Looking to order a laptop- have a couple of questions first

Hi folks, ive pretty much gave up on finding an off the shelf branded laptop that fits my needs, so have decided to buy a built to order one from PCS. I have a couple of questions that I hope someone will be able to answer for me to help me come to my final decision.

The Ultranote V, has 2 storage drives and 1 M.2SSD. On the DVD drive section, there is a "2nd/3rd HDD DRIVE OPTICAL BAY CADDY". Would this have to be selected if i am filling the 2 HDD storage drives? I assume no, as I seem to be able to spec the laptop to have 2 HDD's plus the DVD drive....so does that mean a 3rd HDD drive could be added? If so, why is there no option to add this to my order spec?

There are only 2x 15.9" laptops that can hold 2 storage drives plus M.2SSD. Most of the others have one with 2x M.2SSD's. Is this logistical due to the size of the drives themselves? Are the M.2's smaller?

"Soundblaster" cards seems to be an option on very few of the units. Is this another restriction due to the size of the card/space available in the unit?

What can anyone tell me about the battery life? Im surprised there isnt an estimate listed. I realise that you have to take these published figures with a pinch of salt but at least give us a rough idea! Even if just to let us know that Unit X would last longer than Unit Y.

The optical bay caddy is for adding a second HDD, as you surmised you will be fine with a m2 and HDD set up without selecting. M2 drives are much smaller than HDDs. Not sure about the sound cards or the battery life, hopefully someone else can help there.

If you want any help configuring your system post your budget and intended uses and we will be happy to advise.

Stephen M said:

The optical bay caddy is for adding a second HDD, as you surmised you will be fine with a m2 and HDD set up without selecting. M2 drives are much smaller than HDDs. Not sure about the sound cards or the battery life, hopefully someone else can help there.

If you want any help configuring your system post your budget and intended uses and we will be happy to advise.

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Hi Stephen, I will actaully be looking for 2 HDD aswell as the m2. So that means I will have to forfeit the optic drive? (This isnt a problem for me, I would just like confirmation).

My main requirement is 2x2tb HDD, and 1x SSD (purely to boot from ,so size isnt really an issue). i7 preferably. Im not a gamer, but have been considering "futureproofing" with a Geforce video card as VR is something I would maybe be interested in at some point.

Budgetwise, well ideally as cheap as possible! But if I was to find a unit that met all my needs, I think I would be willing to stretch to £1500 at the most.

What will the main uses be. If you are thinking of VR the Ultranote would be no good as a much better GPU would be needed, you would be looking at a dedicated gaming machine but if VR is only something you may do it would probably be better to get the best machine for your current uses - it is difficult to future proof very far ahead and something that could handle VR now may well be not up to it in a couple of years as games become more demanding

Why does it have to have two 2TB HDDs?

Stephen M said:

What will the main uses be. If you are thinking of VR the Ultranote would be no good as a much better GPU would be needed, you would be looking at a dedicated gaming machine but if VR is only something you may do it would probably be better to get the best machine for your current uses - it is difficult to future proof very far ahead and something that could handle VR now may well be not up to it in a couple of years as games become more demanding

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Thanks Stephen. To be honest the laptops main uses will be simple web browsing and media playback.

And in reply to ubuysa, the main requirement for my new unit is to have as much hard drive space as possible....2x 2TB is my best option.

HiHelloHi said:

And in reply to ubuysa, the main requirement for my new unit is to have as much hard drive space as possible....2x 2TB is my best option.

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And I can understand that, but 4TB is a HUGE volume of storage, I wonder what you plan to store there? You seem to be selecting a laptop based (almost) only on its ability to take two 2TB HDDs and that doesn't seem wise to me - unless you have very specific needs for 4TB of storage.

ubuysa said:

And I can understand that, but 4TB is a HUGE volume of storage, I wonder what you plan to store there? You seem to be selecting a laptop based (almost) only on its ability to take two 2TB HDDs and that doesn't seem wise to me - unless you have very specific needs for 4TB of storage.

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I travel a lot, and spend most of my time working away from home. My current 2TB laptop filled up along time ago. I don’t like having to rely on an external hard drive, I’d rather have all my media on the laptop itself. And yes, I’m selecting a laptop based on its ability to take 2x 2TB HDD’s, this is the most important factor!

Personally I would buy the cheapest laptop you can get with the capacity options that you require. There is absolutely no point in spending a large sum of money on something that can almost play VR at a decent level at this point in time (I would argue that 1.5k wouldn't get you there anyway).

If you want VR you should get a dedicated stand alone PC for that when the time comes. For now, a cheap and cheerful laptop for your media requirements should suffice.