Find up to 64GB RAM memory and 2TB SSD storage for your Alienware. Certified, guaranteed compatible RAM upgrades for your Dell Alienware. Lifetime warranty. All SSDs supplied are from Crucial; the leader in SSD reliability and compatibility. The Alienware 15 R3 comes with two Samsung 8GB DDR4 2667MHz RAMs. The model is M471AK43BB1-CTD. Removing the M.2 SSD. Remove one screw and take the SSD out of its slot. Toshiba 256GB NVMe SSD, Dell P/N: 08D5HT. Removing the hard drive. Remove three screws and disconnect the SATA cable from the motherboard. You can remove the hard drive.

This handy guide will teach you how to upgrade all of the major user-serviceable components of the Alienware 17 R5, including its memory, 2.5-inch bays, and mSATA slot.

Before You Begin

As for cable, What you need is at one sata data cable, one power cable and if your machine’s disk slot is 3.5 inch, you also need a ssd case to fit the 2.5 inch ssd into the slot. 1.-Install SSD in place of HD that came with computer. For Alienware laptop users it's just a few screws removal and you are done. Place your new SSD the same way your old HDD was. In some cases you'll need to re-use an adapter connected to your old HDD. 2.-Enter BIOS SETUP. There you'll need to choose between RAID or AHCI for the mode. 1.-Install SSD in place of HD that came with computer. For Alienware laptop users it's just a few screws removal and you are done. Place your new SSD the same way your old HDD was. In some cases you'll need to re-use an adapter connected to your old HDD.

Please take note of the following prior to working on your Alienware 17 R5:

• Unplug the notebook: Shut down the notebook completely and disconnect it from AC power.
• Find a clean working area: Clear off a table, bar or other hard, flat surface to work on your notebook. You should have at least four times the surface area of the Alienware 17 available. The area should be indoors and well-lit.
• Required tools: a small Phillips-head screwdriver (magnetized recommended), a small tray/container for screws (multi-compartment recommended), and a clean towel large enough to cover the Alienware 17.

Disclaimer: This DIY is meant as a guide only; the steps listed apply only to the Alienware M17 R5. Follow this DIY at your own risk; NotebookReview.com takes zero responsibility for any damage caused to your device, including any warranties voided as a result of following this guide.

What this Guide Covers:

We’ll detail how to upgrade the following components in the Alienware 17 R5:

• Memory (RAM) – all four slots, including those under the keyboard
• Storage – both available 2.5-inch drive bays
• mSATA SSD slot

Removing the Bottom Panel and Battery

It’s necessary to follow these steps prior to following any other part of this guide.

Removing the Bottom Panel

Complete the steps listed in “Before you Begin” prior to following this section. Once you’ve finished them, place a towel on your working area and lay the notebook upside down on top of it with the front facing you. Two screws need to be removed in order for the bottom panel to come off; they are the only two black screws located at the back of the notebook behind the air grates. Use the Phillips-head screwdriver to remove these screws, and place them in the small container so they won’t get lost.

The notebook’s entire bottom panel is one piece; to remove it, grab the corners of the chassis closest to you and wrap your thumbs around the front rubber feet, then apply horizontal pressure and pull towards you; some wiggling may be required. Slide the panel towards you until it stops (just less than a centimeter), then lift it up and remove it. Set this aside.

Removing the Battery

This image details all of the visible components after removing the Alienware 17’s bottom panel; the battery is the black rectangular object located at the bottom center. This must be removed to reduce the risk of electrical problems when removing some of the other parts.

Grasp the end of the shrink-wrapped section of the battery’s cable with your thumb and forefinger and then pull up gently; some wiggling may be required. Use minimal effort; if this appears to be taking too much effort, use your screwdriver to gently push upward on the white connector on either side (USE CAUTION). Once the cable is disconnected, unscrew the two screws holding the battery (note that these are different from the ones you already removed; separate them in your container if possible). Next, remove the battery by placing your index finger in the cutout where the battery cable lies and pulling it towards yourself. Set the battery aside.

As a precaution, drain excess/leftover electricity from the notebook’s circuits by pressing the power button several times. Be careful when turning the notebook over and opening the lid to do this.

Upgrading the 2.5-inch Storage Drives

One 2.5-inch drive is located in the center of the chassis above the battery compartment and the other is to the right of the battery compartment. Remove the four outermost screws on either drive bay, labeled in this image, to release the drive caddy from the drive bay. Once these screws are removed, remove the drive caddy as follows:

• For the center drive bay, pull the black plastic tab on the right of the caddy to the left; the caddy will budge just a little. Use your finger to lift up the left edge of the caddy and remove it from the chassis at an angle to avoid damaging the drive connector.
• For the bottom-right drive bay, use the cutout at the bottom right of the caddy as leverage for your finger; gently pull upward and then remove the drive at an angle.

