Lets start here...

I just bought this used.
Here is what I will be working with as starting point.

Alienware R4
Processor: Intel i7 3820qm
Graphics: Nvidea GTX 675M
Storage: 2x 256GB SSDs in RAID 0 for 512GB
RAM: 32GB DDR3 1600MHz
17.3-inch Lost out on the 3D one...
With DVD burner built in.

I also am Buying at least 1 TB 850 Pro, would like 2.

Question 1
Now from my Past understanding as long as the drive fits into the bay as a HD I can use it, so I could install Two 1 TB 850 Pros Correct?


Question 2
Next there was mention earlier that there is also a Sata Connection, I assume this is inside Can I also use this one with a 1 TB and would you recommend a 7200. I read that you actually would want one of the disk types for reasons of rewrites and slack space...to increase efficiency across video editing and Audio editing...So I figure I would have total 3 TB of storage, not sure how I would break them up maybe storage of vids on the 7200 and games, but applications on the SSDs..I hope Im getting this correct...
I need a genius here...

So once again I am asking is this possible and would I be going backwards or making some serious investments that will stand the test of time and use?


I came to you guys for the help in understanding and I cant just jump in at the level of understanding you guys are at, I would like to limit my taking apart my laptop to absolute min. So that means I need help now, I will have the 1TB SSD by Monday or so next week, You can see what, I already have in there, and the time for helping me to understand is now...
If you guys would be so kind as to take a minute and help me understand.

Say I bought the two drives and someone explains the Sata deal for a third internal Drive to me, Then I know what I need to buy.

Question 3
The next thing I would start working on is-
I have the CDs so, I just would need to understand a sequence of events for installations and RAID verse Non RAID -
UPDATE---Ok I just read for a while and the light came on...I think"

RAID is linking two drives together to act as though they are one, I will not need that due to the large size to begin with so I will go without RAID...Since linking them from what I read in small state is common but you actually sacrifice efficiency to a degree. I also read that I should not use more than 2Gig of Cache Max?


Ok I think I am getting this but Im in the dark a bit still.

So if I can fit all those into the computer, now it is raw.
I assume the drives will have the software to set them up as I mentioned as non RAID so they will be three 1 TB drives ready, I need to know what to flash the BIOS at, and where to find it?
I am clueless about that Part but with no data how bad can it be?

Then I assume I install windows 7 ultimate seems it is the best software to date set up to handle these systems effectively and to the best level of performance, (opinion from what I have been reading)
I do not care about the cloud and Social medias linking and eating away at resources, I hope again I am headed in the right direction.

So now I set up the op system in one of the SSD drives so I get the quick boot time and performance.
Then I should be good to go???

So I have windows on one SSD I can Install programs like Dreamweaver and Auto cad on the second one, and I can store vids and Audio on the 7200

Ok Am I at least close or way off track guys?
I tried to explain what I am thinking, what I am trying to accomplish and I only asked three questions well four if you count the very end, I do not see it too difficult to put a Number 1 and answer that part if you are good at that and let someone else answer part 2 or 3 or whatever your understanding is.
I do not think I should have to post three seperate questions across three forums for this it is all on Alienware computer and you guys know this stuff like mad...
Once again I ask you to help me get this system up and and max performance so I can enjoy the system at its max...
Thanks for any help at all.
Mark

 

First, I think you need to keep reading. Search google for me, my name and notebookreview.com and drive setup questions you have.

Second, I think you should mention what you want to accomplish with this setup. We can guess, but that's just wasting everyone's time.

Third, thinking that Windows 7 is the best O/S going into the second half of 2015 (yeah; soon), shows how much you really don't know yet.

Windows 8.1 x64 Pro is almost old news already. Windows 10 Pro is the O/S to base a new install on (free upgrade from 8.1...).

So, focus your thoughts. Don't waste words needlessly. And ask a question at a time to get the best and most focused answers (and yes, you can do that in one thread and not across three forums).

 

Lets see I was pretty clear in my statement I needed Help.
I was also clear I wanted to max out what was possible. With Storage and I asked a couple questions in another thread then weeded through trying to get a few of you guys to answer a couple of my simple questions.

