M18x R2 Drive Configuration & Troubleshooting - Ask your questions here

To avoid problems with cable HD when I install an SSD on my new system can do this without removing the cable from the motherboard?

 

Yes - if all you are doing is changing the hard drives, you do not need to disconnect the Sata ribbon cable from the motherboard port at all. All you need to do is separate the drive caddy from the Sata interposer (the caddy simply pulls away from the interface) and then you can mount whatever drives you want to use in the caddy and re-attach it to the interposer and place it back in the bay, screw the caddy down and that's it. Simples.

 

What about heat? It runs fairly warm with just two and I'm not looking to damage any components so would running 3 7200rpm drives be unwise?

 

Well, I imagine that specifications are there for a reason. Dell advise against it, saying x3 7mm drives but other members here run x3 9.5mm without issue. Could it damage your drives? - possibly. Would it affect you? - you won't know until you've tried it. Is it likely? - probably not.

What you WILL notice is that the left side of the palmrest will most certainly be warmer than it would be sticking to Dell's spec. Three mechanical drives with little to no breathing room equates to more heat. More heat = more possibility of drive failure, especially with traditional HDD's.

At the end of the day, it's a user-discretionary thing. You aren't gonna kill your machine, your drives might flake out a bit earlier but at the price point of HDD's, would you be bothered?

 

I definiteily agree with Stevie , it would not kill your machine but most definitely it would shorten the lifespan of your hard drives (atleast i think it would , a little) with the extra heat produced , but dont look like it`ll hurt anything else in the system!!

 

Hello, I have a couple of questions.
Currently, I have a 256GB SSD for OS and programs and 2x1TB Raid0 for all the games, music, etc.
I'm thinking about adding an mSata drive for caching.
Since the OS is already on a SATA III SSD I'll leave it as it is.
Can I cache a RAID0 setup with the mSata drive?
I think I read somewhere that caching is some type of raid or something like that.
Will there be any noticeable benefit (such as faster loading time in games)?
And finally, what would be the recommended size for the mSata drive? (only for caching the 2TB RAID0 HDDs)
240GB Mushkin drives seem popular but I think at that price, I'd rather just set up RAID0 with another SSD.
Thank you.

 

Yep, you can cache the 1tb HDD raid array with an mSata drive - as for size, I don't think you NEED one that big. I Imagine that even ~120gb is more than adequate to act as a caching drive to speed up your array. Given that on the Dell website, they use a 32gb mSata to cache a single 750gb HDD, I reckon you would be fine with even a 64gb mSata. It will speed up the performance of your HDD array to almost SSD speed - you will certainly benefit in loading things faster from the HDD, which would include games too.

 

Thank you! Helpful as always.
I think I'm pretty set on 64GB then.
I will consider 120GB if the price difference is not too much.
Is it true that Intel RST limits max cache SSD size to 64GB?

 

Open the Intel Rapid Storage Technology application and go to the "Help" feature. Look under "Accelerating the Storage System" for details. There is more information there, but here is the first part of what you'll find:

The caching feature may not work correctly with an SSD as the drive being cached. However, you can include the mSATA in a SSD RAID0 membership. I have two RAID0 SSD volumes in my system. Doing this for your main OS will drop the operating speed of the SSD membership to SATA2 3.0GB/s. It will still be very fast, but half the speed you would realize using the two SATA3 6.0GB/s ports. It should be similar to one running SSD @ SATA3 speed.

Here's my current configuration:

• RAID0 Volume_0: Windows 7 - 480GB Volume - OCZ Agility 3 240GB SSD (2) on Ports 0 and 1 (outside slots in drive caddy) operating at SATA3 6.0GB/s
• RAID0 Volume_1: Windows 8 - 240GB Volume - Crucial M4 128GB SSD on Port 3 (center slot) and Muskin Atlas 120GB mSATA SSD on Port 5 operating at SATA2 3.0GB/s
• Hard Disk Volume: Data Drive - 1TB Seagate Momentus LP on Port 2 (drive caddy in optical drive bay) operating at SATA2 3.0GB/s
• Optical Disk Drive: External enclosure on eSATAp Port 4 operating at SATA2 3.0GB/s (only connect when needed, which is very infrequent)

By placing the M4 and Atlas in a RAID0 membership, there is a loss of 8GB drive space on the M4 and the transfer rates are capped at the capacity of the slower drive. The benchmark tests I ran on the M4 and Atlas independently showed they were very similar so the only real loss was 8GB of drive space (negligible) and the increased transfer speed of having them in RAID0 was dramatic (see below).

