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m15 R5, clarifying question on secondary SSD?
Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5
I know my m15 R5 has a single 512GB SSD drive (BC711 NVMe SK Hynix 512 GB) which I believe translates to the M.2 2230 drive in the docs. The docs indicate that a second drive can be a M.2 2280 model up to 2 TB.
What that tells me is that I could add a second drive as long as it was an M.2 2280, and indeed Crucial indicates suggests: Crucial P5 Plus 2TB PCIe M.2 2280SS Gaming SSD | CT2000P5PSSD8 | Crucial.com. Is this correct?
Do I need some sort of heat shield for it? I see that mentioned a lot.
I just need more disk space to move less demanding games to the secondary drive freeing up space on the main drive for the more demanding ones.
Thanks, and apologies for asking this yet one more time, but it seemed the other questions were more geared toward replacing the main drive, raid, et al.
crimsom
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September 3rd, 2023 03:23
Hi Obatron thank you for sharing question.
Look at the earlier Dell storage extract from m15 R5 Setup and Specifications, it says there is only one M.2 primary drive.
When games are launched from secondary drive, temporary files are not deleted during the game and reduce the storage capacity, so there is a FPS performance drop and system crash. This results in excessive redistribution of files and early failure of the second SSD due the excessive heat.
If the games are not installed on the secondary drive, but just personal data files, there is no CPU/GPU processing conflict.
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crimsom
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September 2nd, 2023 19:41
Hi Obatron welcome to this free user-to-user Alienware laptop discussion forum. This is not Dell Support. Any change to your system is undertaken at your risk.
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Other threads advocate a large storage capacity OS(C:) boot drive because this is where the game applications shall be installed.
Advocate CT4000P3PSSD8 ultrafast 4TB Crucial P3 Plus PCIe 4.0 NVMe 2280 M.2 SSD.
Crucial P3 Plus 4TB PCIe M.2 2280 SSD | CT4000P3PSSD8 | Crucial UK.
Installing a low profile Dell heat shield is recommended.
How to Install an M.2 NVMe™ PCIe® SSD | Crucial | Crucial.com.
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It is not possible to move/install less demanding games to the secondary drive.
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Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 Setup and Specifications | Dell US.
(edited)
Obatron
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September 3rd, 2023 01:54
@crimsom Is there some technical reason that is preventing using the secondary drive for the game folders? I'm able to do it on any other system with multiple drives, or is it just because the secondary SSD is much slower?
Obatron
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September 3rd, 2023 20:55
Bah! This laptop has been one disappointment after another. It already gets hotter than a stove top under any video activity (game or web) unless I manually turn the fans on full speed. Sounds like replacing the primary drive is just going to exacerbate the issue heat shield or not.
Since I don't need anywhere close to 4TB (not spending that much on a old laptop) I guess I'll live with the existing 500G drive.
Thanks for the info.