Buying a laptop: configuration/ram questions

NapkinEater

Honorable
Oct 26, 2013
5
0
10,510
I don't really stay current on my hardware knowledge until it's time to buy again, but I've spent a few hours looking for a new laptop and have come up with this configuration:

Sager NP8268-S Notebook

- 15.6" Full HD LED-Backlit Display with Matte Finished Surface (1920 x 1080)
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 970M GPU with 6GB GDDR5 Video Memory
- 4th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-4710MQ Processor ( 6MB L3 Cache, 2.50GHz)
- Genuine MS Windows® 8.1 64-Bit Edition
- 8GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 1 X 8GB
- 250GB Samsung 840 EVO Series mSATA3 SSD - as an OS Drive (Primary Drive C)
- 1TB 7200rpm SATA2 Hard Drive
- 6X Blu-ray Reader/8X DVD±R/2.4X +DL Super-Multi Drive & Software
- Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 AC Wireless LAN + Bluetooth Module

Basically, did I do anything stupid or create any bottlenecks or overkill in any area? I'm looking for something I can travel with and use for work/gaming for at least 3 years. I don't need Ultra settings on everything, but a solid 30fps at native resolution would be nice. For comparison, I'll be coming from a 2.5 year old HP DV6 (i7-3610, GT 650m, 8gb ram). I'm also kind of cheap, so I'm really working on bang for the buck. That leads to my next question:

To upgrade to 16gb of ram, the site I used to build this was charging $90. Other places have 8gb sticks at the same speed for much cheaper than that. How bad is it to mix/match brands of ram? Thanks for any help!
 
Solution
The setup is very good and should last you for 3 years. It shouldn't be a problem to change brands for the ram but make sure that it is in the same speed as your manufacturer. Otherwise you can run into problems.

NapkinEater

Honorable
Oct 26, 2013
5
0
10,510
Thanks for the help! I have one more quick question: Looking at system requirements for a lot of games nowadays, do I even need the extra 8gb of ram now or should I wait? I know it's only another $55 or so, but will it gain me anything at all?