I will search for you and the drive set up thanks for at least telling me its somewhere, seems like a hassle for someone to share a link?

The next Item was about 7 well gee if you look at all the ones selling they are mostly running 7, but in fact the listing of mine does show 10...

Just figured if everyone was selling them with 7 why? seemed to make common sense to me, I did not see any surveys on that anywhere. If others all new to upgrade then why didnt they?
In fact 8 was designed for touch screens, sure I think it had better software, but for a new op system where you have to learn how to maneuver in a whole new way, well some are hesitant to change if not needed.

I asked three questions and you only slightly pointed me towards one, gees guys I run two sites that use Vbulletin, and I always try to help and I dont care if they ask ten questions in a thread.
Maybe I should ask others somewhere else.

I obviously am misunderstood here. Thats why I asked for help.

I guess I should not have joined and just read and kept my mouth shut. Kinda defeats the idea of a board if you cant ask unless you already understand right?

That wasnt too nice. I dont care if you invented computers...I stated I was green and needed help I did not say I was an idiot, and Im not, My first computer was a TRS 80 16K with Cassette backup.
I do think I have come a long way, but it has been about 12 years since I dove off into building anything since they were starting to evolve to laptops that were as powerful as most computers.

Maybe my last sentence should have been first...
"Once again I ask you to help me get this system up and and max performance so I can enjoy the system at its max...
and after explaining what I was buying kinda thought that was a no brainer..."

Its just my writing style of trying to convey as much as I can to get an answer, which you answered one told me to hunt for the other and then ripped me.

I also Said I assume, and we all know what that means right, I already thought I may be mistaken and was only going by what I could see, since I had so many helping me to understand my questions.

Not one person told me how many slots are inside for drives and the best type.
Not one person stated whether or not 2 1 TB SSDs would be a vast improvement and work with no issues...
Not one person put a link up so I could go to the correct location and read, I did a couple of google searches and ended up here and figured WOW these guys know their stuff these should be some simple questions I can get answers to easily, obviously Not the case, I only work about 66 hours a week as an inspector out of town and only have a couple hours a night maybe I can pop in and out during the day a couple of times, but I do not have near the time required to learn every aspect of Alienware since I have never even seen on in person, at least I was smart enough to finally evolve up from ASUS as i read others usually do...

If you guys do not want to help I guess thats fine I probably just pay for Dell support and call them, but I did want to learn and did ask questions on a bulletin board.
I guess Im in the wrong place to ask for help...This is a read only site? didnt get that memo.

I promise you this if you were at my site you would never have someone tell you what you said to me.
We actually try to help everyone no matter what.
I still respect your intelligence and will search for your thread.
I will not bother you guys anymore unless someone tells me something helpful in this thread.
I will not start any new ones. So I apologize for wasting your time sir.
Mark

And yes I realize a lot of people set their devices back to factory when selling so that also could explain 7 being used.
But again, kinda why I asked to begin with. Now I guess I can go to sleep since Im EST time and its 11:30 Ill be at work at 6:30 am until 6 tomorrow night I was in a bit of a hurry so I could buy everything I wanted and would need so when the computer I stated I bought on ebay arrived I could start building it to my specs, again why I came here to begin with...
I can read, if I haven't upset you so much could you throw a few links up for me to read and I will follow your advice, I told you I respect all of your intelligence maybe not the bedside manner so much but your brains yes I concede you are leaps and bounds above me I bow down to you Sir.
Please advise me so I can at least get an understanding. I can elaborate on the search for your name on google set up of drives and this site, I wouldnt know where to start I am sure the web is full of setting up drives I need to know the right question to ask or, I just disappear into the abyss.

