Some Questions (Headset / SSD Upgrades)

Evening All,

Wondering if you can help with some questions about some potential upgrades I am looking at doing; I currently have a M17x R3 with the following Spec

i7 2720
8GB DDR3
2x320GB RAID HDD (no SSD option at the time )
2GB Radeon 6970

Now what I am looking to do is upgrade the current HDD to an SSD and larger storage, thinking something like a 128GB SSD and 500GB 7200 SATA drive - assume its as easy as getting the 2.5" drives removing the old ones and reloading the image of the setup? Is there any other considerations to take, or any BIOS settings to be aware of, I understand there is an issue with the OCZ drives?

Finally - I also want some ROCCAT 5.1 Headphones which utilise 4 jacks, 3 for sound (front, rear, centre/sub) and one for the mic... the inputs on the laptop only have 2 for headphones and 1 for mic though... can the s/pdif be used for an 2.5mm jack input also? if so which ones are front/rear/centre etc??

Thanks guys!

 

Dont think it is as easy as just loading th image back onto a new SSD. You'll have to do a fresh install, which in itself is easy too.

Something about loading the system image on a small hard drive doesnt work.

 

No worries man, i've been formatting and installing for years - just spotted a nice guide on hear to which has all the info on the Alienware software to - so again that's not an issue to me.

Any idea on the headset question?

Thanks,

 

Can anyone confirm the Headset question?

 

Can't advise on the Headset but with the SSD I'd make sure you have it in bay1 (middle of the laptop) instead of bay0 as this will reduce the chances of BSOD issues.

 

@ SSD: Make sure that the SSD is in Port 1 and that you set SATA to AHCI just before installing win 7 to the SSD. The alienware sets this to RAID (doesnt matter if you have 1 or 2 HDDs / SSDs). Install every driver EXCEPT for the Intel RST and you are good to go (made this yesterday myself, 120GB SSD + 750GB HDD)

@ Headset: Grab one with a digital 5.1 cable (dont know how its called exactly), like this:



I've the Tritton AX Pro, and I can go from the digital receiver of the headset to my alienware with this cable (theres an adapter in your alienwarepackage from 3.5m to the digital cable). Its easier than a multi-cable solution

(for using the mic the AX Pro uses USB)

 

I had some Turtle Beach working via the optical output - but Mic wouldnt work; the Tritton AX might be a little outside of my budget but will see what i can do! Seems the Optical out can accept a analogue 2.5mm connection though...

With the SSD question - why not the Intel RST one?