SSD + HDD combo VS single SSD: heat, fuss and value

Thomuel

Member
Hello kindly folks, I'm back for my bi-monthly obsessive laptop spec questions (I should really just buy the damn thing already, but mulling over potentials has become a pretty neat hobby in itself, who knew?)

Considering a Defiance II, I have a couple of questions about upcoming features and the pros/cons of opting for a single large-ish SSD, say, a 500GB Samsung EVO, or going the marginally cheaper (and more spacious) route of a 250GB SSD with a bog standard 5400rpm HDD for bulk storage.

1 Given that heat is a much-discussed issue for gaming laptops, would running two drives make a difference? Does the HDD just sit quietly while not in use or is it going to be whirring around taxing the cooling system? Also, what about power draw, device life-span and suchlike? I'd be willing to pay a bit more for a larger SSD if it was going to have an impact on this.

2 This will probably sound like an incredibly dumb question, but is there any hassle involved in managing two drives that I might not have considered? This is my OCD talking, but I quite like the idea of just having everything all neat and in the one place... does this feeling have any basis in reality, or should I just stop being weird?

3 According to what I've read online, I'm aiming to get a Samsung EVO SSD as there seems to be a general consensus that they're 'the best', but as someone who's never had one before are there any other (cheaper? reliable?) brands I should consider?

4 The Defiance chassis is, I believe, now shipping on other sites like MYSN with G-Sync. Will this feature be coming to PCS and, if so, is it worth waiting for?

I'm looking forward to your input! Thanks,

Tom
 

mantadog

Superhero Level Poster
SSD's are generally cooler running that than HDD's because they have no moving parts, but all in all the heat generated by a HDD is negligible and doesn't really have much impact on other portions of the system. The HDD will draw power when not in use but it wont be drawing max power, the SSD will be more power efficient.

Having 2 drives isn't too much of an issue, it is slightly more of a task if you need to move windows default save locations like 'my documents' but its just a one time job, so no real issues having multiple drives.

the Samsung drives are pretty damn good, I wouldn't look any further.

I'm sure it will be coming to PCS, when I don't know. it is a nice feature but hardly the be all and end all IMO. If your in the market for a machine its best to just jump in because theyre is ALWAYS something round the corner.
 

SlimCini

KC and the Sunshine BANNED
'Neatness' will come down to how well you file things, not whether you have one or two drives.
 

Thomuel

Member
Thanks for the quick replies.

I suppose G-sync would only actually work on the laptop screen itself anyway, right? Unless I bought a compatible TV... when I'm at home I often plug in to a big old LCD thing at which point G-sync would presumably be useless?

One more question while I'm here, is it smooth sailing to convert HDMI to DVI with an adaptor, seeing as the aforementioned LCD monster doesn't have an HDMI port? I've read a couple of conflicting things about this...

Thanks again.
 

steaky360

Moderator
Moderator
No TV's have G-Sync so you'd need a monitor and GSync only works via display port (I believe) - I don't know if the Gsync enabled laptops work with external GSync monitors unfortunately.

You can convert from HDMI to DVI pretty easily though.
 
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