SSD/HDD/HDD Triple Drives in M18XR2!

[mumer8637]

I'm expecting my Alienware M18XR2 soon and I separately purchased 2 x 2TB WD Green 2.5" drives to accompany with my 120GB Intel 520 SSD as boot drive.

Unfortunately, I just found out that these drives are 11.5mm thick and according to Alienware M18XR2's owners manual, the HDD thickness supported are:

So the M18XR2 can't handle a 11.5 drive at all and definitely can't support my preferred SSD/HDD/HDD setup!

But while watching an M18XR2's official tear-down video, I found the caddy, with 3 x 7mm SSDs, has a lot of unused space in between:

Now using Photoshop and doing some maths, the height of complete caddy turns out to be ~36.3mm.
Whereas, the three drives I have totals to 7mm + 11.5mm + 11.5mm = 30mm!

Furthermore, from another tear-down video, the interposers have the top two connections in one strip while the bottom strip is slightly flexible allowing to accomodate a drive with its connectors a few mm up/down from where they were expected:

So what I am saying is, ignoring the M18XR2's owners manual for a while, it seems that my HDD/HDD/SSD or SSD/HDD/HDD combination of setup might have a chance to work!
(FYI HDD/SSD/HDD is not a good idea as the center slot is SATAII ONLY!)

Any suggestions?

 

[terrastrife]

Well the hdds have to fit between the gaps of that triple connector in the second pic, with your leet measuring skills work out why they say 9mm total height.

i'm thinking the extra hight of a 12mm drive won't fir the chassis even if it fits the caddy. ALso the 12mm drive will probably not fit due to htting the middle back plane connector.

 

[mumer8637]

Well the hdds have to fit between the gaps of that triple connector in the second pic, with your leet measuring skills work out why they say 9mm total height.

i'm thinking the extra hight of a 12mm drive won't fir the chassis even if it fits the caddy. ALso the 12mm drive will probably not fit due to htting the middle back plane connector.

Thank you for the reply.

Like I said, the total height of caddy from top to bottom is ~36.5mm which goes in chassis. My total drive combination is 30mm so it will go into chassis.

As far as the middle back plane connector is concerned, that will definitely hit and that is why I'll be cutting that off and relying just on the four screws to hold the drive (sorry for not clearing that up before).

And as far as power is concerned, the green drives are 0.75A each so the M18xR2 can power my setup.

 

[AsRock]

Just fit the SSD else were and if the HDD wont fit in the area it be dremal time for me haha. And that little PCB board just looks like a expansion from the mobo ( Looks like you can just plug sata cables in to it ).


Cannot see enough to actually suggest were to put them and with it being new i am sure a dremal ad drill is actually out the question so i be sending it right back to their asses if they could not supply 1/2 decent parts..


Just don't open any thing till your sure you going keep it. So don't be excepting any thing on OS boot either..

So ask them if they have the parts so you can fit your larger drives and see how much of a ripp off that be or send it back and build ya own for the much better experience and i bet if you have any questions there is a bunch of TPU users are more than willing to help you.

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

Stupid idea in the making here. Lets tick off the reasons.

1) If it fit Dell would already be using the cheaper drives.
2) Just because it might fit doesn't mean it is laid out (screw position) to fit.
3) No air gap means toast drives.
4) A photoshop interpolation of caddy height is not reality. A guess at height means little. Hoping that it might fit is a pipe dream.



5) Assuming that this actually works, why? Who actually needs more than a boot drive and 1TB of storage on a laptop?

 

[mumer8637]

Just fit the SSD else were and if the HDD wont fit in the area it be dremal time for me haha. And that little PCB board just looks like a expansion from the mobo ( Looks like you can just plug sata cables in to it ).


Cannot see enough to actually suggest were to put them and with it being new i am sure a dremal ad drill is actually out the question so i be sending it right back to their asses if they could not supply 1/2 decent parts..


Just don't open any thing till your sure you going keep it. So don't be excepting any thing on OS boot either..

So ask them if they have the parts so you can fit your larger drives and see how much of a ripp off that be or send it back and build ya own for the much better experience and i bet if you have any questions there is a bunch of TPU users are more than willing to help you.

I am not going to open the HDDs seal until I am certain.
As far as the HDD caddy is concerned, a replacement is available so I can mess around with it.

I'll see when the laptop arrives, but I am definitely going to add one 2TB drive along my SSD. The another 2TB is pure luck!

 

[mumer8637]

Stupid idea in the making here. Lets tick off the reasons.

1) If it fit Dell would already be using the cheaper drives.
2) Just because it might fit doesn't mean it is laid out (screw position) to fit.
3) No air gap means toast drives.
4) A photoshop interpolation of caddy height is not reality. A guess at height means little. Hoping that it might fit is a pipe dream.



5) Assuming that this actually works, why? Who actually needs more than a boot drive and 1TB of storage on a laptop?

