around 800 mb/s
M17x R4 Sata Iii
Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by DirtyTrickster, Jun 7, 2012.