Questions concerning SSDs and RAM

Hi, I've been reading this forum for quite some time now but never actually took the time to register and post anything. I'm glad to have taken that time, this forum is extremely useful! Here's a little background before my questions:

I love playing games. Owning an Alienware was my dream since junior high school. I am graduating high school soon and was lucky enough to be given an opportunity to own one myself. So I ordered an M17x R4 in black (wanted silver so bad D last week with everything stock besides the display. (thought about upgrading the CPU one level but didn't see a drastic performance increase) Besides that I ordered these:

* Kingston HyperX Plug n Play 8 GB Kit (2x4GB Modules) 1600MHz DDR3 (Amazon)
* Kingston HyperX 3K 120 GB SATA III (Amazon)
* Astro Scout Backpack (Astro Gaming)

The games I play aren't demanding enough for me to require a better graphics card or processor. Heroes of Newerth is like the only game I play with occasional FPS. Anyways, here are my questions:

1. Why do people order upgraded SSDs/RAM off the Alienware website itself when it is clearly overpriced and better to install your own? I see many people even on this forum doing this. Could I be mistaken?

2. Is it ok to swap out the stock RAM with my RAM upon receiving the laptop? In other words, should I use the laptop a while first?


Sorry about the unnecessary information, I'm just too anxious to receive the laptop haha Thanks for your answers!

 

Not sure about (2), though I intend to do that, if I voided the warranty in doing so I could afford the consequences... not sure if that's true of everyone, but it's my circumstances. Perhaps someone better suited to answer could help.

As to your first question, I think it's a combination of things. I wanted the mSATA drive, because it's a value add in my opinion since then I don't need to re-install the OS. The default combination for RAM is 6GB, which is incredibly annoying as it's 2+4.... I think some people buy the 8GB just to avoid having to upgrade the RAM immediately.

Of course, that was my philosophy, then I went and bought two 8GB sticks... so apparently I wasted $75 for no reason. Ah well.

 

If you're concerned over voiding your warranty by upgrading the SSD and RAM yourself, as long as the system isn't damaged as a result of your performing the upgrade, you're all good.

 

I'm pretty sure your loosing a considerable amount of performance using the mSATA vs your full blown SSD drives. Some thing tells me they Alienware isnt including the top of the line mSATA speed demon drives.

I am curious as to which drives they are selling. please post up some benches once you get yours.

 

its not the mSATA drive that's the problem, its more of the fact that the mSATA slot is limited to SATA II.

 

I'm not talking about just brute max transfer speed. I'm talking about response times over various read and write sizes and IOPS. the things that actually matter when gaming.