 

Thanks.
That clears up all my questions.

 

After few months with stripped Transcend SSD 720 i decided to try out Samsung 840 PRO (switched brands for the warranty 60 months instead of transcends 24). While i had single Samsung all was in order. Since last week when i bought second drive and used Stripped set on them i noticed few glitches:

1. Twice after waking the notebook from sleep time (possibly from longer hybernation not just sleep) the system stoped responding (i have user app data etc moved to mechanical drive; Win7 is on mSata drive)

2. One time i tried runing AS SSD test after waking the notebook and the numbers were about half of what was expected. It took reboot to get them back

3. One time my google chrome simply disapeared - "Shortcut missing". After reboot it was back where it was supposed to be. (Its moved with mklink from program files x86 to the stripped set)

Today i changed actions on closing lid and power off button from sleep to full shut down. I will post here after few days if the issues were only "waking up related".

PS: Is there a way to combine two drives into one big partition other than raid 0?

 

Some people have had problems with the 840 Pro's and some haven't. I'd maybe try running chkdsk from an elevated command prompt to see if it throws back any errors on the drives. As for having "one big partition" combining drives, Raid 0 is the only way to do that on the M18x because running Raid 1 just mirrors the drives. Any other type of Raid membership requires at lest three drives to be part of that array.

 

Seems it was just bad luck.. Today i used sleep mode for the last time. When i woke the notebook up, the newer Samsung did not respond and raid was at failed status. I have put it into my desktop and also there it was not responding. I have to send it back for warranty replacement.

 

Hi everyone, lately Iv been having a problem with my M18x R1 and I am getting really irritated and tired.

A couple of weeks ago, my m18x started to, "reboot", I am particulary not even sure, I have tried replicating the issue when I am in front of the thing, but it seems to happen only when I am not even watching.

Every 5 or so minutes I left my laptop alone, as, I go downstairs to eat something or whatever, and I get up, I always find my laptop with a black screen, stating something about failed to boot, no os found, and something about trying to get a mac adress/ip adress/ wanting to connect to the internet for something using the Atheros AR8151 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet component, everytime I look away, take a nap, don tpay attention to it, it happens.

Whenever I sit in front doing nothing, it never does it so I have no particular idea of what is causing it.

I re-installed the drivers from dell and it still does the same thing, anyone experienced this before?

 

I currently have 1 256 GB SSD running at 6 Gb/s and one 500 GB HDD running at 3 Gb/s. I have ordered 2 Seagate 1TB Solid State Hybrid Drive SATA 6Gbps 64MB Cache 2.5-Inch ST1000LM014 to replace the 500 GB. I want to keep the primary drive and OS on the SSD and RAID 0 the 2 other drives into one fast 2TB space. Will this be a problem in my M18XR2?

Edit: So I am short one SATA 3 spot, I am assuming the RAID 0 option is out, I will have to use them as separate partitions. I am open to suggestions here for an optimal configuration.

 

I'd just RAID 0 the 2 x 1TB with the SATA 2/3 mix. Unfortunately its not ideal as you'll be reduced to SATA 2 speeds for the raid array but you'll have more to gain from the SSD being in the SATA 3 port (assuming it is a SATA 3 SSD).

Im pretty sure, that a 2 x 72k HDD's in Raid 0 will peak around Sata 2 speeds anyway, so you won't be at too much of a loss.

The other option would be to leave your SATA 3 bay free for a future SSD raid with your existing one, then use the DVD/HDD caddy mod and make a pure SATA 2 raid 0 array.

 

yeah the SSD is not going anywhere it is SATA 3 but you dont see a benefit to running one 1TB @ 6Gb/s and the other at 3? It is not convenient but I could install less intense programs to it as well as fast storage.

 

Well my only point would be that 2 x HDD (72K's) in raid 0 at Sata 2 speeds will still be faster than the same drive non-raided at SATA 3.

In my view the choice would be whether or not you want to try and arrange things (CDROM caddy mod) so that you can keep that last SATA 3 free for something that is going to truly max out it out down the line.

