Hi.. back again with refined gaming laptop spec

[DubiousDel]

Hey Peeps.

So I rang up PCS ready to order, but at the last minute wanted to add an SSD - however in the the 15 inch you cannot have a disk drive and 2 HD's. So the expert on the phone recommended - 120GB INTEL® 525 mSATA MLC SSD - (mini PCIe SSD for extra storage). What are the pros and cons of this compared to a standard SSD HD? I'm pretty bad when it comes to HD's and SSD's. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also let me know what you think to the spec as a whole.

Thanks in advance.

Showing Quote Reference 554416
Chassis & Display Vortex Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3630QM (2.40GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM) 8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 675MX - 4.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
2nd Graphics Card NONE
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 500GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD5000BPKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
2nd Hard Disk NONE
SSD CACHE DRIVE 120GB INTEL® 525 mSATA MLC SSD - (mini PCIe SSD for extra storage)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 4x BLURAY ROM, 8x DVD ±R/±RW & CYBERLINK SOFTWARE
Memory Card Reader Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Sound Card Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Network Facilities GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N135 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options 3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Floppy Disk Drive NONE
Firewire 1 X 1394a FIREWIRE PORT
Battery Vortex Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)
Power Lead & Adaptor 1 x UK Power Lead & 180W AC Adaptor
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Laptop Cooling Stands NONE
Carry Case Tech Air 15.6" Classic Toploading Case (£18)
Monitor NONE
Keyboard & Mouse INTEGRATED BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Mouse INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Gaming Mouse Pad Razer Goliathus Omega Speed Mouse Mat (£14)
Speakers NONE
Webcam INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Headsets NONE
Surge Protection NONE
Printer NONE
External Hard Drive NONE
Warranty 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Home Installation NONE
Dead Pixel Guarantee 1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs (£19)
Intel Anti-Theft Technology FREE 90 Day Intel Anti-Theft Trial - Prevent Data Access upon Theft
Insurance 1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Data Recovery NONE
Delivery STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days

 

[wowcraftify]

Hi there, it looks fine for a gaming spec, is there anything in particular you want advice on or just the whole rig? I'd make sure the SSD will the be hard disk with the OS installed, you might wanna double check with PCS. Looks fine overall.

 

[DubiousDel]

Hi there, it looks fine for a gaming spec, is there anything in particular you want advice on or just the whole rig? I'd make sure the SSD will the be hard disk with the OS installed, you might wanna double check with PCS. Looks fine overall.

Well the SSD isn't in the hard disk section of the spec. It's in the SSD cache, apparently plugged as a card into the motherboard. The reason for this is the 15 inch laptops cannot fit the disk drive and 2 hard drives as there just isn't space. I mean will this card function the same as a standard SSD drive?

 

[javthrower]

maybe you should consider the seagate hybrid drive? one drive which is both hdd and ssd! also the 17.3 inch vortex is cheaper

 

[DubiousDel]

maybe you should consider the seagate hybrid drive? one drive which is both hdd and ssd! also the 17.3 inch vortex is cheaper

Have obviously considered the hybrid but the difference is not noticeable I was told. The full blown SSDs are significantly faster. 17.3 inch makes it less portable but I do see what your saying, may consider this!

 

[wowcraftify]

The card, SHOULD be ok but I can't imagine it to be as good as a full blown SSD, I have a 15 & 17 inch laptop & I never notice the difference in size, if the 17 inch can fit a disc drive and two HDDs then I'd go for a 17inch & benefit from an SSD instead of a hybrid drive or SSD cache.

 

[DubiousDel]

The card, SHOULD be ok but I can't imagine it to be as good as a full blown SSD, I have a 15 & 17 inch laptop & I never notice the difference in size, if the 17 inch can fit a disc drive and two HDDs then I'd go for a 17inch & benefit from an SSD instead of a hybrid drive or SSD cache.

Urgg 17 inch Laptops are so big and bulky tho and I want the portability of a 15.... oohhhh these choices!

 

[DubiousDel]

Apparently you cannot directly load programs onto SSD Cache Drives, where as with a SSD boot drive you can. With the Cache Drives, they learn what programs you use regularly and transfer them over from your main storage HDD so these regularly used programs can benefit from the extra speed. I don't know if this makes any sense at all though, haha!

 

[vanthus]

Apparently you cannot directly load programs onto SSD Cache Drives, where as with a SSD boot drive you can. With the Cache Drives, they learn what programs you use regularly and transfer them over from your main storage HDD so these regularly used programs can benefit from the extra speed. I don't know if this makes any sense at all though, haha!

The way it's listed on the spec is a bit confusing,but the 120GB INTEL® 525 mSATA he selected isn't a cache drive,you can install anything you want on it.