M.2 SSD Drives?

[RobMeade]

Hi all,

I'm after a little advice if I may, specifically regarding the above, and also the configuration using PCSpecialist.

I'm considering ordering a new laptop but the M.2 SSD Drive option through me a little bit. I've had a quick read up and this appears to be another form of storage within the laptop. From what I can tell these seems to be "faster" than the standard SSD drives which are gradually replacing regular hard drives, so, do you still have a normal SSD drive as a primary (C: drive), or do you/can you just opt to have the M.2 SSD as a primary boot drive?

I was using the configuration tool and managed to double the price of the base unit (sigh) but areas like this I'm a bit worried about as I don't know if they are supposed to be "additional" storage, or can be primary.

Any info would be really appreciated.

Also, and with the greatest of respect to PCSpecialist, any info from customers on their experiences would be good too - I've not bought a new machine for about 7 years and I'm not in a position to get it wrong nor do I want any problems/issues etc. I've not used PCSpecialist before but from what I can see things look good.

Thanks in advance for your time / help.

 

[SpyderTracks]

M2 has replaced SATA SSD’s being much faster and not much more expensive. Most people would have a smaller M2 drive as the OS drive and a large HDD as the data drive.

SATA SSD’s are only really used as storage for those with specific requirements or as the primary drive for those on a particularly limited budget.

Most people these days will have an M2 as the primary drive.

I’m still using the PCS laptop in my sig which I bought in 2014, still going strong.

none of us on the forum work for PCS, we are all customers or nerds looking to help out or gain advice.

a custom laptop is a different beast to an off the shelf, you need to understand how to maintain windows and drivers, and periodically service the internals of the laptop.

 

[RobMeade]

Hi,

Thanks so much for a such a prompt response, really appreciated and the info regarding the M2 drives.

The laptop will be used for game development, so I'm looking for a fairly high spec, but because I need it to last for a good few years to (knowing I won't be able to upgrade much on it unlike a desktop PC for example) I want to make sure whatever goes inside it will be good for quite a while. Current laptop is about 7 years old and really struggles with things now.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Hi,

Thanks so much for a such a prompt response, really appreciated and the info regarding the M2 drives.

The laptop will be used for game development, so I'm looking for a fairly high spec, but because I need it to last for a good few years to (knowing I won't be able to upgrade much on it unlike a desktop PC for example) I want to make sure whatever goes inside it will be good for quite a while. Current laptop is about 7 years old and really struggles with things now.

If you post your max budget and the software you use, we can advise on a build if you like, or post what you’re considering and we can comment.

what style of games do you design? What sort of graphical level?

 

[RobMeade]

When I went through the configurator I tried to pick some of the highest spec components, partial for a bit of a future proofing.

3D modelling, rendering, animation, Maya / Blender, 2D / 3D games, Unreal Engine, Unity etc.. high res textures, Photoshop.

I was looking at the £1300 ish base model, and then started popping extras in... 16GB ram, although open to more if it will help future proof. Figured it might be best to go i9, again, future proofing...Nvidia GTX perhaps, at least 6GB... 17" screen. Drives wise, as indicated above, I wasn't too sure... I'd probably aim for around 500GB on the 1st drive, at least the same on a second, or maybe 1TB and partition it. Current set up has C, D, E partitions, this works well for me with the way I work/manage files. I'm happy to pay a little more and have them all as fast as possible even if I don't get a big advantage on anything other than the main boot drive.

Windows 10, home, chrome, no anti-virus, optical drive would be handy, but it looks like these are typically done as externals now, card read is always handy, but not essential, don't need the small stuff like a mouse etc. Cables wise, just the power adaptor, kettle cable etc, the basics.

Budget wise.. this one is a little tricky.. when I was adding stuff, rather arbitrarily last night it got to about £2.8k - I dont *want* to spend that much, but equally, I'm very conscious that not being able to upgrade a laptop much more than a fast/bigger drive or perhaps some extra ram at a later stage kinda shortens their life span, compared to a desktop PC where you can just rip bits out and keep upgrading. In an ideal world something "amaze-balls" for around £1500 would be great. £2k, I'd do, anything above that I'm likely to be getting a bit twitchy.

I also tend to stress/worry about dead pixels, only ever had the issue once but on the next laptop purchase (PC world at the time) had them stay behind and open it all up whilst I checked it all over, I saw PC Specialist had a little insurance/guarantee thing there as an option, I'd probably take that too as I'm the kind guy that spends £2k and is in that 1% that actually has the problem!

Be quite nice to have a "decent" second monitor too, not sure if there is much difference between the ones around £100-£200 in terms of quality/performance?

 

[SpyderTracks]

When I went through the configurator I tried to pick some of the highest spec components, partial for a bit of a future proofing.

3D modelling, rendering, animation, Maya / Blender, 2D / 3D games, Unreal Engine, Unity etc.. high res textures, Photoshop.

I was looking at the £1300 ish base model, and then started popping extras in... 16GB ram, although open to more if it will help future proof. Figured it might be best to go i9, again, future proofing...Nvidia GTX perhaps, at least 6GB... 17" screen. Drives wise, as indicated above, I wasn't too sure... I'd probably aim for around 500GB on the 1st drive, at least the same on a second, or maybe 1TB and partition it. Current set up has C, D, E partitions, this works well for me with the way I work/manage files. I'm happy to pay a little more and have them all as fast as possible even if I don't get a big advantage on anything other than the main boot drive.

Windows 10, home, chrome, no anti-virus, optical drive would be handy, but it looks like these are typically done as externals now, card read is always handy, but not essential, don't need the small stuff like a mouse etc. Cables wise, just the power adaptor, kettle cable etc, the basics.

Budget wise.. this one is a little tricky.. when I was adding stuff, rather arbitrarily last night it got to about £2.8k - I dont *want* to spend that much, but equally, I'm very conscious that not being able to upgrade a laptop much more than a fast/bigger drive or perhaps some extra ram at a later stage kinda shortens their life span, compared to a desktop PC where you can just rip bits out and keep upgrading. In an ideal world something "amaze-balls" for around £1500 would be great. £2k, I'd do, anything above that I'm likely to be getting a bit twitchy.

I also tend to stress/worry about dead pixels, only ever had the issue once but on the next laptop purchase (PC world at the time) had them stay behind and open it all up whilst I checked it all over, I saw PC Specialist had a little insurance/guarantee thing there as an option, I'd probably take that too as I'm the kind guy that spends £2k and is in that 1% that actually has the problem!

Be quite nice to have a "decent" second monitor too, not sure if there is much difference between the ones around £100-£200 in terms of quality/performance?

If you can post to the forum?

The easy way to post your specification to our forums!

When configuring a new computer/laptop on our website you can easily post your selected specification to our forums. Once you've created your specification, click the "Proceed" button and on the next page, click the "Post to Forum" button. There you can copy the specification and click the...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

 

[RobMeade]

Ah, sorry, I didn't realise that was how you wanted it, I assumed you just wanted a bit of an "idea" of what I was after and then you were going to make some recommendations.

I'll put in the details I entered the other day and see if I can share it in here.

 

[RobMeade]

Hi again,

Sorry for the delay responding... I've posted up the spec from here and also what I currently have...

Spec Suitability / Comparison?

Hi all, I'm considering the following purchase and would like to get a second opinion before clicking the "Buy" button! The laptop will primarily be used for game development, 3D modelling/rendering, Unreal Engine etc.... plus, if I find some time I might even play the odd game. My current...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

Any thoughts/feedback would be appreciated

 

[Oussebon]

Locking this to stop spec advice getting distributed across 2 different places.