 

These are 6Gb/s so I could have at least one that runs full tilt, I dont absolutely need the raid, but I want the most speed i can get even if its just the one drive. The caddy mod is worth considering though as the blue ray player is collecting dust.

 

My previous points were made because the max transfer rate of the ST1000LM014 is not going to exceed sata 2 bandwidth anyway, even in Raid 0. So even though the drive is Sata 3 (6gb), its not really going to benefit much if at all.
That's why I suggest thinking ahead a little and trying to leave the Sata 3 port free for another SDD that could truly benefit from Sata 3.

 

Yes that is what i was wondering about, the limitations of the hybrid drives even with 64GB of ssd cache would not reach the full potential. Ok thank you for clarifying that. I will RAID 0 the drives then and when I do get another SSD I will get the caddy replacement for the optical.

 

Would I see faster speeds if I made them RAID 1 or would the difference not warrant the loss of the entire TB?

 

That's very strange. What if you leave something running, like a game or a music album playing. Does it do it then? And, it never does it when you are using the system, only when it is idle?

Check in the Windows event logs and see if you can identify any error or warning messages relating to the date/time the problem occurs. You may find several of the same thing logged for the other times it has happen. If you find something, post the results here and maybe we can identify the issue.

 

It happens mostly when I leave myself loged on a game and I go "afk", but aside, I do have sometimes skype, a browser & my mp3 player(winamp) running.

I found the following errors in the event log.
Log Name: System
Source: volsnap
Date: 5/27/2013 11:00:56 AM
Event ID: 36
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: Nuwa
Description:
The shadow copies of volume C: were aborted because the shadow copy storage could not grow due to a user imposed limit.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="volsnap" />
<EventID Qualifiers="49158">36</EventID>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2013-05-27T16:00:56.492386900Z" />
<EventRecordID>35903</EventRecordID>
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>Nuwa</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data>\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy1</Data>
<Data>C:</Data>
<Binary>000000000200300000000000240006C0020000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000</Binary>
</EventData>
</Event>
The shadow copies of volume C: were aborted because the shadow copy storage could not grow due to a user imposed limit.


This is a Shutdown error, the most recent from it happening.
Log Name: System
Source: EventLog
Date: 5/27/2013 8:28:04 PM
Event ID: 6008
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: Nuwa
Description:
The previous system shutdown at 8:15:44 PM on ‎5/‎27/‎2013 was unexpected.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="EventLog" />
<EventID Qualifiers="32768">6008</EventID>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2013-05-28T01:28:04.000000000Z" />
<EventRecordID>36111</EventRecordID>
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>Nuwa</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data>8:15:44 PM</Data>
<Data>‎5/‎27/‎2013</Data>
<Data>
</Data>
<Data>
</Data>
<Data>15322</Data>
<Data>
</Data>
<Data>
</Data>
<Binary>DD07050001001B0014000F002C00E901DD07050002001C0001000F002C00E901600900003C000000010000006009000000000000B00400000100000000000000</Binary>
</EventData>
</Event>


This seems to do with the Atheros thing.

Log Name: System
Source: Service Control Manager
Date: 5/24/2013 10:25:07 AM
Event ID: 7034
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: Nuwa
Description:
The Intel(R) PROSet/Wireless Zero Configuration Service service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 1 time(s).
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Service Control Manager" Guid='{555908d1-a6d7-4695-8e1e-26931d2012f4}' EventSourceName="Service Control Manager" />
<EventID Qualifiers="49152">7034</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8080000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2013-05-24T15:25:07.861281600Z" />
<EventRecordID>35079</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution Processid='620' Threadid='724' />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>Nuwa</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data Name="param1">Intel(R) PROSet/Wireless Zero Configuration Service</Data>
<Data Name="param2">1</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

Another that showed up every of these shut downs.
Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power
Date: 5/27/2013 8:27:46 PM
Event ID: 41
Task Category: (63)
Level: Critical
Keywords: (2)
User: SYSTEM
Computer: Nuwa
Description:
The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power" Guid='{331C3B3A-2005-44C2-AC5E-77220C37D6B4}' />
<EventID>41</EventID>
<Version>2</Version>
<Level>1</Level>
<Task>63</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8000000000000002</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2013-05-28T01:27:46.958411300Z" />
<EventRecordID>36085</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution Processid='4' Threadid='8' />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>Nuwa</Computer>
<Security Userid='S-1-5-18' />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data Name="BugcheckCode">0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter1">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter2">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter3">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter4">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="SleepInProgress">false</Data>
<Data Name="PowerButtonTimestamp">0</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>




Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-WLAN-AutoConfig
Date: 5/27/2013 4:36:07 PM
Event ID: 10002
Task Category: None
Level: Warning
Keywords:
User: SYSTEM
Computer: Nuwa
Description:
WLAN Extensibility Module has stopped.

