The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Internal Hard Drive for M11x R2

    Discussion in 'Alienware M11x' started by SolidMcGee, Jun 19, 2011.

  1. SolidMcGee

    SolidMcGee Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    31
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I'm thinking about buying a new HD for my m11x just to have a lot of space. I've stumbled upon this hard drive and I'd like to know if this one can fit inside the m11x and if it won't destroy any performance.
     
    SolidMcGee, Jun 19, 2011
    #1
  2. Cutterschoice

    Cutterschoice Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    16
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Looks a nice driver, however reading some of the reviews, it seems the drive might be a little bigger than a standard 2.5" drive, dimensions wise so may not fit in the m11x as the drive bay fits a normal 2.5” without much room to spare.
     
    Cutterschoice, Jun 19, 2011
    #2
  3. thegh0sts

    thegh0sts Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    949
    Messages:
    7,700
    Likes Received:
    2,819
    Trophy Points:
    331
    it probably won't fit because of the height of the drive the alignment of the pins might be off and you would have clearance between the drive caddy and the chassis/frame that the caddy screws into.
     
    thegh0sts, Jun 20, 2011
    #3
  4. bavman

    bavman Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    81
    Messages:
    312
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    31
    Plus its a 5.4k drive so if you have a 7.2k drive you'll notice a performance drop
     
    bavman, Jun 20, 2011
    #4
  5. kent1146

    kent1146 Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    2,354
    Messages:
    4,449
    Likes Received:
    476
    Trophy Points:
    151
    1) No, that drive will not fit. The Western Digital Scorpio Blue 1TB drive is a 12.5mm drive height (odd height) whereas your laptop will only accept a drive with 9.5mm drive height. (standard 2.5" SATA drive height).

    2) Even if it does fit, you don't want it. The Western Digital Scorpio Blue has a rotational speed of 5400rpm, while the drive you have now is a 7200rpm drive. That will absolutely kill performance.

    3) The highest capacity drive you can get without absolutely destroying your performance is a 7200rpm 750GB drive, like this one;
    Western Digital Scorpio Black - 750GB

    4) Getting a 7200rpm mechanical hard drive will only increase capacity - it will not increase performance. If you really want to increase performance, you will either need to get a Seagate Momentus XT (hybrid drive, up to 500GB capacity. Be sure to get the Momentus XT, and not the regular Momentus); if you really care about performance, you will want a Solid State Disk (SSD).

    Check out the video links in my signature to get an idea of what an SSD can do. They absolutely murder mechanical hard drives and hybrid hard drives when it comes to performance.
     
    kent1146, Jun 20, 2011
    #5
  6. slickie88

    slickie88 Master of Puppets

    Reputations:
    973
    Messages:
    2,566
    Likes Received:
    7
    Trophy Points:
    56
    There's also a 750GB XT.
     
    slickie88, Jun 20, 2011
    #6