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    Do you have 3 hard drives inside your XPS 17?

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by funkmasterta, Dec 20, 2011.

  1. funkmasterta

    funkmasterta Notebook Evangelist

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    And if so, what's the best way to configure it?

    Are the 2 SATAs on the bottom the fastest or is the SATA for the CDROM the fastest or are they all the same?

    In other words, which SATA would you connect your OS drive to?
     
    funkmasterta, Dec 20, 2011
    #1
  2. VPR5703

    VPR5703 Notebook Consultant

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    HDD1 is OS and HDD2 is extra. As far as I know, the CDROM slot is only for CDROM. I doubt there is a caddy that can fit into that space to allow a 3rd hard disk.
     
    VPR5703, Dec 20, 2011
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  3. funky monk

    funky monk Notebook Deity

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    You can get a caddy for the optical drive. As for which is fastest, it really depends on what SATA version each connector is. If there's going to be a difference between the connectors, then the optical bay will be the slowest.
     
    funky monk, Dec 20, 2011
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  4. 540is

    540is Notebook Enthusiast

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    is there a partno/source for that caddy @ the optical drive spot.
     
    540is, Dec 21, 2011
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  5. VPR5703

    VPR5703 Notebook Consultant

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    VPR5703, Dec 21, 2011
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  6. funkmasterta

    funkmasterta Notebook Evangelist

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    funkmasterta, Dec 29, 2011
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  7. funkmasterta

    funkmasterta Notebook Evangelist

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    funkmasterta, Dec 29, 2011
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  8. funkmasterta

    funkmasterta Notebook Evangelist

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    talked to a Dell Rep today and she said that all 3 SATA ports in the XPS 17 are SATA II 3gb/s ports. Sad news that they aren't SATA III but at least the port in the optical bay is the same speed as the two in the hard drive bays.


     
    funkmasterta, Dec 29, 2011
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  9. zuffy

    zuffy Notebook Guru

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    She don't know. Either she found the wrong answer or guess the answer. The HDD port is definitely SATA III.
     
    zuffy, Dec 29, 2011
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  10. funkmasterta

    funkmasterta Notebook Evangelist

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    Geeze, those Dell reps are useless. Where did you read that they are SATA III?
     
    funkmasterta, Dec 30, 2011
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  11. Venturello

    Venturello Notebook Consultant

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    Anyone can point me to a cheaper adaptor that will work on the L702x and keep the external appearance? Thanks!
     
    Venturello, Jan 1, 2012
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  12. VPR5703

    VPR5703 Notebook Consultant

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    If you have a fast SSD, the connection will be @ 6GBps, which is SATA3. I just did a benchmark on my Vertex 3, and it came out to 457MB/second. SATA2 limits to about ±300MB/s theoretical speeds.Actual speeds are closer to 250MB/s when overhead is taken into account. I think a program like SiSoft's SANDRA would be able to tell you what you current link speed is.
     
    VPR5703, Jan 2, 2012
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  13. funkmasterta

    funkmasterta Notebook Evangelist

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    a ha! I found the answer!

    http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...1-dell-xps-17-l702x-sata-3-a.html#post7292522

    [​IMG]
     
    funkmasterta, Jan 11, 2012
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  14. VPR5703

    VPR5703 Notebook Consultant

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    Yeah I thought so. I know my SSD connects @ 6Gb/s. My BDROM is SATA II @ 3Gb/s.
     
    VPR5703, Jan 11, 2012
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  15. dandas

    dandas Newbie

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    It doesn't support SATA III. All ports are SATA II on mine. I tried both hard drive compartment and getting SATA II speeds with my SSD

    UPDATE: I uninstalled previous AHCI driver and now I'm getting better speeds. The startoverride in register keep changing back to value of 3 and I believe that what wasn't giving my full speed of SATA III. I believe it has to do that it was still operating as in IDE mode even though I have the AHCI driver in place.
     
    Last edited: Apr 19, 2015
    dandas, Apr 19, 2015
    #15