which hard drive please?

[JennyM]

Hey again all,
I posted this in wrong section & got no answer so I've retyped the question here... I can't order my sons alienware 14 laptop until I understand what hard drive to get, anyone? His birthday in 2 weeks so I need to get moving



1TB/5400 RPM + 80G caching mSATA +£80

256GB mSATA SSD Boot + 1TB 5400RPM SATA 6Gb/s +£210.00

500GB 5400RPM-SSD Hybrid Drive Included in Price

Also, does anyone know if you can still access the fans to clean the dust out, as easily as in the previous model's of the alienware laptops, by the 2 screws & removing backplate?

thanks,

Jenny

 

[digitalbrass]

Well, My choice would be, 256GB mSATA SSD Boot + 1TB 5400RPM SATA 6Gb/s, my second option 500GB 5400RPM-SSD Hybrid Drive Included in Price.

For the 200euros they are pretty much giving you the 1tb for free. a 256Gb SSD drive costs more then the 200euro they are charging you. Plus you get the 1tb. So the first option is best.

but unless he absolutly needs a laptop I would get a real desktop gaming computer, and if he knows anything about computers buy him the parts and he can build it at home. Which could be had for alot less the price of a laptop, be easily upgradable in the future.

but that is my opinion.

 

[JennyM]

Thanks, he already has an Alienware x51, so the laptop is just for weekends when he goes to his dads.

I don't understand what the hybrid drive is, I get what the 256 ssd boot with 1TB sata is, I understand that one, but not the hybrid one... it doesn't seem to have a lot of storage space, & nowadays I'd have reckoned 1TB was bare minimum...

 

[ejohnson]

The hybrid drive is pretty much a 500gb hard drive with a small solid state caching drive built into it.

Its good for entry level stuff and people who dont have alot of games... but it will fill up fast. I would go with the 256 + 1tb

 

[JennyM]

ok thanks both of you for quick response, very much appreciated, will get on with the order now xxx

 

[raynman]

This thread was one of the reasons I joined here instead of lurking. It was nice to see multiple people offer constructive (and accurate) advice without a bunch of bull.

I'm hoping you got the 256g SSD & 1TB configuration. There's no comparison with an SSD. They BLAZE! If I could offer some advice to someone who isn't familiar with the difference between SSD's and standard drives.

There's one significant difference in how you maintain these drives compared to mechanical drives. You should avoid doing a DEFRAG operation on an SSD because it serves no purpose (there's no lag between head moves) and it can actually reduce the life of your drive.

There's a company in your neck-o-the-woods (well, you're closer to Germany than I am...LOL!) that makes a very good defrag program (regardless of drive type) called O&O Software http://www.oo-software.com/en/products/oodefrag/index.html. Their defrag system is optimized to take into account the special characteristics of SSD's in that it will IGNORE an SSD when it's doing a whole-system (all drive) defrag. It also has the ability to perform what is known as a TRIM command on demand.

A good article on the subject can be found at http://www.buildcomputers.net/trim-support.html. Note that this article will also show you how to set up the TRIM function on Win7 and Win8 computers.