Four screws hold the storage drive in its caddy. Prior to removing them, pay attention to how the drive is oriented in the caddy because your new one must be oriented in the same way (the drive pins’ positions are particularly important). As a general rule of thumb, the drive’s manufacturer label will always be visible when the drive is seated in the caddy.

After installing your replacement drive in the caddy (secured with its four screws), reinstall the caddy into its slot at an angle. Be careful when doing this; the drive must match up exactly with the slots. No significant pressure is required to make this happen; if it seems resistant, back out and double-check the orientation of the pins. Finally, replace the four screws to secure the caddy once it’s in its bay.

Upgrading the Bottom Memory Slots

The Alienware 17 has four total memory slots; these are the first two. The others, as well as the mSATA SSD, are located under the keyboard, which is described in the next section.

Note: The top memory module must be removed in order to access the bottom module.

Note: It’s recommended to install memory modules in identical pairs for compatibility and performance reasons.

Using your thumbs, push the retaining clips on either side of the memory module apart; this will cause the memory module to pop upward and sit at about a 30 degree angle. Remove the memory module by gripping either side of it with your thumb and forefinger and pulling directly outward along the angle it’s oriented. Avoid touching the gold pins on the bottom of the memory module after removing this because doing so can hamper functionality and/or damage the pins.

Reinstalling a memory module is the opposite. Pay attention to the notch at the bottom of the memory module where the gold pins are; this will only allow the memory module to be inserted in one way. Grasp the memory module on either side with your thumb and forefinger and slide it into the slot on its 30-degree angle. The bottom memory module must be installed first. Once fully inserted (the gold pins shouldn’t be visible), push the memory module downward so it’s horizontal; the retaining clips will click into place.

We recommend following our thorough Notebook Memory Upgrade Guide for additional tips and tricks on how to ensure your memory is installed correctly.

Upgrading the Second Set of Memory Slots and the mSATA Slot

This part of the guide is recommended for experienced users only; it requires removing a great deal of screws and taking the notebook completely apart with a much greater risk of permanent damage.

First, follow the directions in the “Upgrading the 2.5-inch Storage Drives” section of this guide to remove both storage drives (the caddy must be removed even if the second bay has no drive).

Remove the optical drive situated in the bottom left of the chassis; unscrew the four screws holding it in place and then carefully remove its connecting cable from where it’s routed in the top of the optical drive. After that, gently remove the optical drive by lifting up either the bottom or top edge but only move it far enough that you can detach its connecting cable on the optical drive’s lower right; grasp and pull directly outward. This should require minimal effort. Set the optical drive aside.

A white cable is under where the optical drive was; this is the connector for the keyboard and touchpad. This must be gently removed before proceeding; flip up the connector where the white cable enters the slot and then pull the cable straight back (horizontal with the chassis).

The other screws that must be removed are indicated in this image; unscrew and set aside. Note that any screw labeled “P” indicates “palm rest” and must be removed. This image also indicates any screws that are longer than the others with the letter “L.” If you don’t have a magnetized screwdriver, you may have to turn the notebook upside down in order for the screw to fall out; we recommend you only remove one screw at a time if you have to do this. Otherwise, many may fall out and get lost.

Great care is required for this next part. Once all the screws above have been removed, reorient the notebook so it’s still upside down but with its back is facing you. Press the spot indicated in this image with your thumb until the first clip comes undone (it will pop).

After the first clip pops, turn the notebook upside down so it’s facing upward as you would normally use it. Continuing to press in from the center on the indicated spot, and keep gently pressing as more clips come out which are holding in the top of the chassis. Slide your finger in between the top and bottom of the chassis as necessary to ease this process.

Note: If the clips are NOT coming apart with relative ease, RECHECK and ensure all of the screws are removed. You can severely damage the notebook if you use excessive pressure.

Once the top of the chassis pops free, DO NOT lift it away, instead, look inside towards the back right where a narrow white cable connector resides. Gently pull this out of its connector. You can then completely remove the top of the chassis and set it aside.

This image displays the locations of the two memory module slots and the mSATA slot.

The two memory modules are located in the middle, centered to the left; the removal and installation process for memory modules is the same as described earlier in this guide.

The mSATA slot is located at the bottom left; installation for this is similar to a memory module. Pay attention to how the pins are oriented on your mSATA drive; they must line up with the connector on the motherboard.