I did know that 10 was a free upgrade when it is fully released, I did research that already, right now its in beta and you may loose everything attempting to use it.
Ok Im good please help ?
Thanks for any help at all.
Mark

I dont even expect you to say anything, could you just put a couple of links up so I can read about it to gain a better understanding then ask questions, I did the Raid research and read all about them...
from 0,1,3,5 10 30 50 and all the differences of the three levels...
I decided I would be fine with my limited knowledge of 45 minutes to decide I should just not use any RAID at all, again I could be wrong. But hey thats what lifes all about... I am so stubborn I will be building this next week once everything arrives. Just wanted to know if I needed to buy other stuff too, without investing in a corvette...lol
Ok Im cool, thanks for anything of assistance.
Mark

 

Ok. I want to help you. But I can't understand what you're typing. Generally, people don't like reading a giant wall of text. You don't need all of the "monologue" parts of your post like how you started from TRS-80s, you feel misunderstood, etc. If you have questions you want answered, then just list the questions, and they'll get answered.

If you have questions, then I suggest that you:

• Post questions using bullet points
• or numbered lists like this
• So it's a lot easier to read

Just do that, and I promise you people on this forum will jump all over it with answers. The shorter your post, the more likely you'll get responses.

 

Ok Im trying to work on it. and Thanks...

So how many Hard drives can there be inside the alienware R4?
I assume 2 are 2.5 what about any others?

 

How many drive bays does the Alienware M17x R4 have? What is the best way to configure the storage on that system?

It looks like the Alienware M17x R4 has 1x mSATA slot (for mSATA SSD), and 2x 2.5" SATA drive bays. You can put either an SSD or mechanical HDD in the 2.5" SATA drive bays.

My recommendation is to get a 500GB mSATA SSD, and put it in the mSATA slot. Put your OS / games / apps on that SSD. If you need bulk storage, I recommend that you get 2.5" SATA mechanical HDDs for that bulk storage purpose (photos, music, movies, pr0n, etc). You can easily find 2.5" 5400rpm 1TB or 2TB drives out there that will be great for bulk storage.

I'd actually recommend you specifically buy 5400rpm 2.5" HDDs (and not 7200rpm) for two reasons:
(1) Speed doesn't matter on bulk storage content. a 4GB BluRay MKV rip will play back equally well on a slow 5400rpm drive or the fastest SSD money can buy.
(2) 5400rpm drives use less power. That means they will generate less heat, and will make your battery last just a bit longer.


Miscellaneous comments:

• Don't bother RAID'ing the 2.5" storage. RAID will not get you any real-world performance benefit whatsoever, regardless of whether you are running mechanical HDDs or SSDs. Forget about what you read about it, what benchmarks you've seen, what you think it will get you. The reality is that you'll never notice the benefit, but will definitely notice the drawbacks (RAID is a pain-in-the-rear).

• Don't bother buying 2x 1TB SSDs to put in your 2.5" SATA storage bays. You could do it, but it's a colossal waste of money. You're going to end up spending more on SSDs than the rest of your system is worth.
  
  
• Regarding OS: If you already have a license for Windows 7, go ahead and use it. If you already have a license for Windows 8, go ahead and use it. But if you need to buy a new license of Windows, stick with Windows 8.1 64-bit. Just because Windows 8 *supports* touch interaction doesn't mean you *must* use touch interaction. Just get yourself Windows 8.1 64-bit, pay $5 for a copy of Start8 (to get rid of the Metro / Modern interface, and restore the traditional start menu), and be on your way.

 

I already ordered 2 1TB SSDs for 675 figured that's not really that much...

Ok thanks for that Information between the two threads Now I cant keep up..lol

I have one drive installed now that is a 256 SSD
And since I bought two different Alienware computers one with 16 Gigs Ram and the other with 32gigs.

I am leaning towards this.
Splitting the SSDs one each into a computer then using one mSATA 256 SSD in each one and then taking the advice about a 1TB 5400 rpm for each so they will both still have 2.256TB of on board storage and one with 16 and the other with 32 gigs, then I can upgrade that memory to 32 later...

I do own a couple of versions of Win 8 and I can get around Metro no problem.

Ok Next question, say I now have the computers sitting side by side, before powering up first time...

They both are running now as is. Do I need to install software on the SSDs and do any configurations?
Do I need to change the BIOS for the set ups?
Ill wait there then come back and ask more...
Thanks to all.

