Solid State Drive + Hard Drive?

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philaguila

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Apr 9, 2013
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I am currently customizing a laptop on HP.com (HP Pavilion Dv7tqe) and I think that I have mostly everything set to order but I do have one last concern before I do pertaining to the hard drive options. I was told by someone to try and get two hard drives, one a regular hard drive (750GB 5400rpm) plus a SSD Drive by Crucial or Intel (256GB/180GB). I wanted to see if that were actually possible if I were to simply order the laptop with a more standard hard drive option and then purchase an SSD Drive separately and install it as the primary drive and have both? Or should I just go for a 1.5TB 7200rpm drive? Or just the SSD? I also want to add that I have a 2TB external hard drive so the low storage of an SSD wouldn't be much of an issue.

I need something very fast and reliable for the purposes of heavy RAW 1080p High Definition video and photo editing, After Effects CS6, music editing, 3D Max, and some graphic designing.

Please no recommendations to desktop laptops because I am hardly home and travel a lot so I need a portable workstation.

Thanks again for the help, any other advice is very helpful, like if I should purchase a different processor, laptop, more cache, etc.


Here are the specs on the laptop I am currently building...
1. 12GB of RAM

2.Intel i7-3610QM processor (2.3 Ghz, 6MB L3 Cache),

3. NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GT 650M Graphics with 2GB GDDR5 memory (HDMI, VGA)

4. 750 GB of memory @ 5400rpm + I already own a 2TB External Hard Disk Drive

5. Blu-ray writer

6. 17.3-inch diagonal Full High Definition Anti-glare LED-backlit Display (1920 x 1080).

7. Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit

This laptop currently totals at $1,593.98 which is around my budget ($1,500-1,800)
 
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Goodeggray

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The down side to buying a ssd from an OEM is they charge you too high price. Top quality ssd sell for about $1 per G. Replacing the hard drive on that laptop is not that hard. There a access panel. Some laptops like Apple and other thin ones are sealed and hard to place HD. Make sure that laptop has panel openings. Then you can get the cheapest HD option and replace it with a Samsung 256GB 840 pro for about$230. Thats the top ssd now. The ssd comes with cloning software so you can clone Windows on to the ssd befor replacing. Also make sure the laptop has usb3 also. You can convert you external drive into a usb drive with a different shell and have faster transfer times.
 
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philaguila

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Apr 9, 2013
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So would I not be able to have both a regular hard drive and the say, Samsung 256GB 840 together in the machine?
 
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Goodeggray

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You can get a HD adapter to mount a HD in place of the optical drive but you lose your blue ray player. There are a few custom laptop that have two HD bays but expensive and heavy. There is a new type of ssd called a esata drive. They are tiny and is used with a HD but expensive. There is also hybrid drives that have regular HD with 8MB of ss memory to speed up performance. The prices are not too bad.
 
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philaguila

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Apr 9, 2013
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Right, I do really need Blu-ray writer for making movies. But then what would you recommend? Just go for the cheapest hard drive I can buy with the custom options and then order and replace it with the Samsung 840 pro 256 Gb?

And for Cache, is 6mb enough or should I really try for a 8 or higher MB cache?
 
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Goodeggray

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Check to see how much the 256GBH ssd option cost. If it's $200 it's worth it to have them do it. The difference between 6 or even 12 MB is not than much. A GB is 1,000 MB. Usb3 ports are much faster than usb 2. Usb 2 bottlenecks HD 3 won't.
 
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philaguila

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Apr 9, 2013
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So for a custom, right now I am getting that to upgrade from i7-3630 to i7-3740, it is about $170 more and that probably is not worth it right?

And yes the SSD I plan to get separately is about $170, the Samsung 840 Pro 250GB or should I still just order the other SSD that is one of the options on HP.com? Or another SSD you recommend?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009NHAEXE/ref=gno_cart_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
 
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Goodeggray

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The cpu change is a rip off both cpus have the same list price. The Amazon ssd is a regular 840 not the 840 pro. The 840 sells for $220 to 250. It uses better memory chip and has better software worth the extra money. Best thing is to get the cheapest HD and clone it and replace it with the ssd then keep the Hd as a safe system backup.
 
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philaguila

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Can you give me some insight on HD editing/rendering benefits a GeForce GTX 680m would have over a 675mx? Would it be significant enough to spend an extra $300 for it?
 
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