I plan on getting a laptop with two hard drives - one SSD for TANE and one (probably hybrid) for everything else. When it comes to putting a game on a SSD, I see some SSDs advertised as 128GBs x 3 or 4 w/RAID. I look at my current TS12 folder and see that it takes up 252GB, so I'm thinking a 256 would be cutting it too close. I'd like to get 512GB, but not every laptop offers a solid 512, many come with multiple 128s labeled as 512. Would you be able to install the game over multiple SSDs like that? Seems that you would need a truly singular 512GB SSD (or 256 at min). That also leads to the question - does a hard drive perform slower as it fills up? Will it run faster when it's half full than when it's 90+% full? Final question on SSDs: I'm sure it would be better to have an internal SSD, but what about putting TANE on an external SSD to plug-in? Would you see a big loss in performance that way?
I've seen people mention having two separate video cards, under the same pretense as using two hard drives...is this possible in a laptop? I'm no computer engineer, but I'd assume the laptop doesn't have space for that. If you're going with a higher-end card, such as a GTX870(M) on up through a 980(M), would that one video card be enough for the whole system? Or will I need a dedicated video card just for TANE?
Would there be much gain in performance with 16 GB of RAM, over 8? I see that 4 is required, so I figured 8 would be nice. Didn't know if splurging for 16 would be worth the extra dough. Also, if I went with 16, would I be better off with 8x2 or 4x4? Same goes for 8 - 8x1 or 4x2?
When it comes to an OS, should one opt for Windows 7 or 8 for TANE? I was hoping to wait for Windows 10, but it sounds like that won't be out until end of 2015. I'm leaning towards sticking with W7, unless the beta testers with W8 are reporting no issues... Most gaming laptops don't have touch screens - is this an issue with W8? I plan on plugging in a mouse and using it like every other laptop.
Considering that community edition will be out in about 3 weeks, I'd like to get on ordering a new laptop (especially if I can take advantage of some sales this weekend). Thanks for the help!
Chase Z.