Difference between drives on Laptops?

[nathanjrb]

I'm considering buying a laptop from PCS (VortexIV), not anytime soon, but in the future, however, when I was in the configurator I selected a 120GB SSD alongside a 750GB HDD.

Then just below I noticed two more options for 'mSATA SSD drives' - I was just wondering what these were exactly and what the difference was?


+rep for help, thanks

 

[nathanjrb]

Wait I think I just found the little ? mark above it that explains it. Any extra details welcome though.

 

[keynes]

It could be used as an independent drive to host the OS so you could have 2 drives without giving up the DVD drive in the 15" model

 

[nathanjrb]

Would I not install the OS on the first drive? then have a HDD for a second?

From what I understand on the details is that they work as SSD cache drives? In that case could I have two HDDs and one SSD to work as a cache?

 

[keynes]

You could but now mSATA drives come with 120gb or higher capacity. It would be better to have a dedicated drive for the OS

 

[nathanjrb]

Thanks. Forgive me if I'm not quite understanding!

So are you saying to have two HDDs and then one mSATA with the OS installed on it?

 

[keynes]

1 mSATA for the OS and the Scorpio black as the secondary drive. If you want another drive you need to give up the DVD drive

 

[nathanjrb]

I went a bit wild and probably wouldn't spend this much on a laptop... but in theory - what would you change?



Chassis & Display
Vortex Series: 17.3" 120Hz 3D Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Extreme i7-4930MX (3.00GHz) 8MB
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
2 x NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 780M - 4.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
2nd Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
mSATA SSD Drive
120GB INTEL® 525 mSATA MLC SSD (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
6x BLURAY WRITER, 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
ASUS™ XONAR-U7 Compact 7.1 USB soundcard and headphone amplifier(£72)
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N-135 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
4 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Battery
2 x Vortex Elite Series 8 Cell Battery (89.21WH) (One Spare) (£69)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 300W AC Adaptor
Operating System
Genuine Windows 8.1 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Laptop Cooling Stands
CoolerMaster Ergostand II
Eyefinity / GeForce 3D Vision
NVIDIA GEFORCE 3D VISION WIRELESS STEREOSCOPIC KIT
Keyboard Language
INTEGRATED BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Dead Pixel Guarantee
1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs (£19)
Insurance
1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Delivery
PCS EXTRA-CARE DIAMOND DELIVERY - MON-FRI, PRE-NOON (£9)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £3,057.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/vortexIV-Elite-3D/96BhbnodV_/

 

[keynes]

A lot I was referring to the 15" vortex. A single gpu will do the job unless you are looking for a desktop replacement

 

[nathanjrb]

It would be a desktop replacement for when I travel home and used as a work PC because the PCs we have are rubbish and I do quite a lot of intensive video editing.

 

[keynes]

Does video editing benefit from sli?

 

[SmokeDarKnight]

I wouldn't have thought so but the ability to say i have SLI in a laptop, i would use it as an excuse

 

[nathanjrb]

Does video editing benefit from sli?

Not so much SLI at the minute - but in the future definitely. The Adobe suite uses Mercury Playback Engine for GPU acceleration when rendering and playback.

http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/premiere/tech-specs.html

 

[nathanjrb]

A lot I was referring to the 15" vortex. A single gpu will do the job unless you are looking for a desktop replacement

Generally speaking though, with reference to the drives - is that a suitable solution?