Module Path: C:\Windows\System32\IWMSSvc.dll

Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-WLAN-AutoConfig" Guid='{9580D7DD-0379-4658-9870-D5BE7D52D6DE}' />
<EventID>10002</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>3</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x4000000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2013-05-27T21:36:07.274519100Z" />
<EventRecordID>36060</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution Processid='1016' Threadid='3912' />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>Nuwa</Computer>
<Security Userid='S-1-5-18' />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data Name="ExtensibleModulePath">C:\Windows\System32\IWMSSvc.dll</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>



Log Name: Application
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Search
Date: 5/27/2013 4:01:00 PM
Event ID: 3036
Task Category: Gatherer
Level: Warning
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: Nuwa
Description:
The content source <csc://{S-1-5-21-2919821081-2315737551-2881487185-1001}/> cannot be accessed.

Context: Application, SystemIndex Catalog

Details:
(HRESULT : 0x80004005) (0x80004005)

Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Search" Guid='{CA4E628D-8567-4896-AB6B-835B221F373F}' EventSourceName="Windows Search Service" />
<EventID Qualifiers="32768">3036</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>3</Level>
<Task>3</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2013-05-27T21:01:00.000000000Z" />
<EventRecordID>9571</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution Processid='0' Threadid='0' />
<Channel>Application</Channel>
<Computer>Nuwa</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data Name="ExtraInfo">

Context: Application, SystemIndex Catalog

Details:
(HRESULT : 0x80004005) (0x80004005)
</Data>
<Data Name="URL">csc://{S-1-5-21-2919821081-2315737551-2881487185-1001}/</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

 

I did finally decide to purchase an SSD drive read all the information on this one forum here but am thinking I should of read it all first. I purchased the Samsung SSD 840 pro it was such a good buy I just ordered it while they had them. I only bought one though and am going to leave my 32GB mSATA caching SSD and the 1TB RAID 0 (2x 500GB) 7200RPM. Now after reading about all the problems with the 840 pro i'm wondering if I should just send the thing back! I have the m18 r2 with wins 7 pro. I was really excited about trying to do this now i'm a bit apprehensive after reading about all the issues. Don't get me wrong this thing boots up fast I guess I was just interested in seeing how much faster it could be I was just wondering if you would bother trying to install the 840 pro?

thanks,
Trish

 

Ok newbie question I know and I've read so much on it think I am more confused then ever. I'm going to install the SSD pro and leave the 32GB mSATA caching SSD and the 1TB RAID 0 (2x 500GB) 7200RPM drives, my question is should I use ACHI, right now I'm set in raid but if i'm reading correctly it will slow them down if I raid them? I will put the SSD on port 0. I really appreciate your help

 

You can't change it to ACHI because it's already running in raid.

 

I can when I do my fresh windows 7 install on my new ssd can't I?

 

Sure, but why would you want to do that? It would mean you are now limited to single drives only later on down the road....
Well..not exactly true, but it would take a little more work to convert to raid from this, but it can be done. Best to start with raid controller enabled from the beginning. Drives don't have to run raid to be on a raid controller.

 

It does however mean booting will be slower each time.

 

Well maybe I misunderstood what I read about this, the reason I was going to do it I thought if I left them in raid mode that it would drop my ssd drive speed. Booting would be slower with which setup Meaker? My laptop boots pretty fast right now but I've never had an ssd drive and really wanted to give it a shot.

 

Trish,

If I am understanding you correctly, you currently have a factory configuration of two 500gb HDD's in Raid0, which is cached my your mSata, right? - and what you want to do is to add a SSD for your boot/OS drive and leave the Raided HDD's cached by the mSata for data drives/storage, correct?

