Alienware 17 R1 Upgrade

[Powerclocks]

Hi, I have an Alienware 17 R1, i7 4910MQ cpu @ 2.90ghz, 32gb ram, I have presently 2 x 1 Terrabyte Hard Drives, I want to go to SSDs. Does anyone know if I can upgrade to 2 x 2 Terrabyte Hard Drives giving me a total of 4 terrabyte without any fuss? The basic computer is not used often for gaming, only when the grand-kids come over and it is not overclocked or anything else, bog standard. I am not all that tech savvy and will get the drives installed by someone else so I need to know in advance if there are problems so I can have the answers for whoever does it for me.
I tried the same question in the Alienware 17 forum without any help so I thought I would try here, thank you for your help in this.

 

[MattyB]

Yes you shouldn't have a problem. I know one guy who upgraded his 17 with, I believe, 15TB of storage as he also maxed out the mSATA slot and used a storage caddy in the DVD drive bay. From memory he use three 4tb SSD's and one 3tb mSATA SSD.

 

[Powerclocks]

Yes you shouldn't have a problem. I know one guy who upgraded his 17 with, I believe, 15TB of storage as he also maxed out the mSATA slot and used a storage caddy in the DVD drive bay. From memory he use three 4tb SSD's and one 3tb mSATA SSD.

Do you have a recomendation of the brand and type, I know little about this stuff but in my defense I can touch type.. Could I buy a ssd that wont fit?

 

[MattyB]

You need 2.5" SSD's so don't buy the newer M.2 or NVMe style drives as they won't fit your machine without a special adapter and even then I'm not sure on compatibility.

Samsung make great SSD's but most on the market are pretty decent. If you go for the cheaper brands like ADATA then expect less performance and probably a shorter lifespan.
If you want to utilise your mSATA slot (which is under the keyboard) then go for something like this'

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/MSATA-S...m3665d2c478:g:9wsAAOSwAIde~X3p&frcectupt=true

 

[MattyB]

Also, don't forget that you can upgrade your GPU in this laptop. You probably have the 880M but a 980M is a good jump up and the 1060 or 1070 is also an option if you want to spend a little more.

 

[Powerclocks]

I was thinking of the Crucial MX500 2tb x 2

You need 2.5" SSD's so don't buy the newer M.2 or NVMe style drives as they won't fit your machine without a special adapter and even then I'm not sure on compatibility.

Samsung make great SSD's but most on the market are pretty decent. If you go for the cheaper brands like ADATA then expect less performance and probably a shorter lifespan.
If you want to utilise your mSATA slot (which is under the keyboard) then go for something like this'

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/MSATA-S...m3665d2c478:g:9wsAAOSwAIde~X3p&frcectupt=true

Thanks for that, I have a limited budget so unless there is some real gains to be had from using the mSata Slot I would leave that out of the equation, the mSata ssd's are about twice the price of the 2.5" ssd's, I only have around $700.00aud to shop with and the 2 x 2tb ssd's will cost that, any way I am assured that it will speed up my computer considerably so thanks to all those who gave input.
Cheers from OZ.

 

[MattyB]

Happy to help anytime.
Cheers from Adelaide....