Suggested RAM & SSD models for M17xR3?

Officially awaiting delivery of an i7 2820 2D w/ AMD GPU, but I'm not paying Dell for their upgrade offerings on RAM, etc. However, I'm a little less knowledgeable than I need regarding RAM and SSD choices for this sweet, sweet machine.

I'm planning on getting 16 GB and a 120GB+ solid state drive to round out this sweet, sweet machine immediately upon arrival.

Few questions:

What's the suggested make/model of SODIMMS that work best from the group's personal experience? Is PC1600 DDR3 compatible in this machine or is PC1333 DDR3 the max supported? Is it 'worth' it? Since I'm tearing out all the ram that comes in it I've got a chance to change it's speed / timings, but I'm really not in-the-know anymore on the best ones to get.

Similarly, how are Kingston SSDs? Are these pretty good and/or is there a suggested candidate for another SSD that doesn't break the bank? It'll be paired with the 750GB 7200 RPM drive coming with the machine btw, so any suggestions on how to set power management and/or swap file specifications are greatly appreciated, this is my first foray into SSDs... and Alienware for that matter.

 

Because this is a 17" laptop, you'll only need an SSD big enough to keep all of your commonly used programs on; you can use the HDD that it ships with for data storage. A lot of people find ~60gb large enough for their needs. Some need upwards of 200gb. How much space will you need?

I'm a big fan of OCZ when it comes to SSD. Their Vertex 2 series are great. Corsair offers typically lower price with fantastic customer support. G.Skill is gaining momentum and priced competitively.

Here are a few SSD picks that I think are relatively well priced:
Corsair Nova Series (64GB)- $130.00 USD
OCZ Vertex II (80GB) - $170.00 USD
Corsair Force Series (120GB) - $175 after mail in rebate

As for RAM, the only product I've come across that really stands out in the crowd (in terms of performance) is HyperX 1333mhz CAS7 and HyperX 1600mhz (which Mandrake is able to run at CAS7, too). These are roughly 1.75x the price of similar capacity dimms from other companies.

edit: to answer ram question - your CPU natively supports up to 1600mhz ram, but latency also plays a role in performance (lower is better).

 

Does RAM speeds effect overclocking these days at all? im not being sarcastic, honestly dont know the right answer although i have a sneaking suspicion it's no because since the i7 series you could downclock your ram using the multiplier so i could have the CPU overclocked to 4ghz but still have the RAM running at 1333 or lower.

 

Intel G3's are due in Feb.

Kingston, that Mandrake used, seems to be good ram for the R3.

 

Im in exactly the same boat. Waiting for a Nebula Red R3 and want to upgrade RAM and SSD.

As far as I have researched, it is pretty easy to choose RAM. You have 2820QM so dont worry, 1600 will work natively. I have 2630QM and with that processor basically I can just use up to 2 slots for 1600 MHz and up to 4 slots for 1333Mhz. That means if you want 16GB RAM, it can be 4x4 1333 or 2x4 1600 and 2x4 1333. I dont think there will be much noticeable difference though.

SSD is another whole story. First you must decide whether you want SATA III (6GBs) or SATA II. I believe R3's motherboard does support SATA III. Im just not sure though

- For SATA II: the choices are OCZ Vertex 2 120GB, Intel X25M 120GB at almost the same price (I believe OCZ is the winner here)

- For SATA III: right now there is only Crucial C300 RealSSD which supports SATA III. It should also be the BEST SSD as you can find at the moment. Corsair has also JUST announced their performance 3 series, which is now AVAILABLE on Newegg for $319. The specs look much better than C300, but you just cant find any review yet.

If you can wait for a bit, maybe 1-2 months, Intel and Crurial will be releasing their 510 SSD series and C400 respectively, which clearly would give you more choices. However, like me, if you dont wanna wait for a while until the new products are released, and then a while until some reviews are confirmed, then just go ahead and decide between Crucial C300 and Corsair Performance 3.

 

In a couple weeks the crucial c400 will be out. It will be made on the 25nm process and prices are very nice especially for the incredible high performance it offers. It connects on SATA III and gets 450MB/sec reads and 275MB/sec writes. So this drive will actually take advantage of the SATA III interface (300MB/sec is the theoretical maximum of SATA II but it usually maxes out at about 260-270MB/sec so this drive will make good use of SATA III)

 

I agree completely on the last two SSD endorsements.
Intel SSDs, from what I've been reading, have slow writes compared to other drives.

And, yeah, a few weeks ought to see some of the real blazing SSDs that were trotted out at CES. The C400 is one, the new Corsair SATA III is another. There will be more, before too long.

Anyone else notice that the SSD prices on the current crop on New Egg have been cut by $100 or more for the big drives (240-250GB)?

 

Don't forget the Vertex 3 should be coming relatively soon and as usual OCZ SSD will be awesome.

There is a newegg promo code for an SSD on this site but I think it expires today.

Also, the Kingston RAM is really great though I did have some issues with mine and I had to return it but I guess it can happen with any RAM.