Putting the Alienware 17 Back Together

This is generally the reverse of the process described above. If you took the chassis apart completely to access the parts under the keyboard, be absolutely sure to connect the white cable at the back right before snapping in the top of the chassis. If you look closely at where it connects, a small white hinge on the front of it flips upwards; insert the white cable’s connector and then snap the white hinge closed. When snapping the top of the chassis back into the bottom of the chassis, start at the back of the notebook and work your way towards the front. Take great care to ensure the clips are lined up. There shouldn’t be any gaps between the top and bottom of the chassis when complete.

Do the following to finish putting the Alienware 17 back together:

1. Use the image referenced in the last section to identify where to use the longer screws. The longer screws go in holes labeled with 2.5XL8 (8 stands for 8mm); the smaller screws go in holes labeled 2.5XL3 (3mm). You can cause severe damage by using the 8mm screws in holes designed for 3mm screws. Absolutely make sure the four screws that go in under the optical drive are the smaller 3mm ones!
2. Replace the two 2.5-inch storage caddies in their respective bays as described in the “Upgrading the 2.5-inch Storage Drives” section of this guide.
3. Replace the optical drive; route the cable through the slots in the top of the metal caddy first and then connect it to the bottom right of the optical drive. Secure the caddy back into the chassis, taking note of where the cable is at all times (it should not get squashed under the caddy).
4. Replace the battery; secure it with the screws first and then insert its connector into the slot.
5. Ensure that you have no leftover screws.
6. Close the chassis; place the bottom cover on the chassis and slide it forward, then replace the two screws that hold it in place.
7. Plug the Alienware 17 into AC power and verify it starts normally. If you replaced the primary storage drive, you’ll need to reinstall the operating system. If the notebook doesn’t start, see the note at the beginning of this section about inserting the thin white cable into its slot before replacing the top cover of the chassis (assuming you took the notebook fully apart). If the keyboard and touchpad don’t work, see the note earlier in this section about reconnecting the cable under where the optical drive resides; this is in all likelihood the reason.

Conclusion

We described the upgrade process for the Alienware 17 R5’s memory and storage drives in this article. This included all four memory slots (including the secondary ones under the keyboard), the two 2.5-inch drive bays, and finally the mSATA slot (also under the keyboard). The primary two memory slots and two 2.5-inch bays are the easiest to access and upgrade. We recommend that only advanced users attempt to upgrade the secondary memory slots and mSATA drive.

Upon finding out the Alienware m15 r3 included two 2280 NVMe SSD bays plus a smaller 2230 bay I figured it would be an excellent opportunity to get up to speed with the latest and greatest in absurdly-fast-storage-devices.

What I didn’t expect was to happen upon a mystery. In this article I’ll be walking you through my experience of the Alienware m15 r3 and Crucials “P5” CT1000P5SSD8 SSD.

To spoil it up front, it’s not exactly the most thrilling of adventures. I found during my tests that the P5 showed a weird performance profile that – while on a par with some of the numbers Crucial reported – appeared to exceed their own tests by quite some margin while insisting upon reporting sequential read speeds that fell far, far short of my expectations.

This is particularly curious because sequential reads are something that SSDs are particularly good at.

Fitting the SSD

First thing’s first, you can’t test an SSD without sticking it into your computer. Fortunately the process is incredibly simple with the m15 r3. All of the screws required to access the bottom of the computer are cross-head and all but two of them are captive within the base. The two rear screws must be retrieved fully and set aside, but the remaining screws stay attached to the bottom panel. This is handy, since during the course of my testing I have removed and replaced the bottom panel of the Alienware m15 r3 more times than I’d care to count.

While unscrewing the base, the captive screws also cause the central plastic clips to release automatically – effectively prying the panel off – which is a really nice touch. Despite the SSDs being the only thing that’s supposed to be user-serviceable (lots of m15 owners will re-apply thermal paste), Alienware have gone to great lengths to make opening this machine straightforward.

Further clips release along the front edge of the baseplate, and it lifts off cleanly. Inside you’ll find whatever SSDs are fit in your stock build and you might also notice the distinct lack of spare heatshields for the unpopulated SSDs. This is something of a bugbear I have with Alienware systems. The stock Micron drive shipped in the m15 (made by Crucial’s parent company) isn’t exactly a stellar performer and I’d expect many customers to buy the minimum storage configuration and install two high-performance 1Tb or 2Tb SSDs. On the plus side they do- at least- have the tiny screws required to secure the SSDs, the omission of these screws is a complaint I’ve seen with other systems.

