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    SSD and memory upgrades

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by AW91, Sep 26, 2012.

  1. AW91

    AW91 Newbie

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    I want to upgrade my memory to 16GB in my alienware m17xR4 which has a 3720qm. I was thinking about this:

    Amazon.com: CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 1600MHz PC3 12800 Laptop Memory(CMSX8GX3M2A1600C9): Computers & Accessories

    Also, I want to replace my HDD with two SSD in Raid0. I was thinking about this:

    OCZ Vertex 4 Series - Solid state drive - 256 GB - internal - 2.5-inch - SATA-600 : Storage, Drives & Media | Dell

    Please note that I have a dell gift card so I only want ssds from the dell website. So please recommend one from that I can buy from them if the vertex isnt the greatest.

    Many Thanks
     
  2. jaeyang9

    jaeyang9 Notebook Consultant

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    i have 8gb in both my old desktop and m11x R2... never came close to using 75% of all those 8gb... even 8gb was overkill

    what's the point of having all those extra gigs of ram sitting there doing nothing...?

    so i never bothered upgrading the default 6gb in my m17x R4... no issues whatsoever even when running numerous memory hogging games and apps.

    just use the money you were going to upgrade the ram with and get a better ssd. i'd recommend samsung. they've been in the hard drive business for a long time and are very reliable in my opinion.
     
  3. shinji257

    shinji257 Notebook Deity

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    I got an OCZ Vertex 4 (actually the same you are looking at) but I only got 1.

    Here are the benches I got. Note that there is no raid happening here. YMMV.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------
    CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
    Crystal Dew World : Crystal Dew World
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------
    * MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

    Sequential Read : 419.486 MB/s
    Sequential Write : 477.494 MB/s
    Random Read 512KB : 346.910 MB/s
    Random Write 512KB : 461.506 MB/s
    Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 26.629 MB/s [ 6501.2 IOPS]
    Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 67.149 MB/s [ 16393.9 IOPS]
    Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 345.241 MB/s [ 84287.4 IOPS]
    Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 324.290 MB/s [ 79172.5 IOPS]

    Test : 1000 MB [C: 22.3% (53.2/238.4 GB)] (x5)
    Date : 2012/09/26 9:49:52
    OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)

    P.S. - I have 22GB ram in the system. I had to upgrade to Ultimate Edition in order to support that amount of ram otherwise the system will cap off at 16GB. I do have a specific need for it though so unless you do I wouldn't suggest going higher than 16GB. This will also save you from having to gain access to the slots under the keyboard.
     
  4. Alienware-L_Porras

    Alienware-L_Porras Company Representative

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    I would use only 8GB, I think that anything above that is just too much. The SSD is a very good option though. :) :cool:
     
  5. paradigm

    paradigm Notebook Deity

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    I think i should quote you Porras to dell-aw australia, these guys have these weird configs with 32gigs, but yet cant let us option the package to make it cheaper....
     
  6. shoe3k

    shoe3k Notebook Consultant

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    I left my config at 6gb and ordered 8GB Corsair Vengeance. The dell upgrades are so expensive, and the average user thinks more memory always equates to a faster system. I saved a lot by ordering my Corsair Vengeance from Newegg. There is a diminishing return as you increase memory size because the O/S does not need excess memory. With memory, you want the fastest speed, low latencies, and a command rates of 1T once you hit a recommended size.

    Again, anything over 8GB is truly overkill unless you are running VMware virtualized environments that need dedicated physical resources, which includes cpu, memory, and disk space.