Alienware M17-R1 (NOT M17x!) express card upgrade to USB 3.0

I was wondering if anyone knows if it's viable to install an express card which adds 2 USB 3.0 slots to the Alienware M17-R1 without any issues and get the full USB 3.0 performance?

The pins (26 pin) and width (54mm) match fine with both the specs of the express card and the M17's express card specs. Not sure if there's anything else I should be checking. The retailer said that as long as the specs match it should be ok but that they advise customers to check with the manufacturer. Not sure if Alienware will help or not since I bought it 4 years ago and I've found that tech support weren't that good with advise about aftermarket mods/upgrades being done by myself...I guess they don't across it that much and they aren't obliged to advise since I haven't got extended warranty, support etc.

I did various searches online to try and find an answer. Closest I found was someone selling their M17 with 2xUSB 3.0 slots on ebay however that's not really an answer. For all I know he installed the express card and it performs at USB 2.0. I need it to connect to a backup RAID 1 array which only has USB 3.0 ports.

I'll update if it works of course, however it would be good to check before I purchase and not deal with the hassle of returns if it could have been avoided.

Cheers

 

If the only reason you need this hardware is to connect to an external storage that has only USB 3 ports, then you can simply connect those to your current USB 2 ports. USB 3 is backwards compatible. If not, you can purchase a USB 3 to eSATA, if you have that port. Otherwise, just a USB 3 to USB 2 should be fine. If you have conventional drives in that RAID array, you'd see only a 3 odd times increase in speed. You'd not end up using the the 3.0 protocol's full capability anyways.

 

Thanks, I appreciate the response. I didn't realise there are esata to USB 3.0 converters available. I do have an eSATA port (although it's temperamental). I don't think the controller has a port multiplier function so it won't work with multiple drives in a JBOD setup. However I guess it should work with the RAID enclosure's USB 3.0 port via the converter. I was considering getting a USB 3.0 JBOD enclosure to recycle various old HDDs and add extra redundancy at some point in the future so hopefully USB 3.0 will work.

I think I'll try the express card anyway since if nothing else, I'll get 2 extra ports which will definitely be useful. At least I can report back and the community will know if it works.

If USB 3.0 express card works - 60MB/s is still better than the 20MB/S of USB 2.0 and should help to speed up the backup process. I can't leave my computer running 24/7 and need it to complete during the 1-2 hours I use my notebook in the evenings/weekends.

 

I have an expresscard 2xUSB3.0 installed in my MSI GX740. Expresscard in my laptop works at 2.5Gbps, so it will deliver half of USB3.0 throughput (theoretically). I also have a Sandisk Cruzer Extreme USB3.0 64GB flash drive. When connected to the expresscard USB3.0 port, the flash drive delivers ~150MB/s throughput.

The card itself is AKE 54mm variant, I bought it off eBay for ~14USD.

 

Thanks, however it sounds like your notebook is newer than mine. Well it didn't work. I get a code 10 error in device manager saying that the device won't start. Maybe it's a faulty card, maybe a faulty expresscard slot.

I'm going to try an esata to usb 3.0 adaptor instead. If I'm going to get 1/2 the usb 3.0 speed then the esata speed won't matter to me. I just would have like the option of my esata port to dock one drive and use the USB 3.0 slot to dock another to help with transferring files.

Question:
Anyway, with the esata which lacks a port multiplier, does it matter if I'm using an enclosure where the drives are in raid 1 config? Since I assume the notebook will see it as a single volume anyway... If it will work, I'll pick up an esata to usb 3.0 cable to work with my USB 3.0 raid 1 enclosure.

 

With those express card's you have to be carefull of the drivers. I have a P7805 gateway converted too a P79xx with a quad core as well. The flush Express card 54 works well but only at 2.5 GHz as well. This is a limitation of the express card slot.

The AKE has several chipsets so you have to be sure the correct drivers are installed................................

 

Well I tried installing the chipset drive recommended in the alienware m17 thread. Unfotunately I'd already used the latest driver off intel's site rather than the (older) version recommended in the M17 windows 7 thread. So it overwrote the newer drivers. Prob not the ideal route.

