Looking for new laptop, don't quite understand all the options.

Hello, I'm looking for a new laptop before my old Optimus IV bites the dust (hard drive failed a few weeks ago, also very prone to overheating even after multiple cleans and laptop stand)

My budget is around £600-800. I'd like it to play some games but not intensively. I need it to be able to run a few memory heavy programs like matlab and some stats packages too. (8GB RAM? What's the difference except in price between 1x 8gb stick and 2x 4gb?)

I don't understand the hard drive options very well, I had a SSD for the OS and a separate HD for other things on my current laptop, the SSD has been amazing but it's obviously got low memory storage. I don't need massive amounts of memory as I use a 1TB External, so perhaps I'd be best with a single 500gb SSD?

I'm very technologically unsavvy so not all of the options make much sense to me. Would appreciate some pointers in the right direction, here is a quick spec put together:

Chassis & Display
Cosmos Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD IPS 60Hz 45% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Quad Core Processor 8300H (2.3GHz, 4.0GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
8GB Corsair 2400MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® MX150 - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12
1st Hard Disk
500GB Samsung 860 2.5" EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
AC Adaptor
1 x 90W AC Adaptor
Battery
Cosmos VII Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
Thermal Paste
COOLER MASTER MASTERGEL MAKER THERMAL COMPOUND

(8GB RAM? What's the difference except in price between 1x 8gb stick and 2x 4gb?)

Click to expand...

2x4gb run in dual channel, and the higher bandwidth could help performance in some uses. However, 1x8gb leaves you 1 slot free so you can add more in the future without needing to replace anything and is more cost effective. I'd recommend 1x8gb on that basis.

The MX150 is a very, very weak GPU. It will fail to play some games from 2015 at low settings at 1080p with an acceptable framerate, and obviously has no headroom for the future.

Your best bang for buck option would probably be the Vyper in the review section:
https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/configure-review/268/

It sports an i7 8750H, 1x8gb RAM, a GTX 1050 ti
The 1050 ti is not an ultra settings gaming GPU but will at least play modern games and have some headroom for the future. In terms of bang for buck for graphics cards there's no point going lower than a 1050 ti.
The SSD is only 256gb, but the laptop does have a vacant 2.5" bay where additional storage can be added in the future if desired.

saccha said:

I don't understand the hard drive options very well, I had a SSD for the OS and a separate HD for other things on my current laptop, the SSD has been amazing but it's obviously got low memory storage. I don't need massive amounts of memory as I use a 1TB External, so perhaps I'd be best with a single 500gb SSD?

1st Hard Disk
500GB Samsung 860 2.5" EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)

Click to expand...

For your needs the best bang for your buck generally comes from having a smallish SSD for Windows and programs (that benefit greatly from the SSD speed) and a (large) HDD for your user data (which mostly doesn't benefit much from the SSD speed). That's why your current laptop is configured that way.

A 500GB SSD will be fine for Windows, programs and user data of course, but if you assume 100GB for Windows, programs and related files then that's only 400GB for user data, which these days isn't a great lot. You're also spending money to store your user data on that SSD when you probably don't need to.

The build Oussebon has suggested has a 256GB SSD and this is more than enough for Windows and a whole bunch of programs, and will leave over 150GB available now for essential data that has to be on the laptop rather than your external HDD. In addition, because this SSD uses the M.2 interface the SATA bay will be vacant allowing you to simply add a large (1TB) 7200rpm HDD in the future to give you the 'ideal' setup of an SSD for Windows and programs and a fast HDD for user data.

Thanks so much for your replies guys, much appreciated. I'll have a think about what you've said.

Further to what Ubuysa posted.

I have a 512GB SSD system drive, and Windows plus productivity software (Open Office, GIMP, etc) and quite a few other programs still leave around 400GB free. It's a luxury because I'm a hardware migrator, but even on my config with everything farmed out across 2xm.2 and 2xSATA drives, I often wonder what to do with that 400GB. If I didn't just happen to have had the 512GB from a previous machine, I'd go for 256GB as a system drive and redirect the data folders to other drives.

Bear in mind that SSDs perform better and last longer when they aren't stuffed full. They're a bit like block puzzles - it's easier and quicker for the data handler to solve the problem with 10 blocks in than with 15. So a half-full 256GB SSD will be better than a stuffed 128GB.

Another thing to consider is that the real glutton for data storage is video. If that's not a priority for you, your storage needs are drastically reduced.

As for gaming requirements - I'd say a 1060 is the sweet spot for modern games in 1080p at 60Hz and you'll probably want 16GB RAM (you won't often use it all, but you will occasionally benefit from more than 8). That would give you a perfectly acceptable 25+fps on most titles. With a fair amount of fan noise...

PS If you're into open source software, check out Ninite. Clean one-stop download for just about everything free.