X17 R2 supported SSD replacements/upgrades? Win10?

Lunar

I will soon be purchasing an X17 R2 laptop. I don't like the lack of specifications on the stock M.2 SSDs and I'd like to buy the lowest stock configuration and put my own 3rd party m2 SSDs in.

I see from the "Setup and Specifications" manual that the X17 R2 will take M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 x4 NVMe, up to 64Gps, up to 2Tb capacity.

I have some questions that Dell Sales Support are totally unable to answer:

1) What's with this 2Tb limit? Is that a limit of the system board, the BIOS, or just the limit to what Dell will ship as a stock configuration? Or put another way: what is stopping me from installing two 4Tb or even 8Tb M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSDs?

2) Closely related: what are the form factor issues? I see the X17 R2 ships with stock thermal shields. Will this be an issue? i.e. will 3rd party heat shields fit? Is there a list of known ones that do or don't fit? Am I limited to buying only ones without their own heat shields? Will the Dell ones fit any M.2 2280?

3) Are there Windows 10 drivers for everything? Can an X17 R2 run Windows 10 Pro without issues? I have a number of work infrastructure that won't work on Win 11 and I'd really prefer to not have to run it in a Win10 VM.

I'd be happy to talk with Dell/Alienware Tech Support about this but I don't seem able to engage with them without an existing service tag. Sales Support can't do anything except point me at the Specifications manual (which says very little) and tell me to contact Tech Support... without telling me how to contact Tech Support without a service tag.

So... has anyone swapped in 3rd party M.2 SSDs and/or run Win10 Pro on an X17 R2?

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Replies • 4

LinkRS

Planetary

Howdy,

Here are some answers, FWIW...

1. Most M.2 SSD that are larger than 2 TBs tend to be really expensive, and some are physically too thick (due to heat sink). If you can find one that is the right physical dimensions and are willing to pay the price, there is no reason it shouldn't work.

2.See above, you should be able to see the space in the maintenance manual. If it is a stock thermal shield (heat sink), it will probably be fine, but if it was one of the larger ones, it probably wouldn't fit. It is probably not a good idea to try and replace an included heat sink with an SSD with another one, as it may not meet the specifications needed for that drive. A good rule of thumb is if the SSD indicates it will work in a laptop, you would probably be fine :-)

3.Go to https://support.dell.com and look up the X17 R2, and see if theare downloads availble for Windows 10

If they do have drivers listed for Windows 10, you might be able to get Dell to ship it to you with Windows 10 Pro pre-loaded, so you don't have to install it yourself. If they don't have drivers, you can still try Windows 10 on your own. I would imagine that many WIn 11 drivers will work fine in Windows 10. However, I am not aware of any compatibility issues between Windows 10 and 11, so the real question is what is your app doing that makes it not work in Windows 11?

Good luck!

Rich S.

joe_w

Lunar

Thanks Rich!

No Win10 drivers for the X17 R2 and Dell tell me it's strictly Win11 only. Oh well.

I've also confirmed my intended SSDs will work in the X17 R2 - and sadly have confirmed that bigger than 2Tb isn't supported in either M.2 slot. Very disappointing seeing as other models can address 4Tb in the primary (but not secondary).

LinkRS

Planetary

joe_w said: 24h
Thanks Rich!

No Win10 drivers for the X17 R2 and Dell tell me it's strictly Win11 only. Oh well.

I've also confirmed my intended SSDs will work in the X17 R2 - and sadly have confirmed that bigger than 2Tb isn't supported in either M.2 slot. Very disappointing seeing as other models can address 4Tb in the primary (but not secondary).

Hi joe_w,

Out of curiosity, how did you confirm there is a hard limit of 2 TB for the M.2 slots? There is no electrical or other limitation (that I am aware of) that would cause a hard limit like that. As I previoulsy mentioned, it normally is an issue with physical dimensions, and controller logic. We haven't had a real issue with controller logic since the Windows XP days and spinning disks. Some BIOS (not UEFI) were only able to address up to a certain number of cylinders on a physical disk, so we had to use driver overlays to "trick" the system into using these drives, but those days are long gone.

ArmagedonRMF

Lunar

You will need 2TB single sided ssds like the Samsung 980 Pro, the x17 R2 really arrive with a generic Samsung single sided nvme and the mobo don't like other brand parts or dual-sided ssd like the XPG S70 Blade, tried them and had to buy 2x 2TB Samsung 980 Pro to this thing work, raid or no-raid.

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X17 R2 supported SSD replacements/upgrades? Win10?

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