Conakry Coggins
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In my experience I haven't had any scratches. It's important to remember that different thermal pastes have different application methods. IC Diamond does not need to be spread in a layer over the CPU and GPU and instead will spread itself when the heatsink is applied, I suppose improper application could cause scratching but I have never had that problem. T|I has a review of IC Diamond you might take a look at. Innovation Cooling - Diamond 24 Review - Tech|Inferno
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First and foremost the first time I ran this game on my R1 it used Intel integrated GPU by default. Fix this by selecting "High-performance Nvidia processor" under the program settings in the Nvidia Control Panel. On the GT555m, the game itself defaults to medium settings but I have had no trouble running it on high. Haven't had the chance to get actual fps readings but I find it smooth and playable on high, just stay away from Physx.
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As far as I know the M14x R1 supports a maximum of 8GB at 1600MHz while R2 supports up to 16. I would also be interested to hear if anyone has gotten 16GB working in their R1. In terms of your upgrade, the SSD and 8GB will still give you a nice performance improvement.
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I have re-pasted my m14x R1 twice using IC Diamond and have been really happy with it. It brought my temps down between 10 and 20C under load compared to stock paste. My numbers might be a bit off, it's been a while since I did my first re-paste but I know it was solid improvement in both idle and load temperatures.
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Windows 8 --> Worth Updating?
Conakry Coggins replied to Duna Unha's topic in Alienware M14x / AW 14
In my experience, Win8 has had several somewhat minor performance improvements made over 7. Most notably the boot time is faster and in my experience I'm getting better battery life with it on my m14x R1. The UI does take some getting used to, I did not enjoy it at first but given some time I have found it pretty easy to navigate. I would suggest to anyone still on the fence to find a copy of 8 that they can try out and run in a virtual machine to get a taste of it. The UI is going to be the biggest change and you'll either hate it or love it (or hate it but continue to use it until you kind of start to love it.)