(First Time) Buying a Custom Laptop Need Help!

[Eric_1315]

Help! I'm looking to buy a gaming laptop and I'm most interested in the Sager NP 8155 (see link below). My only problem is that since this is my first time, I have no clue what a lot of these things mean on the customization page. My main questions are about the different memory options and which ones are best. Please and thank you for your help!

https/www.sagernotebook.com/customize.php?productid=1195

 

[jaguarskx]

Generally speaking, for playing games the minimum you should get is 8GB of RAM. However, there are some games that can use more than that. I recommend 16GB of RAM for only $75 more. When Windows starts running out of RAM data is swapped between RAM and storage which can cause a bit of lag. Not bad if the storage is SSD, but hard drives have much slower read / write speeds so lag can be more noticeable. Unless you use programs that need to have a lot of available RAM, 16GB is more than enough for gaming.

RAID 0 improves read / write speed to the m.2 SSD (they are shaped like gum sticks); this is done by "striping". Basically alternating bits of data is read from / written to both SSDs which allows faster read / write speeds. Most people do not need this since SSDs are pretty fast unless you are reading and writing massive amounts of data. RAID 0 is considered "dangerous" because if one of the SSD fails you basically loose all your data.

RAID 1 is a way to backup data; it is referred to as "mirroring". The same data / files are written to both SSDs. If one of the SSD drive fails, you still have a copy of the data / files on the other drive. Write speeds is slower compared to RAID 0 because the data must be written twice. Read speed is faster because the data is being read from two sources.

SSDs uses one of two interfaces SATA and PCIe. They are generally not compatible with each other, but some laptops use a m.2 SSD interface design (and chipset) that is compatible with both types of interfaces.

SATA - This is the slower of the two interfaces. However, SATA SSDs are still a lot faster than 7200 RPM hard drives. For most people this type of SSD will be fine and also a lot cheaper.

PCIe - This is the faster of the two interfaces for SSDs. However, these drives are more expensive and they also run hotter as well. Unless you read / write lots of data (like video editing 1080p or 4k video) most people will not be able to tell the difference between SATA and PCIe SSDs.