My plan to use a startech esata to usb 3.0 converter cable won't work since it's intended for esata devices connected to a usb 3.0 notebook, not the otherway around. No luck so far finding something in the UK which works...

Considering sending the enclosure back and either having to waste the money on the startech 4 bay enclosure which has both esata and usb 3.0 (even though I've only got 2 drives for raid 1 setup right now) or else find another manufacturer selling an enclosure with raid 1 and esata connectivity

Edit: Question
If i get a 4 bay enclosure and want to use a Raid 10 (Raid 1+0) setup with the 4 drives, will my M17's esata port without a port multiplier ability be able to work with this?

As I understand it, the enclosure is basically trying to set up 2 separate raid 1 arrays which is pretty much the same as trying to get my notebook to see 2 HDDs over esata. It wouldn't work for a JBOD setup with 2 drives, would it work for 4 on RAID 10/1+0?

By the way, I'm considering:
Startech 4 Bay External Hard Drive Array RAID Tower – eSATA USB 3.0 Enclosure SAT3540U3ER

Can anyone advise about the feasibility of using 4 drives in raid 1+0 in there over esata to my notebook's esata port which doesn't have port multiplier? I've never used raid of anykind. I assume that raid 1 might work with 2 drives since the pc is basically seeing 1 volume and the enclosure's raid hardware is doing the mirroring across the drives.

However with 4 drives in raid 1+0 it's like 2 raid 1 arrays (and striping for performance) right? So I do need esata with PM?

Edit, I'm curious what it looks like in 'My Computer' in this instance, where you have raid 1+0 with 4 drives. Suppose it's 4 2TB drives, do I see two 2TB volumes? Or a single 4TB volume?

Edit2: This is doing my head in! Which part of my M17 do I check the specs of to see if the esata port has port multiplier function?

 

In most cases, external enclosures which allow for any RAID or JBOD come with a bridge chip in them. The bridge chip is the port multiplicator (and RAID controller). I have a Welland ME-580J USB2.0/eSata enclosure for 2 HDDs, it allows RAID0 and 1, and JBOD. The enclosure has a Jmicron JMB352 bridge chip. More advanced enclosures and NAS systems (with support for 4HDDs or more) are usually based on Intel Atom CPUs.

With 4x2TB drives in RAID0+1 Your system will see a single 4TB volume.

The AKE expresscard USB3.0 card that I use is based on NEC/Renesas USB3.0 controller, common in many motherboards with USB3.0 support, released before Intel chipsets with native USB3.0. I can e-mail You the drivers which work for me. Just PM me Your e-mail address.

 

Awesome, I'm getting the replacement card anyway, however I'll take you up on the offer if it doesn't work either. Thanks for the advise

OK, so since with RAID 10 (with 4 identical RAID spec'd drives), my PC only sees a single volume, it looks like the fact that my Intel PM45 chipset doesn't support port multiplier over eSATA won't be an issue. Anyone want to correct me, please do so.

The only issue would be if I wanted to use it as JBOD. However I'm trying to get data security/redundancy rather than maximise available space so JBOD won't be needed.

Just in case anyone has any info stopping me from doing this, the 4 bay eSATA and USB 3.0 enclosure uses chipset: Jmicron - JMB394 + JMB355 + JMS539. Based on the above post, one of those is acting as the port replicator and/or RAID controller, therefore taking care of the limitation of my eSATA port/chipset not having a PM feature.

The tech support rep said it should be fine over a non PM eSATA port in RAID 10, however I respect the community's wisdom, so feel free to chime in.

Cheers

 

Here are JMB394, JMB355, JMS539 product overviews on Jmicron's Web page.

Product JMB394

Product JMB355

Product JMS539

They're nicely described.

 

Thanks! Am I right in assuming you're a martial artist? (Choy Lee Fut's style of wing tsun?).

Anyway, I was being lazy and probably should have checked up on those 3 components too. It looks like JB394 should take care of my eSATA port not having a port multiplier function. If not in JBOD, should be ok in RAID 10 mode which is what I wanted anyway.

