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M17x vs M6400 with SSD

post #1 of 6
10/8/09 at 11:33pm
Thread Starter 
To give a little background we are purchasing a laptop to be a mobile SQL migration machine. Video power does not matter, we are only interested in pure processing power from a SQL standpoint. Both machines will be x64 with SQL 2005 x64.

Below are the two machines we specced and received demos of and obviously the M17x destroyed the 6400 with the RAID SSDs and even beat out a tower server we had that ran RAID 10.

M6400
Q9100 Processor
8GB 1066MHz RAM
2x 500GB SATA in Raid 0

M17x
Q9100 Processor
8GB 1333MHz RAM
2x 512GB SSD in Raid 0

The first question - Is there any downside to just throwing two SSDs in a RAID 0 configuration into the M6400 and in theory it should have very similar performance results right? Anyone see a downside to this? With this configuration you will still have docking functionality and a "proffesional" looking laptop.


The second question - If indeed there is a downside to going with the SSD in the M6400 approach, and Alienware is the better choice between the two. Seems like it would be more reasonable to go with a Sager?
3 160GB SSD RAID 0
I7 Processor
Triple Chan Memory

Anyone care to share their thoughts?
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post #2 of 6
10/9/09 at 11:25am
your third option seems the best for what your doing especially with SQL though if money was no object consider going SLC instead of MLC based SSD drives.

I recommend OCZ Agility EX in 128GB flavor x3
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post #3 of 6
10/9/09 at 12:15pm
NP9280 with the desktop procs might be an option also.
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post #4 of 6
10/9/09 at 12:24pm
Thread Starter 
thank you both for the reccomendations, I will pass it along.

The 3rd option is definitely the "best no money held" option, but the first milestone to cross is the M6400 vs Alienware. Anyone see an issue with throwing SSDs into the 6400 and creating a comparable machine to the Alienware?
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post #5 of 6
10/9/09 at 12:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Similac View Post
thank you both for the reccomendations, I will pass it along.

The 3rd option is definitely the "best no money held" option, but the first milestone to cross is the M6400 vs Alienware. Anyone see an issue with throwing SSDs into the 6400 and creating a comparable machine to the Alienware?
I see no issue as far as hardware configuration concerns. but is the cost justifiable between a Dell and an Alienware?

cheers ...
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post #6 of 6
10/9/09 at 12:35pm
I know for a fact that the 2x 256GB SSDs in the alienware are Samsung Summit drives which will suffer read and write issues down the road without a trim firmware to keep the drives fresh. If they are under warranty it wont be an issue and easily replace your RAID10 solution down the road.
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