If so, you are already running in raid in the bios settings. Changing that to AHCI would mean that you could not set up or have a raid between any drives on the machine. Booting would be a tad slower under raid, and that's only because you see the option to enter the raid configuration menu upon boot (CTRL&I) - you'll currently see that when you boot now, as it lists the drives, gives you a few seconds to press CTRL&I if you wanted to access that menu. If you did change to AHCI, you would not have that upon boot, so it would shave a little bit off boot time.

I'm thinking that you leave the bios settings alone, put the SSD on port 0 (sata III) and have the two HDD's on ports 1 and 2. They will perform at sata II speeds, but the caching effect of the mSata will obviously mean that they feel a LOT faster, just like they should do now.

I think you've gotten (and very easily to do so) a little confused about what the Raid setting in bios actually does. It does allow for memberships to be created, it doesn't automatically mean that every drive in the machine will be part of that membership. Basically, YOU control which drives are raided or not via the CTRL&I menu. You obviously want your HDD's raided, but the SSD can be left out of any array quite easily and the OS installed to it. It will run exactly the same and will not suffer any performance loss, so don't worry

Hope that helps.

 

Steve,
Thank you so much for the explanation you were right I was getting so confused the more I read the more confused I seem to get. I don’t think it helped that I was reading in to the late hours of the night. You made it sound so simple and you were right on with what I was trying to do! Now if I can just get a day off to do it. Hopefully it will all go smoothly but if not you will hear from me again. I do appreciate all the help here on forum you guys are great.

Thanks again,
Trish

 

Any time, Trish - that's what we're here for and that's what makes this such a great community. If you have any other questions, just fire away, there will always be someone to respond. Glad I could help out a bit.

Good luck with it, I'm sure you will be just fine.

 

Will there be extra screws already attached onto the caddy if I want to add another SSD? I can't find the ones it came with my SSD, that's why I'm asking. I'm assuming the answer is no but just want to double check.

Update: Nevermind, I found it out myself. There is actually an empty tray that you can use the screws from it or there's an extra set of screws underside of the caddy as well. Very convenient.

 

So im running RAID 0 and windows setup 7 or 8 does not detect the raid. I even used the intel driver from dell. Help?

 

Use the driver from intel?

 

Hi having problem with my m18x r2 not able to detect hdd, I am using 256gb msata and also encountered the broken off flex cable latch, I used electrical tape to put the flex cable in place is that enough or should I configure anything in bios? it is already in RAID mode and I put my 500gb WD hdd in port1 (middle port). Disk management and bios did not see any drives other than my msata.

 

Your answer is most likely contained on the first page in the original post...

Also, trying to secure a flat ribbon cable that transmits voltage on multiple circuits with anything other than the way it was intended to be held in place, IS A BAD IDEA.

Will it work with electrical tape, sure... but if that ribbon cable moves a fraction of a millimeter you'll not only fry your MB, you'll start a fire, melting the ribbon cable, the motherboard SATA connector, and possibly cause a fire if it occurs and you're not able to pull the plug and battery quick enough (a couple of seconds at most). It's akin to taping your power and ground cables to a car battery instead of securing them with bolts or terminal clamps.

While the broken tab is not "serviceable", as to truly fix it requires a MB replacement, you can use a lighted magnifier lamp to magnify the SATA port enough where either the plastic clamp could be put back in place with a minute amount of a catalyst (a drop the size of a pin head [CA glue for instance]) which would cause the tab to melt enough in the hinge area to still function.

Electrical tape, like all tape, is a plastic/vinyl backing covered in a specific type of glue [adhesive]... and what does electrical tape do when it becomes warm? The adhesive becomes minutely viscous. MB's get quite warm, well above the temperature required to cause electrical tape adhesive to become minutely viscous. Electrical tape is also not immune to heat, and will "dry out" over time... even faster with cheap electrical tape (even Super 33+ will age, though it takes substantially longer). Even worse is the environment it's in, as constant temperature fluctuations is rough for materials not annealed or tempered, and the amount of temperature fluctuations that occur in a laptop, with constant heating and cooling, will cause electrical tape to age even faster.

 

I once had a floppy power cable on one pin over, when I finished putting out the fire the power lead with the floppy connector was all but gone and the pin on the floppy drive had vaporised.