 

I am leaning toward the new Corsair Performance 3 128GB just because it is the first new gen of SSD in 2011 and the only available right now. I have no idea how reliable Corsair's SSDs are, but I noticed they have switched from SF-1200 controller (used in Force serie) to the latest Marvell 9174 controller, and at a super premium price of $319. Intel claimed they would sell the new 510 Gen 120GB SSD for only $210, and SandForce also promised customers would have a better $/GB value with SF-2000 (which would be used on OCZ Vertex 3)
I really have no idea what Corsair is doing with their new line of SSD.

 

Well it is evident that at some point in time a 1 tera byte SSD will only cost about $400.00 and compete with normal HDD but don't expect the $ per Gb to go down too fast...

 

I'm done with Sandforce, not sure which model it was but the Corsair Reactor series and everything else available at that time had HORRIBLE issues. This is probably why they switched away from SF.

I had to restart my computers sometimes 5 or 6 times to get the SSD to show back up in the machine.

 

A summary for those who have no idea what's going on, since I dont want to open a new threat regarding this super HOT topic QUOTED FROM Cloudfire

--------------------------------
Intel 510 Series SSD
Intel controller/firmware
34nm MLC
120GB for $280, 250GB for $580
450MB/s read, 300MB/s write
20K IOPS at 4K read, 4K IOPS at 4K write
Coming in February
New 34nm SSD have 450/300MB/s R/W

OCZ Vertex 3 Pro
Sandforce SF-2000 controller/firmware with OCZ tweaks
50GB to 400GB capacities
550MB/s read, 525MB/s write
75K IOPS at 4K write
Coming first half 2011
OCZ'z Vertex Pro 3 Demo: World's First SandForce SF-2000 - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

Crucial C400
Marvell controller with Micron firmware
128GB $210, 256GB $425, 512GB $825
415MB/s read, 260MB/s write for 256GB and 512GB
415MB/s read, 175MB/s write for 128GB
40K IOPS 4K read
Micron's RealSSD C400 uses 25nm NAND at $1.61/GB, Offers 415MB/s Reads - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

Corsair P3
Marvell controller
480MB/s read, 320MB/s write for 256GB model
410MB/s read, 210MB/s write for 128GB model
365MB/s read, 110MB/s write for 64GB model
Late January 2011
CES 2011: Corsair Performance Series 3 SSD Benchmarks - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News
Performance 3 Series - Solid-State Drives

 

I think the price cuts I'm seeing on the current (2010) SSDs are there to clear stock as the new drives (2011) start coming out of manufacturing.

The Universal Truth in computer hardware is that last years stuff is cheap, if you can stand not to have the latest-greatest. And, the latest-greatest will be really expensive for a few months after release. *shrug* Been like that for as long as I've messed with it all.

 

Everything I've been reading says the new Sandforce controllers are *the* one to have. From the numbers posted above, that looks to be true. (I know the Crucial drives use a proprietary controller.)

 

I am not sure about Reactor series, was it a long time ago? Right now I can only see Force (which is as fast as Vertex 2 and there are many good reviews about it) and Nova series as of 2010 and the new Performance 3 Series as of 2011.

And, it's interesting that Corsair use 3 different controllers for those 3 series.

 

As I know, Crucial C300 uses Marvell 9174 controller. SF's controller as advantage over Marvell since they have something to do with compressing data that helps increasing speed. However, it maybe their weakness too because if the data has already been compressed, that process would actually slower the speed.

 

You are right. But my point is that while the Intel, SF and Micron promised to lower the $/GB value, Corsair's $/GB actually increased, speaking of right now.

 

the 500~MB R/W speeds are excellent but the SF hardware/firmware has always been junk. If they actually have no issues this time around, great. I would love that transfer speed

 

the question should be: is the R3 SATA III compatible. Read page 110 of the owner's manual and you will see that it is not all that clear that the R3 does.
This was discussed in a similar thread a couple of days ago

 

It is very clear...People are overthinking what was put there. It supports sata 3 drives. The manual IS clear if you aren't overthinking what was actually put there.

 

Concerning the SSD question, please see this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...ssd-thread-benchmarks-brands-news-advice.html

For those of you on a budget, you may want to review this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...e-momentus-xt-hybrid-hdd-w-built-4gb-ssd.html


Probably the best place to ask about suggested models.

For RAM, please see this area of NBR -
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hardware-components-aftermarket-upgrades/

Thanks.

 

If you want to take advantage of the XMP setting in the bios you will need to buy XMP memory. If you don't care then just look for the lowest CAS#.

 

Are you seeing things that I am not?This is a copy paste from the manual
Interface SATA 2.0 (3Gb/s) OR SATA 3.0 (6Gb/s).

 

I hope this is not off topic... but isn't SATA III suppose to be 6gb/s.

Why do all the SSD only have only around 250MB/s?

 

Well, today only Crucial offers a SATA 3 (6Gb/s) drive. OCZ has the Vertex 3 coming but it's not out yet. So until you can have compatible hardware there is not much that can be done. It's just more future proof.