Help choosing M17x upgrades?

Hi

I received my Alienware M17x R3 last month, and after extensive use I've found that I'm rapidly running out of space and it's slowing down. Not good.

I got an 8GB RAM kit at a discounted price and put that in which made little difference unfortunately.

I've decided it's either the processor or the hard drive. It takes much longer to boot up than it used to, and it even has to load my shortcut icons on my desktop which is annoying. (I'm very fussy)

So, my question is, Is this a CPU or HDD issue? I have the stock 320GB HDD because an aftermarket upgrade is cheaper than buying from Dell. I also have the stock processor: 2630QM and I don't know if I should be regretting choosing it.

If it is mainly a HDD issue, what would be a good upgrade alternative? My first impression was to get two Momentus XT hybrid drives and put them in RAID0, but I've heard that it doesn't work like that - any advice on this?

Are there any better options than buying one or two Momentus'?

SSD's are an option but for the capacity I need the price seems very unrealistic.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

Have you looked into the option of installing an SSD into your hard drive bay and then install a secondary mechanical drive in you're optical drive for SSD speed and lot's of storage.

I cannot imagine why you would need two Seagate XT's, do you need over 1TB of storage?

You could just get one of the new Momentus XT's and simply just have one hard drive.

 

An SSD would drastically reduce boot time. I'm curious as to what you actually have running on startup that could cause such a slowdown.

 

Thanks for your reply

Yes I have, but I wouldn't want to loose my optical drive! besides, the M17x R3 has two HDD bays, one is currently empty.

I wanted two momentus XT's because I figured that if they each have 8GB SSD, that works out 16GB of SSD storage - (I don't know much about hard drive mechanics or how they work so I may wrong) AND RAID0 makes them faster still, at least that's how I see it, do correct me if I'm mistaken here.

It's kind of why I'm asking, I don't know how well this setup works etc.

 

My startup programs are the Alienware utilities, AVG AntiVirus, Killer Network Manager, and some Adobe update utilities - not that much.

 

Two Momentus XTs in two storage bays are a waste of money, pure and simple. Two 500GB XTs will cost $280 minimum these days. Even when they were a bit cheaper, two would still cost at least $180. Now lets consider the faster, easier way to go.

Buy a 128GB SSD. This will be faster and better than any pair of Momentus XTs. This will also be cheaper. Buy one, pop it in, put Windows on it, and install all your software on it. Then wipe off the duplicate stuff from your original HDD and keep it in there as a storage drive.

Two economical, yet super-reliable choices for a 128GB SATA III SSD are the Samsung 830 and Crucial M4. The 830 is $200 at Newegg and comes free with Batman Arkham City but just sold out sometime today. The M4 is also at the lowest $200. The M4 is a terrific SSD by all accounts and $200 is the lowest price for it I've seen at a reputable retailer.

Crucial Technology 128GB m4 SSD 2.5" Solid CT128M4SSD2 B&H

 

Jordan, an SSD should be your next upgrade. I went with the same config as you did i.e., 2630 and 320gig HDD...

But i've since upgraded the CPU and bought the M4. The CPU i wanted just to play with, but its the M4 that pays daily dividends. I hate working on normal HDD's now because it seems like i have to wait...and wait...and wait...

 

Once you go SSD, you never go back.

 

gwilled, your post is very descriptive and helpful, thank you!

The only, deal breaking problem, is that on my 320GB HDD, I am already VERY tight for space. I have 30GB free on this drive, making it extremely challenging as even two of these drives would leave me with no more hard drive space!

You mention using it as a storage drive, what kind of media would you store on this? What data needs that SSD speed boost? In an ideal world I'd have all my data in one place but depending on the setup, this sounds promising!

SlickDude, what was your CPU upgrade and how much did it cost? was there a negligible or huge performance difference in games and windows operations?

 

bro, you said it!

 

I bought the i7 2820 QS from ebay at shirley's CPU. I paid $270 shipped

(but then i put my 2630qm up for sale and got $290 for it...so you do the math )

In games, you don't really see a huge difference because most games are GPU bound...however, if you unlock the CPU throttle and run the CPu at full turbo speeds, i saw increases in benches like Vantage and 3dmark11

Much higher in CPU operations and CPU benches too

You can see all the details of my CPU upgrade in my m17x CPU guide found in my sig

 

The standard way to use a SSD is to install your OS and software on it. Then use a HDD for bulk storage of miscellaneous documents and multimedia files.