Don't mess about with connectors

 

Does anyone have any experience with the Kingston HyperX Savage SSD released this year ?
I bought the 480GB since it was cheaper than Samsung's EVO/PRO series of the same capacity, what annoys me is that the SSD ends up upside down in the M18X -R2 showing a stupid sticker and not what I consider the "top" of the SSD.

 

I'm a bit baffled why that would matter since it can't be seen unless the access panel is off, but each to their own =]

If you're using it for SATA III, mount it on the bottom of the caddy, instead of the top. If you're utilizing SATA II, and you're intent on having the label face up, you'd have to buy a SATA M - F extension cable to go from the opposite end of the caddy to the HDD SATA connector

If the label up only matters due to easy access to spec information, take a metalic sharpe (the kind meant to write on black backgrounds) and write out the specs on the bottom of the SSD

 

It doesn't really matter since I don't intend to open my laptop all the time, just would have been something nice to look at is all

I'm sure I saw a post on here where they said the top and bottom of the caddy were SATA III while the middle was SATA II.
you do make a good point that having the SSD showing the drives information hence why it they face upside down (my stupidity level gets higher with every post)
I admit I am rather weird in that I like how things look even If I cant see them which is why I went for the HyperX savage it has a small label compared to others. However the lack of reviews and benchmarks with this SSD make me hopeful that is a good drive, more so since Kingston are using Phison's flagship PS3110 (S10) 8-channel premium controller.

Not seen to many using this kind of controller so I will at least put some benchmarks on here when I get it if anyone wants it.

 

Yes, SATA III are top and bottom, SATA II is the middle.

As far as SSDs go, I have no clue about the one you have. I do know SSDs are not the same across the board, and that the Samsung 850 Evo/Pro series are the best on the market, tied up there with SanDisk's flagship line.

When it comes to SSDs, I air on the side of caution and research... if there's little information out there about an SSD, I don't view it as a good investment, especially on an Alienware, where performance, consistency, and quality is vital.

Unlike traditional HDDs, you get what you pay for in an SSD. There's a reason Samsung and SanDisk's SSDs are the most expensive consumer grade SSDs on the market... they're technology is worth it and is proven to not just work well, but guarantees the drives to operate at specified levels for 5 or 10 years (depending on the model - Evo is 5, Pro is 10, SanDisk's are 10 if I recall right).

 

Well the only reason there are so few reviews is that the SSD I have hasjust come out, although a few YouTube videos do show it out preforming even Samsung's EVO/PRO drives so I will definably post some results from it and see how it fairs. If all is good I may consider getting another one for raid.

 

Which goes back to the point about SSDs... Simply because a SSD performs well when a benchmark is done after you first buy is not only a horrendous way to view SSD quality, its simply misleading to the end user.

Due to the nature of SSDs, they can only be written to so many times, so the algorithms and technology the manufacturer uses matter and is why many users buying SSDs complain of slower speeds after only a year of use.

Again, I know nothing about the drive you bought... I simply want you to be informed about SSDs and not to confuse great performance out of the box to the quality of the SSD and its technology. All SSDs will outperform any consumer grade mechanical HDD out of the box, but the real test lies in how it performs a year from now, two years from now, 4 years from now. This is what I meant by you get what you pay for in a SSD. I personally wouldn't buy anything other than a Samsung Evo/Pro series, and I lean more towards the pro due to the 10 year warranty (plus both use vertical, instead of horizontal writing, which is also how Seagte was able to put 8TB of writeable space into its 8TB single drives).

Your SSD could very well be a great drive and my purpose here isn't to discourage you from the drive, simply to inform about why research needs to be done on SSDs prior to buying, and if there is little about a drive and you buy it, it could prove to be a bad investment down the road.

 

In case there is ever a doubt or you cannot remember, the speeds should be clearly marked on the SATA interposer cable.

 

Oh don't get me wrong I sped a good 2-3 days looking up any and all information on the drive as well as the controller it used since I'v never heard of it before. The only SSD I have ever owned in an Intel 510 250GB and it has served me well over the years.
I was leaning toward the Samsung PRO drives myself for ages but I couldn't justify paying over £200 for a 512 SSD, while the HyperX Savage was only £189 for the same capacity. Still only time will tell if this drive and controller can match up to Samsung's Pro series. anything to give other companies a reason to improve and make things better just like Intel and AMD..in the past.