1) Dell has lot more to take of when modifying a setup so it'll take them months after a product is released. And if OEMs did everything, mods wouldn't exist!
2) We are talking about hardware mod in here so as long as it physically fits, and the system can power it, I am going to..
3) That's a concern with me as well but 1 SSD and two Green drives running <4000RPM most of the time, it might be possible, plus I can add a small 30 or 40mm fan (again hardware mod).
4) 100% true that's why I used '~' and if the estimate is wrong by upto 17.8%, its still a win win.
5a) I do!
5b) I moved from a desktop with 4TB storage so I need the same in my laptop.
5c) If its practically possible, because I can!

 

[Frick]

Will this take any physical modding? Have fun explaining that if you have to rma it.

 

[mumer8637]

Will this take any physical modding? Have fun explaining that if you have to rma it.

Physical modding is only with the caddy itself for which a replacement is easily available in the unlikely even of RMA.

 

[PLAfiller]

There are not many 7mm thick mechanical drives out there. WD has none, Seagate have SSHD- hybrid drive that is 8GB SSD+500GB mechanical, I don't know about Hitachi or Samsung, but I don't think they have any as well. Seems to be quite a predicament. One solution is to quit the SSD and just have a RAID of two drives. Even then aren't they 15mm high? - http://www.wdc.com/global/products/specs/?driveID=1088&language=1

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

I must apologize. Stupid was the wrong word. Insane is what I should have said. You're gambling on never needing an RMA and pictures being accurate. If you want to take the gamble, then power to you. I don't see the point, but I also can't ever see replacing a desktop with a laptop. Best of luck to you, and happy modding.

 

[mumer8637]

I must apologize. Stupid was the wrong word. Insane is what I should have said. You're gambling on never needing an RMA and pictures being accurate. If you want to take the gamble, then power to you. I don't see the point, but I also can't ever see replacing a desktop with a laptop. Best of luck to you, and happy modding.

Who said never needing an RMA!!
I said, I'll keep the drives for now, see (when laptop arrives) if there is any chance of fitting them, and if I can fit them, I'll do it on a new caddy! All stock parts will be untouched/unmodified in any way!

Going with the white paper, the best I can have is 1 7mm SSD and one 1TB 9.5mm HDD which frankly isn't enough for me (if you don't need it, it doesn't means other don't need it!!)

And I can't use a desktop for mobility issues, otherwise I would have never replaced my desktop with laptop in the first place.

Tip: Think before you type!

 

[SaiZo]

Would it not have been smarter to just have ordered the extra drives included with the laptop?
Also, I think Dell has their "own" SSD's - meaning they have a deal with some SSD manufacturer to create a different casing on the drives hence the size.

 

[AsRock]

Who said never needing an RMA!!
I said, I'll keep the drives for now, see (when laptop arrives) if there is any chance of fitting them, and if I can fit them, I'll do it on a new caddy! All stock parts will be untouched/unmodified in any way!

Going with the white paper, the best I can have is 1 7mm SSD and one 1TB 9.5mm HDD which frankly isn't enough for me (if you don't need it, it doesn't means other don't need it!!)

And I can't use a desktop for mobility issues, otherwise I would have never replaced my desktop with laptop in the first place.

Tip: Think before you type!

oops did not realize it was a Laptop should know i should have my morning coffee 1st haha.

lilhasselhoffer has a good point about the heat of the drives and many people will recommended you to keep a good eye on them.

A HDD drive on it's own can make a constant 25-30c in a open area and they tend to start over heating over 45c being 50c+ being way to hot.

Now your on about putting 2 right next to each other which adds trapped heat too as there going act like heatsinks to each other and OMG if the SSD is in between shii it be the hottest SSD ever lol.

You using it for gaming too ?, because you better be well aware of a great chance of it over heating and recommend some laptop cooler for it but before you get one check were the hot spots are and the air flow direction so you know what to go for and that you be able to change the fan direction on the laptop cooler.

Another thing too with DELL these days if they send a tech there is a good chance they will send a 3rd party tech to you and you better watch them like a hawk. O yeah they don't always remember how to strip them or put them back together right..

Reason being when one was sent to me the crazy bitch got this tube of thermal paste and used the whole frigging thing on the GPU\CPU but shit you can do if you want to keep your warranty as they supposed to know what they are doing.

When i went to stop the guy from doing it he said well he said the repair cannot be finished and the warranty will be void if i did not allow him to do it so i phoned DELL and got the same shit and that he was right to use this whole tube on the chip which was more like 15 pea size amounts.


One day i will open it and show people the sad shit that DELL get up too even though i am sure most know already ( on tech forums ) but still.

 

[mumer8637]

Would it not have been smarter to just have ordered the extra drives included with the laptop?
Also, I think Dell has their "own" SSD's - meaning they have a deal with some SSD manufacturer to create a different casing on the drives hence the size.

