Advice on getting a new laptop.

[Mr. Detective]

Hey guys,

I'm thinking of purchasing this laptop:

https://www.ibuypower.com/Store/iBUYPOWER-Chimera-N850HK1-Gaming-Laptop

I don't get what exactly is the difference between the M2 SSD and the primary hard drive SSD. Is the M2 faster than the latter? And then there are also different brands. Besides the speed and storage, is there anything else significantly different between, let's say, 480GB Kingston and 500GB WD Blue? Would getting an SSD make my laptop lighter than the default 1TB hard drive?

Even if I don't play games much, would you recommend getting an SSD over HDD or SSHD? Folks at reddit and youtube recommend me to get the 480GB SSD if I can. I also did a little research, and found that the Kingston UV400 is cheaper, but has better specs and reviews than the A400. The WD Blue SSD doesn't seem to have very good reviews, though.

As for what I will be using this for? Mostly surfing web, watching youtube, doing homework with Word or some office programs (last year of university), RPG Maker MV and Fireworks or Photoshop. I'm probably gonna play CS GO, BF4, occasionally, and maybe BF 1 and Doom 4. I bought BF4 already, and the entire game is around 50 GB. I think BF1, if I do buy it, would take up around that much space, with DLC. Not sure what other games I would be buying, but probably not many, since I mainly play on console.

 

[AceOfAces_Mod]

M.2 is a standard for small devices (not just SSDs) that use the computer's PCI Express Lanes. It's far faster than an SSD connected to SATA (as the SATA Standard has up to 600MB/s bandwidth, where as the PCI Express has far more bandwidth). M.2 SSDs are really small (the size of 1.5 credit cards in width), so they don't add that much weight.

Now, in all honesty, WD makes some great HDDs. Kingston, however are more trusted for SSDs in my book (since they have developed a lot of chip based memory products (such as RAM)).

SSDs and SSHDs are best as main drives. If you have two slots for the laptop, get a small enough SSD (so you have the OS and some high priority programs for you) and have a large 2.5" HDD on the second slot.

If it has one slot, best to get an SSHD, unless you decide to replace the DVD/Blu-ray drive with a caddy for a second drive. While not as fast as a pure SSD/HDD solution, it caches the most used files on the SSD part of the hybrid drive, so it speeds up programs you use the most (and the OS as well).

 

[Fornoreason1000]

M2 is the socket type standard, it is faster the the standard SATA.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.2. basically m2 allows you to write faster than 6gbits/s which is very quick, even by SSD standards.
you'll notice the SSD in the m2 sections have ratings up to 3000Mb/s but the "primary" only get up to 500mb/s

SSD if you can, preferably a newer model. If you're worried about SSD lifetimes , they last up to around 2 petabytes.... that is ~2 thousand terabytes but before you panic read this.
http://techreport.com/review/27436/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-two-freaking-petabytes

The difference in HDD's is the write speeds, read speeds (the primary section only has minute differences) and storage space. Samsung are pretty good but expensive. WD and Seagates are also good. not sure about the others.

 

[Frogboy]

Seems like overkill for a machine that you don't plan to game much on ... not that there's anything wrong with getting too much. It's better than the opposite.

 

[Mr. Detective]

Thanks for the responses, guys.

So, for my purpose, would it be wise to get an SSHD and a 120GB SSD, or just a 480GB SSD for the primary hard drive? The M2 SSD is quite fast, but is it necessary?

120GB SSD is probably enough for windows installation, and maybe one game. Or I could put games in the SSHD, but they might be load slower. Not that I'll ever need that much storage.
480GB is probably enough, only as long as I don't download too many games...
Hm...

By the way, you guys know if the price shown at the end already included sales tax?

Seems like overkill for a machine that you don't plan to game much on ... not that there's anything wrong with getting too much. It's better than the opposite.

Yeah, I guess you can say so. But I just wanted a multipurpose machine, just in case. The keyboard is what really make me want to buy this one over the others.

 

[AceOfAces_Mod]

The size of the SSD depends on what programs will be in it (aside from the OS). if you want a lot of programs in it, it may be a good idea to get a large one. If not, save your money and get a small one.