You could always swap out that 320GB HDD for another, bigger one. Then just pop the SSD into the other empty space. That gives you the speed boost alongside a capacity increase as well. I suppose you could accomplish that for $300 or so ($200 for the SSD, $100 for the HDD). Then you can stick the original HDD into an external enclosure ($15-25) and use it as a portable external HDD.

 

Sweet, looks good I'll look into it! How are you finding your SSD overall then? what kind of programs are you running?

Another great answer, thank you! Since I live in the UK, prices are a little differnt over here. after a quick search, I've found these:

Crucial CT128M4Solid State Drive2 128GB M4 Solid State Drive: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

OCZ Agility 3 Series 120GB SATA III 2.5 inch Solid State Drive: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

Ocz 120gb Solid 3 2.5" Sata-ii Ssd | Ebuyer.com


What makes this price difference realistic? Is the OCZ slower or something? Is the Crucial worth the extra money?

 

There are two categories of SSD makers: Intel-Crucial-Samsung and everyone else. You want to be in the first category. Many of the latter drives (including OCZ) use SandForce controllers that were once notoriously unreliable (aka say bye-bye to your data). Though firmware updates have solved many of the problems, most will say that it is still much safer to stick with the Big Three as a rule of thumb.

Basically, that means these SATA III drives:
Intel 510
Crucial M4
Samsung 830

In the US, the M4 and 830 are usually substantially cheaper than the 510. So try shopping around for those two.

 

Ahh, okay! I definitely will; this is all new to me. Will games benefit much from having their data kept on the SSD over the HDD? and I take it this isn't in a RAID configuration - two separate disks in the 'my computer' window, right?

 

Yeah, it's not in RAID.

The performance in terms of framerate won't improve, but the load times will drastically decrease. Games will start faster, saves will load faster (if on the SSD), levels/areas will load faster, online matches load faster, etc.

 

Sweet, that sounds good! I'll definitely be buying one now then! Thanks

Do you happen to know anything about RAM upgrades?

I purchased an 8GB kit and added it in with the standard DELL ram.

The 8GB kit came in 2x4GB sticks, and the dell ram is 2x2GB. are all of the memory modules meant to be the same size in order for it to work correctly? I believe I heard this somewhere...

 

Agree with everyone else. SSD provides the best bang for buck performance in upgrades.

 

I think it should work fine if you split them so that each channel sums to the same as the other. Of course, having the same brand and timing is best, but it'll work well enough.

Look here at dual channel interleaved mode:
Desktop Boards — Single, dual, triple, and flex memory modes

 

So, I would have to take apart my laptop and make a 2GB and a 4GB stick swap places. Is the difference going to be significant enough? I am capable of doing it, just it's a little frustrating. If it offers significantly better performance then I'll do it!

 

Hi,

Interesting thread. I wondered if you guys minded me asking a question?

Would you guys recommend the samsung 1.8" MMCRE28G8MXP-0VBL1 45N7953 128Gb SSD?

I have been offered a used one very cheap, was concerned about it's reliability and performance as it will be old generation.

Thanks in advance.

 

THe crucial is definitely worth the cash.

Don't get a cheap sandforce SSD. The market is flooded with them. Some people have no issues with them, but many do.

here...refer to this thread for a reference:

Result Results of one month of testing 13, Vertex 3's with 2.15 firmware

summary: Get the M4 cause its trouble free

 

Thats a sata2 drive...if you don't care about that, the samsungs have a reputation for reliability which to me is the most important factor in choosing a SSD

 

Thanks for the reply. I have an older laptop,

I am using an acer aspire 6920g. I planned to move my 1Tb hard drive to a optical drive bay caddy and put a SSD as my windows drive. I have found this cheap.

Will the SATA 2 be an issue at all?

 

no it shouldn't be. The 6920g is sata2 enabled, so you should be fine.

i don't know about the internals of the 6920g though but i assume you already know you can move those parts around without issues.

You should ask how old the drive is. And if possible, get the seller to give you an ssd life screenshot before buying. ssd life will tell you the expected life left on the drive. SSD's, if abused dont last long

SSD life - tool for solid state drives health and endurance monitoring