 

Ok. If you're looking to do a clean installation of Windows onto these two computers, the only thing you "need" to do is to tell your computer to boot from the Windows installation media. That could be a DVD, or it could be a USB drive that you configured as a Windows installer (using Windows DVD Setup tool).

Now, I can't specifically tell you *how* to boot off of a DVD or USB drive, because every computer is different. Some machines allow you to press some key during POST to choose alternative boot devices (Esc, F8, F12, etc). Some other machines require you to specfically go into BIOS and choose boot device order. Some other machines require you to turn off Secure Boot, and operate in Legacy Mode, in order to boot off of alternative devices. Every machine is different, so I'd recommend doing some research (google Alienware M17x R4 boot device) or checking your laptop's manual(s) to find out how on your particular machine(s). Once you do that, then you'll be able to do a clean installation of Windows.


-----------------------------------

The only other advice I have to give is to remove all other storage device from your laptops when you are doing a Windows install. That means pull out your 2.5" SATA drive(s), and leave only the M.2 SSDs there. The reason is because the Windows installer isn't very friendly to multiple storage devices, and will store boot configuration information on the "first" drive it sees. (You can choose where to install Windows, but the boot configuration will always be put on the "first" drive Windows sees). And when you're dealing with laptops with multiple drives and multiple drive interfaces, there's a good chance that your "first" drive will be different than the one you actually want your Windows OS to sit on.

So do yourself a favor. Remove all other storage devices besides your M.2 SSD before you do a clean Windows install, and force Windows setup to put both the boot config and the OS files where you want them to be.

 

Yep I appreciate the advice I do know how to boot up a specific drive but will disconnect all others as advised.
Thanks for the help.

Ok so from what I am reading you advise me to install to the smallest SSD, mSATA - which will be 225gb for windows. and save the 1TB SSD and 1TB 5400 for storage and applications, to ask one step further, what would you advise I used for what? What type of files would you put on which drives, I am going to assume all media such as movies and video games would be best suited on the 5400, and programs and such onto the SSD 1TG?

I think I am slowly starting to get this and thanks for all the help.
Mark

 

All OS, applications, and games should go on an SSD. My recommendation is to just put them all on your C: drive (256GB M.2 SSD).

When your C: drive starts filling up, then move your game installs (most likely Steam game downloads) onto your 1TB SSD. Some users that like to download a lot of games can fill up a single 256GB SSD pretty quickly. Some other people will find 256GB SSD to be more than enough space for the OS / apps / games they'll be using at one time.

Your 1TB 5400rpm mechanical HDD should only contain bulk media content (photos, videos, music, pr0n, documents, torrents, etc).

A quick rule of thumb is to think how that data gets onto your computer. If you installed it by running some kind of Setup.exe, then it belongs on an SSD. If you copied it by just dragging-and-dropping from folder to folder, then it belongs on your mechanical HDD. That quick rule will get it right about 99% of the time.

 

Ok I will have to install to my 1T I have well over 256 Gigs I am sitting at around 850 but not all aps, for sure most are a lot of vids (NO Porn) lol and pics of family in High def, we take a ton of pics, plus installers and as you mentioned I would fill the 256 up rather quickly...
Thanks for helping me to gain a better understanding of all of this.

So I would not need to flash the Bios or anything..cool.
Mark

 

I am Stoked, Computers should both arrive Friday.
I ordered the
2 Mushkin Reactor 1TB SATA III 6Gb 7mm 2.5" SSD Solid State Drive MKNSSDRE1TB Hard Drives
One for each computer along with,
2 1TB SSHD 16GB SSD 2.5" Solid State Hybrid Hard Drives 6.0Gb/s Slim SATA one for each,
I will split the 2- 256gig RAID drives into singles for each computer. and that will work nicely I think.

when I get the refund back for the first Computer that was half of what seller stated and refurbished instead of new, I will but the Vid card and use my heat sink as suggested here. on the computer with 32 Gigs...

I will end up having 1500 in the 16 gig and 19 in the 32 gig, I think thats stellar...
Thanks guys for helping me understand what I needed in the crunch.
I appreciate all of your knowledge and will be back to dig deeper soon...really soon.
Mark