Replacing hard drive in the MX11.....and question about GPU

[bsharrah]

Need some advice. I purchased one of these for my kid last year for his birthday. It had a 250gb drive that is quickly filling up with Steam games. I am considering a larger HD but am not sure what to use so any recommendations would be appreciated. Also, if I swapped out the HD, can I use the disk the laptop came with to reload everything or is there another way I need to go about doing this?

Regarding the GPU, as there any updated drivers out there, or is it possible to just turn off the integrated option and use an nvidia driver as opposed to the old dell driver that I always seem to have issues updating (though I have not tried in about a year).

Sorry. That was to read "question", not auction.

[Litesung]

You can find the drivers for your GPU on Nvidia's website.

You can also keep the GPU on all the time by enabling it through your BIOS settings (F2 on boot).

Any 2.5" HDD/SSD will fit. If you have another laptop with a larger storage drive you could just swap the drives. I suggest formatting the drive and re-installing windows fresh. Maybe you could just format the new drive, and clone your current 250gb drive.

Here is how to open up your M11x and install the hard drive. Make sure you unplug the battery before doing anything, and that you are grounded.

[bsharrah]

Thanks. I am considering this drive: Amazon.com: Seagate Momentus XT 750 GB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 32 MB Cache 2.5-Inch Solid State Hybrid Hard Drive Retail Kit STBD750100: Computers & Accessories

Any thoughts or opinions? Figured I would ask before pulling the trigger.

[Alienware-Pablo_R]

Hi, the tear-down process to upgrade the HDD is not that complicated. If you're installing a new HDD perhaps would be better to perform a fresh Windows installation. In that article you will find your system listed. Click your platform to find all the drivers and the correct order to install them.
However you should know none of the M11x revisions support SATA3 speeds. The good thing though is that if you ever upgrade to another laptop that does support Sata3 speeds, you can use that Hybrid at it's full capacity.
One more thing, Dell's VC driver has been proven to be stable and works better with Nvidia Optimus than the newest drivers.

[bsharrah]

Hi, the tear-down process to upgrade the HDD is not that complicated. If you're installing a new HDD perhaps would be better to perform a fresh Windows installation. In that article you will find your system listed. Click your platform to find all the drivers and the correct order to install them.
However you should know none of the M11x revisions support SATA3 speeds. The good thing though is that if you ever upgrade to another laptop that does support Sata3 speeds, you can use that Hybrid at it's full capacity.
One more thing, Dell's VC driver has been proven to be stable and works better with Nvidia Optimus than the newest drivers.

Any reason I should not just clone the HD before installation? I only have what the computer came with and do not wish to purchase a new copy of Windows 7 for a fresh install.

Also, by your comment regarding not supporting SATA3 speeds, would I be buying more of a hard drive than I can use in the MX11. I have no intentions of purchasing another laptop so the last thing I want to do is purchase a HD that will be best utilized in a future laptop. My son needs more space in his current machine. I would like to get a quality drive, but don't want more than I can use.

Thanks for your input.

[Alienware-Pablo_R]

Yes, you can clone your current HDD and then install it in the M11x. But it's recommendable to start fresh. You don't need to purchase a new copy of Windows, use the one shipped with the system .
You will be able to install that HDD in your computer and it'll even boost it. Just one more thing, the HDD you posted is Sata3, however it will be limited to Sata2 speeds, because the M11x doesn't support Sata3 speeds. But you will be able to use it normally without any issue.

[HavocATX]

Yes, you can clone your current HDD and then install it in the M11x. But it's recommendable to start fresh. You don't need to purchase a new copy of Windows, use the one shipped with the system .
You will be able to install that HDD in your computer and it'll even boost it. Just one more thing, the HDD you posted is Sata3, however it will be limited to Sata2 speeds, because the M11x doesn't support Sata3 speeds. But you will be able to use it normally without any issue.

Actually, there are other user threads HERE reporting that (however undocumented by Dell) the M11xR3 can support SATA3 speeds if used with a SATA3 drive.

If that being the case, a Crucial CT512M4SSD2 drive in 512GB is your fastest/big bang for the buck, and AlienRespawn should install the factory image to this drive.

The Momentus should be a good choice for the added 250GB capacity and lower cost, albeit with slower speeds. greater heat generation, and lower battery life.

[HavocATX]

Now after installing a 256GB Crucial M4 SSD I can make these observations...

The physical installation is simple enough. Use a quality screwdriver and refer the service manual first and you should have no problems.

Crystal Diskmark gave these numbers and the real world performance is fittingly snappy,

The AlienRespawn USB key I created to image the drive turned out to be corrupt for whatever reason. In hindsight I should have verified that it would boot the computer prior to to installing the SSD.

Not wanting to swap the HDD back in and make a second attempt at creating a respawn image, I decided to go ahead with a clean Windows install.

The reinstall took about 2-3 casual hours with the included downloading and driver installs.

Once I was up and running and finished with my Windows Updates I installed the AlienRespawn program and it created the respawn partition as well as a bootable USB reimage key. (I may try using that respawn key to image the old HDD just to see if it is successful and if it will include my Windows updates as well as my settings changes)

I only had a few days light use on the factory HDD image but I experienced a couple freezes and game glitches in that time. The clean install had an unexpected benefit of eliminating the glitches and program crashes I was having with Crysis when making graphics changes in the game Options. So far I have not experienced any freezes since.

Bottom line: It's a great upgrade that you can really notice in actual use; I recommend that you try a clean install if you previously experienced software problems, because the offender may be buried in the factory image and could get re-introduced with a factory respawn; the 256GB M4 is only 238.5GB for actual use and that left me 195GB-200GB free space after Windows, so even at $220 more in price, a 512GB SSD might have been a better choice for a micro gaming computer.