Out comes the stock Micron drive and in goes the uh… Micron drive ?
Upgrading the @Alienware m15 r3 with a @CrucialMemory P5 SSD to see how it chooches. pic.twitter.com/Oqz4VPkDbd

— Phil Howard (@Gadgetoid) August 5, 2020

The SSDs in the m15 r3 slot into a daughter board between the main board and the battery, this is an improvement over the nestled-in-the-battery style that the m15 r2 used.

Stock 512GB Micron SSD vs 1Tb Micron Crucial P5.
I still have no explanation for the P5s weirdly slow read speed.
Working on it! ? pic.twitter.com/ME4IDfZRLH

— Phil Howard (@Gadgetoid) August 20, 2020

The Crucial P5 SSD handily destroys the stock Micron disk in the m15 r3. It seems a tragedy that a gaming laptop specced-to-the-hilt should have such a woefully underperforming disk but it seems almost a given that these drives will be replaced with aftermarket upgrades. I guess you’ve got to leave something for the end user to upgrade.

You will, however, notice that the sequential read speed of the Crucial P5 (pictured on the left) falls short of the write speeds quite considerably, and additionally doesn’t punch too high above the Micron disk. This was typical of every single benchmark I ran using the P5 SSD in the Alienware m15 r3. But *only* in the m15 r3.

Tests

Honestly after conducting these tests I’m sick of unscrewing the bottom of the Alienware laptops. They’re surely among the most easy-to-get-inside computers on the market, but tackling those 8 screws really wears on you quickly.

Crucial P5 1TB

With repeated tests Crucial’s 1TB P5 SSD benched with a sensible read speed in the Alienware m15 r2 (my workstation) but at almost half the expected value in the m15 r3. Switching betweeen AHCI and RAID, system disk or auxiliary disk and any other permutation of tweaks failed to bring the m15 r3 tests in line with the r2. Truly baffling.

Above: Crucial P5 1TB, tested in Alienware m15 r2

Above: Crucial P5 1TB, tested in Alienware m15 r3

Even after coaxing Intel’s Rapid Storage Technology drivers onto my system by manually installing the device, and then switching the disks into RAID mode and rebooting didn’t magically recover all of the mysterious missing performance. However it did seem to make somewhat of an impact- raising scores from around 1.6GB/s to 2.2GB/s.

I prefer running in AHCI, however, since the RAID controller sits between the SSDs and the system and obfuscates useful benchmarking info such as disk temperature. Indeed in RAID mode neither HWINFO64 nor Crucial Storage Excutive could tell me the temperature of the SSDs, so I couldn’t tell if a drop in performance was due to wind direction, stray cosmic rays or overheating.

Crucial P5 2TB

Since I wanted to eliminate the issue being with the one specific 1TB P5 SSD I was testing, and additionally wanted to use the same disk as Crucial’s in-house test, I requested a 2TB P5 to replicate my experiments.

I tested this disk fresh out of box in both the Alienware m15 r2 and r3 and received very similar results to the 1TB part.

Both CrystalDiskMark and AJA System Test showed the same stonking write speeds alongside very similar and baffling slow read speeds. In the case of AJA System Test the write test is performed first and as far as I can tell the lower reported read speed (versus CrystalDiskMark) is a result of the drive getting pretty toasty and throttling to keep its temperature under control.

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Above: Crucial P5 2TB, fresh out of the box in the Alienware m15 r3

Above: Crucial P5 2TB, fresh out of the box tested with AJA System Test

Control Tests

Trying a different drive…

To verify I wasn’t seeing some general issue with the m15 r3 I grabbed one of my Samsung 970 Evo drives out of the Alienware m15 r2 and tested it in the r3. The result was much for muchness- these drives were bought at the same time with one used as a system disk and one used as a gaming disk. Their usage will have varied, but the results are within a reasonable margin for error from each other. It’s clearly not something wrong specifically with the Alienware m15 r3, but rather with its interactions with other disks.

Above: Samsung 970 Evo tested in Alienware m15 r2

Above: Samsung 970 Evo tested in Alienware m15 r3

Linux…

It also occurred to me to try Linux (Ubuntu 20.04 to be specific) on the m15 r3 so that I had a system free of Windows driver weirdness that could confirm if the SSD weirdness was due either to firmware/controller issues (hardware) or Windows driver issues (software). Not entirely to my surprise I found Linux giving me read speeds of around 3GB/s sustained with a few drops just under. Even testing 1000 reads of 512GB. This clearly implicates some driver level issue that somehow only affects a combination of Windows 10, the Alienware m15 r3 and the Crucial P5 series SSDs.

Of course these tests are not especially comparable to CrystalDiskMark results, so it’s quite possible I’m seeing a false positive correction of the disk performance and it’s some system or firmware level issue with the m15 r3.

