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    Buying the Clevo W355SS (XMG A504) - need help on configuration

    Discussion in 'Sager and Clevo' started by tg404, Mar 28, 2014.

  1. tg404

    tg404 Newbie

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    Hi
    I will likely be buying the Clevo W355SS from here: XMG A504 15.6" Advanced Gaming Notebook , but i need some advice on the following configurations:

    Screen: 15.6" (39.6 cm) Full-HD 1920x1080 Matte vs 15.6" (39.6cm) Full-HD 1920 x 1080 Matte 95% Gamut (extra £30)

    Ram: 8GB (2x4096) SO-DIMM DDR3 RAM 1600MHz Crucial vs 8GB (2x4096) SO-DIMM DDR3 RAM 1600MHz CORSAIR Vengeance vs 8GB (1x8192) SO-DIMM DDR3 RAM 1600MHz Crucial Ballistix Sport (all same price)

    Hard-drive: 1000GB SATA-II 5400rpm Seagate Momentus vs 1000GB SATA-III 7200rpm HGST Travelstar 7K1000 (extra £9)

    SATA-III: 120GB SATA-III SSD Crucial M500 vs 120GB SATA-III SSD Samsung 840 EVO Series (extra £15)
    OR
    MSATA 120GB mSATA SSD Crucial M500 (extra £2) vs 128GB mSATA-III SSD SanDisk X110 (extra £9) vs 120GB mSATA SSD Samsung EVO (extra £18)

    I am happy to pay for the most expensive of each of these configurations, as it doesn't add a great deal to the overall price, but is is worth it?
    I am also unsure of which is better, SATA-III or mSATA. Please advise.

    The other configurations I have settled on are: GTX 860M 2048MB GDDR5, i7-4700MQ, Microsoft Windows 8.1 64 Bit. Total price ~ £980 to £1,030

    Also, if anyone has any recommendations of alternative 14"-15" laptops for £1,000ish with similar (or better) gaming/general performance, battery life, does not overheat, and that is not excessively heavy, then i would consider going for a different model/brand.

    Thanks
     
    tg404, Mar 28, 2014
    #1
  2. Prasad

    Prasad NBR Reviewer 1337 NBR Reviewer

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    My recommendations are in bold.
    Go for the better screen because it is not one of the easily upgradable components of the laptop. Get the single SODIMM RAM with future upgradability in mind. Get the 7200RPM hard drive, it's a noticeable performance margin. The Crucial series SSD is fine and has proven it's place in the market, no need to spend additional for the Samsung with the exact same storage. I'd skip on the mSATA entirely, and if you really need the space, just get a larger capacity SSD.

    Cheers!
     
    Prasad, Mar 28, 2014
    #2
  3. Immudzen

    Immudzen Notebook Guru

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    One thing to consider is that the SSD and and MSATA drives are cheaper from amazon. If you don't need them right away I would just wait for a sale if you are comfortable with installing it yourself.
     
    Immudzen, Mar 29, 2014
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