I just spent a few hours making a quick backup over USB 2.0 of around 150gb. Even on the slower eSATA speed (compared to USB 3), it should be much better.

I'll report back once it's setup tomorrow whether JMB394 can even let my non-PM eSATA port see the 4 drives as a JBOD 4 volume setup. Same goes for the all important RAID 10 setup.

 

You are right, a martial artist I am indeed. Choy Lee Fut is completely different style than Wing Tsun though .

JMB394 will work as a port multiplier regardless of mode, whether JBOD or RAID.

 

My bad, I assumed it was wing chun from what I'd heard. Well the following happened:

• It kept switching off after installing disks, selecting RAID mode, and letting it restart. I was advised it's due to connecting over eSATA rather than USB for initial build.
• So reselected RAID 10 mode whilst connected over USB, this time it stayed on. Shows HDD error LED. I was told that this means it's building the array for the first time. Why not use the 'rebuild' LED next to it?
• As instructed, left both enclosure and M17 on for over 48 hours. I NEVER leave my notebook on overnight/all day so I hated this!
• Got fed-up when I read that people doing 4x3TB builds with Caviar Greens in enclosures have it completed in 24 hours, why not my brand new Caviar Reds? So I switched the enclosure off, gave the notebook a chance to cool down. I also noticed that the enclosure fans weren't even on so figured something was up anyway
• Restart and windows finally acknowledged the array is connected! The array is built within a few mins inspite of me redoing the steps from scratch (i.e. select RAID mode which should destroy the previous one). Was able to intialise the 'disk' in disk management, check the array for errors with HD Tune.
• No luck with eSATA, inspite of rebooting M17 several times, sometimes with enclosure powered on and connected by eSATA, sometimes with the enclosure off until I'd logged into windows. Also tried updating the firmware from the manufacturer's site.
• Also tried switching eSATA cables to one which I definitely knows works with a single disk enclosure and my M17 to rule out that the RAID enclosure came with a faulty cable.
• Fed up again, glad to have it connected over USB 3.0 to my USB 2.0 notebook (thank god the former is backwards compatible).
  
  To try:
• Will run some tests by putting saving some backup files from another external drive
• try linux over eSATA,
• check for new eSATA drivers for my eSATA
• Try the replacement USB 3.0 expresscard to see if it works this time.
• if not, ask Marecki_clf for expresscard drivers
• worst case, resigned to using USB 2.0 to backup, maybe do an hour each evening for the next month.
  
  Worrisome issue:
• Still somewhat irked by how the HDD error LED has to light up sometimes when I start up the enclosure - esp when switching from USB to eSATA. Testing with disposable backup files will be a good start.

If anyone has some advice or tips, please go ahead. As it stands, I'm so wary of this array/enclosure that I'm only going to be using it to backup my backups. A waste of a mirrored array really since the mirror is meant to be providing double redundancy.

In particular, is there any software for checking on the health of external RAID arrays? Jmicron doesn't provide any kind of tool for this on their site from what I can see. I was told that you're usually meant to check with the manufacturer of the controller card for those kind of tools.

 

I own a M17x R1 from 2010. It works well and I added 2 USB3 ports with an AKE cheapo card from ebay for $12. It worked, drivers installed, but eventually it started to not be detected without a reboot. So, I bought an Orico for $35 and that has yet to have a problem. I am not sure I get full USB3 speeds, but I have got 50-80MB/s, which is much better than the USB2 20mb/s speeds.

I also have tried the Rosewill eSATA card for the port multiplier, and that worked great. My eSATA speeds were 100mb/s peak, and it detected both drives in my external docking station.

I also tried a combo (think it was another AKE) USB3-eSATA, but the eSATA was not a PM one, so that card got sent to my T60-p laptop for use.

The best part of the Orico card is when I use my external Panasonic U265 Bluray, which is 3 times as fast over plugging it into my USB 2 ports. So, I have had luck with my M17x-R1 and USB3.

David