Either way there’s clearly some obtuse issue with compatibility here, though I can’t seem to find where to point the finger.

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The stock SSD…

The stock Micron SSD that shipped with the Alienware m15 r3 is pretty tragic compared to its high-performance contemporaries, but isn’t all bad. It’s clear that whatever issue plagues the P5 in this particular configuration, it doesn’t affect Micron’s less fancy drives.

Above: Stock Micron drive tested in Alienware m15 r3

Hot, hot, hot

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If you plan to use the Crucial P5 in a laptop you will want to make sure you get a full complement of heat spreaders for your drives. Running the P5 without any kind of heat spreader quite considerably impacted sustained performance. I noticed a significant drop in speed when copying 200GB of Xbox Game Pass games from the 1TB disk over to the 2TB one. The 1TB – with heat spreader – remained around 65 degrees, while the 2TB without tended to hit 75 very quickly. CrystalDiskMark tests immediately after this bulk copy and before allowing the disk to fully cool revealed throughput of around 1GB/sec read and 880MB/sec write. Ooof.

Alienware are still shipping laptops with heat spreaders installed only on pre-installed drives, I noticed this both in my r2 and r3 which both shipped with one 512GB stock SSD that I immediately replaced and stowed away for emergencies. This stock drive came with a heat spreader installed, but additional spreaders for the extra bays (1 additional bay in the r2 and two additional bays in the r3) are nowhere to be found.

To be fair most workloads don’t necessitate copying 200GB of data from one disk to another, so this may not be a dealbreaker but you really should grab those heat spreaders to get the best out of your drives. If you’re buying for a desktop system then a heatsink should suffice- really you’re just looking for something to give the disk enough thermal mass to survive short bursts of sustained use that might occur when loading a game, rendering a video, copying files or running “npm install”.

Some of my more aggressive benchmarks (not on these SSDs mind) actually required me to take the bottom off the laptop and point a fan directly at the SSD. With games getting bigger and the “next-gen” titles expecting near continuous, high performance streaming of assets from disk, active SSD cooling could be an important addition to the gaming laptop space.

Crucial’s Magic Momentum Memory Caching

I’d like to say good things about Crucial’s Momentum driver for their SSDs. On paper it’s a good idea to use remaining system memory as a memory buffer for SSDs, and in a battery-backed system like a laptop there is, in theory, little chance of data loss. In practise, however, enabling Momentum Cache threw me into a nigh-on inescapable Windows 10 repair loop. It was only upon following these bizarre instructions specified by Ron on Microsoft Answers that I was able to boot the system and finally see Momentum in action. Not a good start.

Things took a turn for the better when actually benchmarking the memory-boosted storage, however. In my case sequential read/write speeds shot up to 8GB/s with dramatic performance increass all across the board.

With 32GB RAM in the Alienware m15 r3 it was very tempting to leave this caching enabled, but having read that it potentially causes issues with anticheat software (ugh) and being just a smidge afraid of spontaneous data loss I lost my bottle and opted to leave it disabled.

Since RAM caching only affects “hot” data that’s being read/written repeatedly there are few practical implications for this performance increase. Since CrystalDiskMark creates and reads files in a short period of time, it makes sense that they would stay in RAM and give an unnaturally positive outlook on caching. It may be more useful for increasing the endurance of your SSDs- something that has thus far not been a problem for me- than increasing performance. Tasks such as compiling software projects may see more immediate benefit from this caching and if I can summon the courage to enable Momentum Caching again I’ve certainly got some significant software projects that would be worth A/B testing the compile times of.

Conclusion

While this mystery remains unsolved you would be forgiven for avoiding Crucial P5 series SSDs for ugprading your Alienware m15 r3, but in spite of these findings the day to day performance of the SSDs is… fine. I don’t notice any practical difference between performance on my r2 with Samsung 970 Evo SSDs and the r3 with Crucial P5 SSDs.

The P5 is clearly Crucial’s answer to the 970 Evo and Evo Plus but, with both the price and performance keeping pace, it will be difficult to convince the average aftermarket upgrader to forego the “nobody got fired for buying IBM” choice of Samsung.

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Until I’ve run these SSDs into the ground I can’t stick my neck out and be the one to say “It’s fine to pick Crucial” but Micron SSDs seem to find their way into plenty of OEM builds and while SSD failures are inevitable there doesn’t seem to be the crises of crashes that gamer Samsung proponents would have you believe plague other manufacturers. So- I’ll happily say “pick these with confidence” and with any luck you’ll have forgotten who said that if they ever fail.

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On the subject of the weird benchmark figures… I’ve lodged an ongoing tech support query with the right person at Dell and it’s being looked into.