£350 Genesis V - Laptop (non-gaming) help

[gudthing]

Hey guys.

Can you review my build which I'm planning to order over the weekend. The budget is around £350 (will stretch if absolutely worth it). THe laptop will be used for non-intensive tasks (web browsing, writing up odd essay) (no gaming).

This is a custom Genesis V 15.6":

(not sure if link will work): https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/893251/

Chassis & Display Genesis Series: 15.6" Matte HD LED 16:9 Widescreen (1366x768)
Processor (CPU): Intel® Pentium® Quad Core Processor N3700 (4 x 1.60GHz, 2.4GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM): 8GB Kingston SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card: Integrated Intel® HD Graphics

Memory - Hard Disk: 120GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)
2nd Hard Disk: 500GB SEAGATE HYBRID SSHD Drive, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (5400 rpm)
mSATA/M.2 SSD Drive NONE
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive: 2nd/3rd HDD HARD DRIVE OPTICAL BAY CADDY (9.5mm)

£343 INC VAT

Everything else is default (I already have an OS so this is excluded).

Not sure about my Hard drive setup. I noticed there is an mSATA/M.2 SSD Drive option which may reduce costs/optimize performance but I don't really know what it does (I should really read into it!).

Also for a secondary drive is it worth getting an SSHD compared to normal SSD?

What would be your build for around £350 (less is better)

 

[Stephen M]

Change the SSD, the V300s have performance issues, either the Hyper X or Samsung will be fine. Hybrids are something of nothing drives and as you already have an SSD the small cache on it will not be noticed, the WD Black 7200rpm drives are much quicker and reliable. You could go with an m2 SSD and a HDD and keep the DVD drive.

 

[gudthing]

Change the SSD, the V300s have performance issues, either the Hyper X or Samsung will be fine. Hybrids are something of nothing drives and as you already have an SSD the small cache on it will not be noticed, the WD Black 7200rpm drives are much quicker and reliable. You could go with an m2 SSD and a HDD and keep the DVD drive.

thanks for your input! This is what I've got now:

Chassis & Display Genesis Series: 15.6" Matte HD LED 16:9 Widescreen (1366x768)
Processor (CPU) Intel® Pentium® Quad Core Processor N3700 (4 x 1.60GHz, 2.4GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM) 8GB Kingston SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card Integrated Intel® HD Graphics

Memory - Hard Disk 120GB SAMSUNG 650 SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 450MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk 500GB SERIAL ATA III 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 32MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
mSATA/M.2 SSD Drive NONE
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 2nd/3rd HDD HARD DRIVE OPTICAL BAY CADDY (9.5mm)

Price: INV VAT £336.00

The only options I have for the Second Hard Disk are:

So it's really between Serial ATA III vs WD BLUE (since black is not available). I think ATA III is the same as my desktop which has been perfectly fine for me

Also if I wanted a CD drive, what Msata controller would you recommend? How much performance do you lose compared to an SSD + HDD setup vs HDD + sata