My main laptop that I use sometimes at work and mostly at home is an Alienware M18x R3. If you don't know what it is, it is basically a desktop computer masquerading as a not very portable laptop. It came with 2 hard drives, the main one being a SSD. The main drive was perpetually in the red zone and only 75GB. The second drive is a 1TB WD Blue. I decided to upgrade the SSD since they are pretty cheap. Also decided to max out the RAM from the factory 16GB to the 32GB the system can support.
All the parts arrived from Amazon yesterday, yay Prime, and tonight I set out to install what I can. Alienware provides pretty awesome instructions which is really nice considering they are part of Dell. I got out my iFixIt tool kit and set to pry open this monster. Once I got it open I realized that the main SSD is actually a mSATA card and the second hard drive is in a cradle with an open spot for a 3rd hard drive. On discovering that bombshell, I ordered a mSATA card and a cradle so I can clone it before installing. I tossed in the RAM, buttoned everything up, and sacrificed a small mammal, actually a pesky ant, and fired it back up.
Upon starting a few of the letters on the keyboard didn't work and the System Info screen said it had 32GB of RAM installed, but only 16GB were usable. So I shut it all down, took the back cover off and noticed one of the cables was not fully seated. Now to check into the RAM. Did some quick Google searching and found out that this laptop has Windows 7 Home Premium installed which can only support a max of 16GB of RAM for whatever reason only Bill Gates knows. After some head scratching I remembered I had a full Windows 7 Ultimate from a tower I built a super long time ago that no longer worked. I found the case it was in, I have issues with throwing things away, and entered the code into the "Windows Anytime Upgrade" window. The computer shut down and restarted a couple times and now the laptop has Windows 7 Ultimate and has a full usable 32GB of RAM.
The new mSATA drive, I ordered a 500GB one, and cradle will be in tomorrow at my Amazon pickup locker. I am also getting some cloning software and will do the cloning and swap Saturday.
Thought this might have been interesting for some. I forgot to take pictures, but if anyone wants to see the insides I will take some when I have it apart again.
All the parts arrived from Amazon yesterday, yay Prime, and tonight I set out to install what I can. Alienware provides pretty awesome instructions which is really nice considering they are part of Dell. I got out my iFixIt tool kit and set to pry open this monster. Once I got it open I realized that the main SSD is actually a mSATA card and the second hard drive is in a cradle with an open spot for a 3rd hard drive. On discovering that bombshell, I ordered a mSATA card and a cradle so I can clone it before installing. I tossed in the RAM, buttoned everything up, and sacrificed a small mammal, actually a pesky ant, and fired it back up.
Upon starting a few of the letters on the keyboard didn't work and the System Info screen said it had 32GB of RAM installed, but only 16GB were usable. So I shut it all down, took the back cover off and noticed one of the cables was not fully seated. Now to check into the RAM. Did some quick Google searching and found out that this laptop has Windows 7 Home Premium installed which can only support a max of 16GB of RAM for whatever reason only Bill Gates knows. After some head scratching I remembered I had a full Windows 7 Ultimate from a tower I built a super long time ago that no longer worked. I found the case it was in, I have issues with throwing things away, and entered the code into the "Windows Anytime Upgrade" window. The computer shut down and restarted a couple times and now the laptop has Windows 7 Ultimate and has a full usable 32GB of RAM.
The new mSATA drive, I ordered a 500GB one, and cradle will be in tomorrow at my Amazon pickup locker. I am also getting some cloning software and will do the cloning and swap Saturday.
Thought this might have been interesting for some. I forgot to take pictures, but if anyone wants to see the insides I will take some when I have it apart again.