Apparently NO! Dell only offers either an SSD + 1TB or Triple SSDs!
I want 1 SSD and the best possible capacity and (EDIT) 1 TB isn't!

 

[mumer8637]

oops did not realize it was a Laptop should know i should have my morning coffee 1st haha.

lilhasselhoffer has a good point about the heat of the drives and many people will recommended you to keep a good eye on them.

A HDD drive on it's own can make a constant 25-30c in a open area and they tend to start over heating over 45c being 50c+ being way to hot.

Now your on about putting 2 right next to each other which adds trapped heat too as there going act like heatsinks to each other and OMG if the SSD is in between shii it be the hottest SSD ever lol.

You using it for gaming too ?, because you better be well aware of a great chance of it over heating and recommend some laptop cooler for it but before you get one check were the hot spots are and the air flow direction so you know what to go for and that you be able to change the fan direction on the laptop cooler.

Another thing too with DELL these days if they send a tech there is a good chance they will send a 3rd party tech to you and you better watch them like a hawk. O yeah they don't always remember how to strip them or put them back together right..

Reason being when one was sent to me the crazy bitch got this tube of thermal paste and used the whole frigging thing on the GPU\CPU but shit you can do if you want to keep your warranty as they supposed to know what they are doing.

When i went to stop the guy from doing it he said well he said the repair cannot be finished and the warranty will be void if i did not allow him to do it so i phoned DELL and got the same shit and that he was right to use this whole tube on the chip which was more like 15 pea size amounts.


One day i will open it and show people the sad shit that DELL get up too even though i am sure most know already ( on tech forums ) but still.

First of all, thanks for a reply that actually helps!
Will definitely keep an eye on dell technicians.

I agree about the heat thing and definitely won't be stacking them up neck and neck.
Plus with one SSD and two green drives, even a small gap should be enough for cooling.

Anyways, I did some more maths and as it turns out the modified caddy WILL support my three drives (7mm + 11.5mm + 11.5mm) but the connector with SATA0 and SATA1 doesn't has enough spacing to connect to a 7mm and 11.5 mm.

Since the laptop is brand new, and I don't want to mess toooooo much with it, I am just going to modify the caddy and fit:
1 120GB Intel 520 SSD
1 2TB WD Green 5400rpm
This way the spacing would be enough for ventilation and definitely no compatibility issues (unofficially ofcourse).

Later on, once the 'new laptop charm' is over, I'll make my own SATA strip and a custom caddy with probably a small fan for my SSD + 4TB combination as initially planned!

And just for those who think 4TB is too much; if you don't need it, that doesn't means its a stupid idea!!

 

[mumer8637]

UPDATE!!

I got my laptop and drives a couple of days ago. Actually I decided to switch my SSD to Samsung 840 Pro Series 256GB because of its controller.

Anyways, there was one disappointing thing in the entire .....case.....
The WD 2TB 11.5mm drive turned out to be 14.5mm!!!!!
I don't know why WD claims it to be 11.5mm form factor but I measured it to be 14.5mm ± 5%.
Because of this dramatic size difference, my original dream was no longer possible.

I was, however, able to get the following drives in the (very slightly modified) caddy:
1 7mm 256GB Samsung 840 Pro Series
1 14.5mm 2TB WD 2.5" Green Drive

2TB is still pretty decent; specially 1TB more than Alienware (Dell) were officially offering!

Furthermore, there is ample spacing in between, top of top drive and bottom of bottom drive for cooling.
The SSD stays under 38/39°c under maximum load and the HDD sometimes touches 42/43°c ONLY when both drives are under maximum load for more than an hour!

Thanks to everyone who replied to this thread earlier.

 

[PLAfiller]

UPDATE!!

Anyways, there was one disappointing thing in the entire .....case.....
The WD 2TB 11.5mm drive turned out to be 14.5mm!!!!!
I don't know why WD claims it to be 11.5mm form factor but I measured it to be 14.5mm ± 5%.
Because of this dramatic size difference, my original dream was no longer possible.

Thank you for posting back and not just letting the thread die without a conclusion. I am happy for you, that everything worked out. I don't why you were left with the impression WD drives were 11.5?- if you scroll back to my previous post with the link it says 15mm. And that's their official web page. Anyway, it's irrelevant now. Wish you the best.

 

[mumer8637]

Thank you for posting back and not just letting the thread die without a conclusion. I am happy for you, that everything worked out. I don't why you were left with the impression WD drives were 11.5?- if you scroll back to my previous post with the link it says 15mm. And that's their official web page. Anyway, it's irrelevant now. Wish you the best.

True but on their homepage, i.e http://wdc.com/en/products/internal/mobile/ it used to say 11.5mm. I am pretty sure that's what it said cause I have a screenshot that I mailed to a friend. However, its been corrected now i.e 15mm. Still I got a config I can live with so I'm fine with it. Will be posting benchmarks in a couple of days..