Best 1TB SSD laptop, with 15"+ screen, around £900?

stevem99999

Hi there, looking for recommendations please. Need a laptop with 1TB SSD (or may consider smaller SSD with 1TB storage but SSD needs to be 256/512). Also must have larger screen because I want a number pad on my keyboard. Ideally under £900, but could do a bit more if I can get student or similar discount.

Currently looking at Acer Aspire 5 A515-56G but reviews a but mixed, especially on build quality.
All recommendations welcome, thanks.

Uptown_Boy

What are you planning to do with it? (i.e. does it need to have some level of gaming capability?)

jsmith9

Your 1TB SSD requirement is limiting your choice somewhat. You could get a much smaller SSD (eg 256) and add a 1TB NVMe SSD drive separately as eg your d-drive.

I usually buy Dell Inspiron so you could look at this range and buy a 1TB SSD separately elsewhere.

interstellaflyer

jsmith9 said:

Your 1TB SSD requirement is limiting your choice somewhat. You could get a much smaller SSD (eg 256) and add a 1TB NVMe SSD drive separately as eg your d-drive.

I usually buy Dell Inspiron so you could look at this range and buy a 1TB SSD separately elsewhere.

You'll likely find that most new laptops in the mid to higher price range are fitted with a 256GB M.2 NVMe SSD as standard, I'm guessing that they will have facility to add a SATA HDD/SSD, even my 2 year old HP Pavilion laptop had the facility to upgrade to M.2 NVMe although it was supplied with a SATA HDD, it's currently running a Sabrent rocket NVMe 256GB as boot drive and a Crucial MX500 500GB SSD as storage. You want the NVMe SSD as your boot drive not your storage drive.

Uptown_Boy

interstellaflyer said:

jsmith9 said:

Your 1TB SSD requirement is limiting your choice somewhat. You could get a much smaller SSD (eg 256) and add a 1TB NVMe SSD drive separately as eg your d-drive.

I usually buy Dell Inspiron so you could look at this range and buy a 1TB SSD separately elsewhere.

You'll likely find that most new laptops in the mid to higher price range are fitted with a 256GB M.2 NVMe SSD as standard, I'm guessing that they will have facility to add a SATA HDD/SSD, even my 2 year old HP Pavilion laptop had the facility to upgrade to M.2 NVMe although it was supplied with a SATA HDD, it's currently running a Sabrent rocket NVMe 256GB as boot drive and a Crucial MX500 500GB SSD as storage. You want the NVMe SSD as your boot drive not your storage drive.

FWIW my ASUS ROG FX1505GT laptop came with a 512GB NVMe SSD. I installed my old Samsung 860 EVO in the SATA bay inside it.

stevem99999

Uptown_Boy said:

What are you planning to do with it? (i.e. does it need to have some level of gaming capability?)

Hi everyone, thanks for comments so far.
In terms of what I would be using it for - it's a family workhorse so comes across anything apart from gaming really. 
I can see from comments that it will give me more choice if I opt for a smaller SSD and then add another higher capacity one myself for storage. I actually have a SATA 1TB SSD in the laptop which just died and have it in a caddy currently, so assume I could just install that one? What is the NMVe? Is that a different connection? Two other questions: If it were able to be installed, would it need to be formatted or would it just read whatever is on it (saves a lot of data transfer) and secondlty, how do I know if a smaller main drive machine has free space for another SSD?
Then it's back to recommendations really!
Thanks

poppellerant

NVME is a faster interface for SSD drives, but in reality almost nobody notices the difference unless you're transferring large files.  Some laptops only come with the NVME interface, so your existing SATA SSD may not work in the new laptop - so definitely check before buying.

Even so, if you buy a laptop that suits all your requirements except the SSD capacity, NVME SSD drives are only a little more expensive than SATA SSD drives.

Comparison of prices, using 500 GB drives as examples:

Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500 GB PCIe NVMe M.2:- https://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-MZ-V7S500BW-Solid-State-Drive/dp/B07MFBLN7K/

Samsung 860 EVO 500 GB SATA 2.5 Inch:- https://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-MZ-76E500B-EU-Solid-State/dp/B078WQT6S6/

stevem99999

poppellerant said:

NVME is a faster interface for SSD drives, but in reality almost nobody notices the difference unless you're transferring large files.  Some laptops only come with the NVME interface, so your existing SATA SSD may not work in the new laptop - so definitely check before buying.

Even so, if you buy a laptop that suits all your requirements except the SSD capacity, NVME SSD drives are only a little more expensive than SATA SSD drives.

Thank you for the explanation. I can see that the cost is small, and not much by way of comparison between them too. I suppose I was just hopeful that I could re-use my existing 1TB SATA drive but clearly not the end of the world financially if I couldn't.

debitcardmayhem

stevem99999 said:

poppellerant said:

NVME is a faster interface for SSD drives, but in reality almost nobody notices the difference unless you're transferring large files.  Some laptops only come with the NVME interface, so your existing SATA SSD may not work in the new laptop - so definitely check before buying.

Even so, if you buy a laptop that suits all your requirements except the SSD capacity, NVME SSD drives are only a little more expensive than SATA SSD drives.

Thank you for the explanation. I can see that the cost is small, and not much by way of comparison between them too. I suppose I was just hopeful that I could re-use my existing 1TB SATA drive but clearly not the end of the world financially if I couldn't.

some laptops do have m2 and sata eg my 3 yr old acer has as has my new novatech

interstellaflyer

stevem99999 said:

poppellerant said:

NVME is a faster interface for SSD drives, but in reality almost nobody notices the difference unless you're transferring large files.  Some laptops only come with the NVME interface, so your existing SATA SSD may not work in the new laptop - so definitely check before buying.

Even so, if you buy a laptop that suits all your requirements except the SSD capacity, NVME SSD drives are only a little more expensive than SATA SSD drives.

Thank you for the explanation. I can see that the cost is small, and not much by way of comparison between them too. I suppose I was just hopeful that I could re-use my existing 1TB SATA drive but clearly not the end of the world financially if I couldn't.

You should be able to find out if your intended laptop has facility for a SATA SSD with a little research, try looking up the manufacturers specs from their website as they will probably go in to more detail than your average retailer and often on Youtube there are strip down reviews on new machines, these can be useful for making simple repairs and upgrades once out of warranty.

Uptown_Boy

Like I said earlier, my ASUS laptop came with NVMe fitted but also had a SATA bay ... I put my old EVO SSD drive in that spare bay.

There's nothing stopping you retaining your 1TB SSD in the caddy and using it as a storage drive via USB, but having it fitted internally would make things easier - especially for portability.