Newbie question: what SSDs and HDDs for the different slots for Sager NP8657?

Hi,

sorry for my ignorance and the complete noob question, but this is the first time I can choose which hard drives to have in my laptop and I know nothing about what SSD to choose for which "slot". Here's the link for the Sager NP8657 that I'm planning to buy which has all the different options for "M.2 PCIe/SATA Solid State Drive - Slot 1", "M.2 SATA Solid State Drive - Slot 2", "2.5" Hard Drive / SSD Bay #1", and "Second Drive Bay - Only available if SSD is selected in Primary Bay".

Any suggestions what is a decent combination would be so much appreciated. Again, my knowledge is zero. All I know is that having an SSD for where my OS will be would be great because it speeds things up (I've never had an SSD before) and that I'd be probably competely happy with a normal hard drive for all my videos and other files. Or would I benefit a lot for having another larger SSD for all my games as well? And which damn slot should I have an SSD in and which would be fine to be left empty our of the four "slots" that I described above?

Hopefully this isn't too stupid of an issue to post here. Thanks for any help you can give.

 

My suggestion would be to choose
"240GB Crucial BX200" or "250GB Samsung 850 EVO" for
M.2 PCIe/SATA Solid State Drive - Slot 1

and

TB SATA3 6Gb/s 7,200 RPM Hard Drive for
2.5" Hard Drive / SSD Bay #1

In case you have 50 bucks extra, the "1TB Seagate Solid State Hybrid Drive" would be useful if you plan to install e.g. Steam on that drive. It has 8GB of SSD memory which just speeds up frequently used programs. If you just need a second drive to dump downloads, pictures or videos, go for the regular (cheaper) Hard Drive.

Edit: As a side remark, you should put the OS on the SSD, along with programs like Microsoft Office/Photoshop/Video editing software. I would put most games on the HDD, and only install 1 or 2 of my favourite and currently most played games on the SSD. Naturally, games with long loading times benefit the most from a SSD.

As for the question why put which drive in which bay - you don't really have a choice. I would always choose to get at least 1 large HDD to dump files like videos, downloads etc on it, and the only way of choosing a HDD in your configuration link is to put it into 2.5" Hard Drive / SSD Bay #1. As 2 other options say "only works if Slot #1 is SSD", you are left with the first PCIe/SATA Solid State Drive Slot where you naturally put your OS drive - the SSD.

 

Thanks for your reply, that is very helpful!

 

I would typically say for the M.2 Slot to go with the samsung 850 evo. the 250GB is kind of the nice price point where it's quite a bit more for the next step up but not much more than the previous step. The PCIe drives are about 4 times as fast but since you are coming from no SSD i think you will be amazed with the speeds of the standard M.2.

For the Primary drive i would consider the hybrid drive, but in reality probably just stick with the stock 1TB 7200RPM drive. They Hybrid drive will help slightly but there's so little SSD memory in there i would just save the money and go with the stock drive as you will have the SSD in the M.2 slot.

It might also be worth considering the 8657-S, You get more ram, IC diamond and the 30 day no dead pixel guarantee included, so overall it's typically worth it if you are going to be updating the SSD anyways.