Which is better for a laptop?

[illegalmushroom]

I'm looking to buy a new laptop since I'm starting college soon and I was wondering what's the better option for laptops :

buying a laptop with a 240 gig SSD, which has 2 4gb sticks of RAM and then buying a 1 tb 5400 rpm external HDD for it

or

buying a laptop with a 128 gig SSD, a built-in 1 tb 5400 rpm HDD which has 1 8gb stick of RAM

I mainly am uncertain about the RAM distribution as well as space management. I was looking to use the OS and probably one video game on the SSD and all my data to be on the HDD, but I'm not sure which of the 2 options is more viable. I appreciate any help.

 

[GreyCatz]

I'm looking to buy a new laptop since I'm starting college soon and I was wondering what's the better option for laptops :

buying a laptop with a 240 gig SSD, which has 2 4gb sticks of RAM and then buying a 1 tb 5400 rpm external HDD for it

or

buying a laptop with a 128 gig SSD, a built-in 1 tb 5400 rpm HDD which has 1 8gb stick of RAM

I mainly am uncertain about the RAM distribution as well as space management. I was looking to use the OS and probably one video game on the SSD and all my data to be on the HDD, but I'm not sure which of the 2 options is more viable. I appreciate any help.

Greetings mushroom:

If there's no significant difference in price, then I recommend the 240 GB SSD option. There's no need to fill up the limited space in the engine room with two disk drives. These days external HDDs are silent and efficient units that even look good too.

As for the RAM, it really shouldn't matter whether it's one 8 GB stick or two 4 GB sticks. Unless you plan on upgrading to 16 GB, of course.

Cheers,
GreyCatz.

 

[illegalmushroom]

Greetings mushroom:

If there's no significant difference in price, then I recommend the 240 GB SSD option. There's no need to fill up the limited space in the engine room with two disk drives. These days external HDDs are silent and efficient units that even look good too.

As for the RAM, it really shouldn't matter whether it's one 8 GB stick or two 4 GB sticks. Unless you plan on upgrading to 16 GB, of course.

Cheers,
GreyCatz.

Thanks for the reply, Catz.

I have one more question regarding the RAM situation. I'm not too tech-savvy so I'm unaware of the differences in performance when it comes to this situation : the 8 gig machine, although having one stick has 2 RAM slots, while the other one only has 1 ram slot with 4 gigs in it, and 4 gigs integrated. Now I assume the other slot in the 8 gig laptop is if you want to add more memory, but my question is is there any difference in overall speed and performance when it comes to integrated RAM or there's nothing to be concerned about regarding it.

 

[GreyCatz]

Hello mushroom:

Generally speaking, integrated RAM is a matter of design more than anything else. You retain one slot for upgradability while freeing up space for other hardware components. In terms of basic specs, there should be no difference at all. The only problem is if the laptop only has integrated RAM (and no slot) and it turns out to be slow. Then you're a bit stuck. So make sure to opt for the 1-slot option.

Cheers,
GreyCatz.

 

[illegalmushroom]

Thank you very much for your answers. Looks like I'm going for the 1 slot 1 integrated, SSD-only one. Thanks again.

 

[velo3100]

I would get the second option as the 2 ram sticks will increase gpu performance for the gpu in graphically intense programs. Also more you have more space in the first option