Problems ordering 2'nd drive

I am helping a friend order an M17x R2 with a primary SSD 256 drive and a second HDD drive of 500Gb. According to the sales rep this can't be done. (huh...I know don't believe sales reps). His explanation is that the system only has "1" hard drive controler and that it can only be configured as Raid 0 or Raid 1 if you want a second drive. I told him he was full of it as many people online have added second drive and the manual says you can on page 40 although the manual doesn't mention anything about Raid 0 or 1 vs two drives? Can anyone confirm that my rep is wrong and that you can have drive C: and a secondary drive B:

Also considering ordering just the 256 SSD and adding the HDD myself but not sure if the systems are shipped with the spare hard drive bracket, screws, and interposer?


Thanks

 

the rep is correct. as i understand it from previous orders and other dell systems, you cannot 'customize' the multiple HDD options. He will have to do it himself when the system arrives.

the options on the order page are what you get - I dont believe they can change it.

 

if the laptop is received without the second hard drive bracket and interposer, just call dell and let them know and they will send the parts free of charge. But, they will not send enough hard drive screws (at least they didn't for me). You can get the screws here 100 LAPTOP SCREWS IBM HP SONY DELL GATEWAY COMPAQ - eBay (item 390036344472 end time Sep-01-10 08:09:28 PDT)
These are good to have on hand anyway

 

Thanks for the feedback. Dell shocks me yet again! I put pressure on the sales rep to sort it out so will be interesting to see if he can bend the rules. I think Dell needs to spend less time customizing avatars and wall paper and more time customizing hardware. Thanks again for your help.

 

Sales rep has come back and said his hands are tied and he can only order 2'nd drive as a part and we will have to install ourselves. yada, yada, yada. Now we are quibiling about the interposer as we don't want to have to chase them for months if the part is out of stock like so many other parts are.

I think their Raid 0 option is really stupid on two accounts. It creates more heat and more problems for an already taxed PSU when used with HDD. Have also read there are some concerns with SSD, Trim and Raid 0. SSD in raid 0 may have a shorter life. In theory Raid 0 works great on a desktop with HDD which has more ventilation and larger PSU but questionable on this rig especially with SSD. Adding an additional piece of hardware cooking your M17x at 70C would cleary be a drag on Raid 0 performance.

Why offer Raid 1 on a gaming machine? I think cleary the answer is that they want to sell extra drives but want to discourage business from purchasing these things over complexity of 2'nd drive and cleary pitiful polling rates on mouse. I can't think of any other constructive reason why you can order Raid 1 but not a straight 2'nd driver. Most of these parts are the same ones used on the business laptops, they just they charge more to business customers.

 

It comes down to what Dell are willing to do at the factory. You used to be able to order different primary and secondary hard drives through the Dell US site, but that option looks to have been removed.

Your choices now are to either (a) get a matched pair of drives, or (b) get a single drive (not always available). If you think about it, it makes things easier for the assembler. Any drives you have will be identical, so you don't have to worry about putting the drives in the machine in the wrong order (spindle drive in HDD0, SSD in HDD1). And if there are multiple drives, you're getting some variant of RAID.

Given that Dell's prices for SSD drives (which are only fairly average) are quite high, you're better off getting only a single drive and buying the SSD separately. If you have no choice but to get a pair of drives, one can be put into an external USB case and used for backups.

With regards to RAID-1 on the M17x, it's for data safety. Not everyone who buys one of these does so purely for gaming. I'm going to be doing some dev on mine when it arrives, and will also have a number of personal files on there. There are many others out there who are similar. Having RAID-1 as an option means that you don't need to worry as much about having external backups. If you have a drive die, you lose nothing. The only time you'll need an external backup is if the laptop is stolen, or if both drives die at the same time.