laptop Acer Swift 3 - 256GB SSD, 8GB RAM vs. 512GB, 16GB RAM

[Schred]

Hello there!

I am currently considering buying an Acer Swift 3 for it's extreme silence and am torn between the 256GB SSD + 8GB RAM and 512GB SSD + 16 GB RAM (both single channel and a Ryzen 5 4500U btw) versions. The price difference would be about 150 USD but I might be willing to spend more for that sweet, sweet memory.

 

My question is if anyone has made worse experiences with the 16GB model because all the reviews I've seen only talk about the 8GB one and I couldn't find one talking about the more pricy version of the laptop at all. I have seen that the battery seems to be better on the cheaper one, so I'm concerned that something similar might have happened to the fan noise.

 

If anyone here has experience with this laptop, please let me know your thoughts!

[AndreiArgeanu]

Can you provide a model number? I can't seem to find any 256GB model, only 512 and 1TB.

[WaggishOhio383]

What are you planning on using the laptop for? 256 GB of storage may fill up fast. And the extra RAM will definitely make things run much faster. $150 more isn't enough to justify if you're just doing it for the extra RAM, but if you think you'll need or benefit from the extra storage as well, then I'd go for it.

[AndreiArgeanu]

I cannot seem to find any Acer Swift 3 with a 4500U and 16gb of ram or 512GB ssd, I think you may be referring to the model with a the 4700U with 16gb of ram and a 512GB which costs about 150-170$ more than the 8gb 256GB model with the 4500U. The 150$ price difference is definitely worth it for basically 2 more cores and double the storage and ram, though from the teardowns I've seen the SSD is just a m.2 that can be upgraded easily.

[Hon Leung]

Ive had experience upgrading 3 of this line up - "Acer Swift 3", 2 of them with i5-8250U and 1 with i5-7200U. From what I remember those exact models had a 2.5" drive and an NVMe slot, so as a technical person I would always recommend going with 256GB NVMe SSD and adding a 1TB HDD for storage, and add the extra 8GB of memory by yourself, totalling around USD $50-70 if you are willing to go second-hand parts. With that in mind, make sure it would work with this version of the lineup tho.

[genexis_x]

8 hours ago, Schred said:

both single channel

dual channel.

8 hours ago, Schred said:

The price difference would be about 150 USD

you can't upgrade the RAM, so get 16GB

8 hours ago, AndreiArgeanu said:

Can you provide a model number?

Ryzen 4000 model is called SF314-42

4 hours ago, McPlayerTeam said:

From what I remember those exact models had a 2.5" drive and an NVMe slot

this newer version doesn't have 2.5 inch bay and memory slots anymore

[Schred]

Thank you all for you answers and sorry for the late reply!

13 hours ago, AndreiArgeanu said:

Can you provide a model number?

8GB + 256GB: SF314-42-R86V - 16GB + 512GB: SF314-42-R4A0

13 hours ago, WaggishOhio383 said:

What are you planning on using the laptop for?

School and programming. So yes, I could definitely profit a lot from more ram for IDEs and having lots of tabs open at once, and the extra storage doesn't hurt either.

13 hours ago, AndreiArgeanu said:

I cannot seem to find any Acer Swift 3 with a 4500U and 16gb of ram or 512GB ssd

This is the model I am talking about and this is the cheaper version. The website's in German but the links go directly to the specs, so I hope you can figure it out (I tried to find it somewhere else, but as I said it's very weird and I can't find this model in particular anywhere else (this vendor is trustworthy though, just fyi)). On this website it shows them both with a 4500U.

 

4 hours ago, genexis_x said:

dual channel

Again the spec sheet seems to disagree, but maybe you're right. I don't really care about this though tbh haha.

 

4 hours ago, genexis_x said:

you can't upgrade the RAM, so get 16GB

That's what I was thinking, but the thing that I am worried about is that this version will have louder fans (and maybe much worse battery life, although I don't care about that too much) which is my main concern and I couldn't find any reviews for this model in particular. The 8GB + 256GB version is really silent apparently and if that's true for one model it probably is for the rest of the line-up as well, but I just kind of want to make sure it really is. So thanks for all the advice but does anyone happen to know anything about this problem specifically?

[AndreiArgeanu]

47 minutes ago, Schred said:

Thank you all for you answers and sorry for the late reply!

8GB + 256GB: SF314-42-R86V - 16GB + 512GB: SF314-42-R4A0

School and programming. So yes, I could definitely profit a lot from more ram for IDEs and having lots of tabs open at once, and the extra storage doesn't hurt either.

This is the model I am talking about and this is the cheaper version. The website's in German but the links go directly to the specs, so I hope you can figure it out (I tried to find it somewhere else, but as I said it's very weird and I can't find this model in particular anywhere else (this vendor is trustworthy though, just fyi)). On this website it shows them both with a 4500U.

 

Again the spec sheet seems to disagree, but maybe you're right. I don't really care about this though tbh haha.

 

That's what I was thinking, but the thing that I am worried about is that this version will have louder fans (and maybe much worse battery life, although I don't care about that too much) which is my main concern and I couldn't find any reviews for this model in particular. The 8GB + 256GB version is really silent apparently and if that's true for one model it probably is for the rest of the line-up as well, but I just kind of want to make sure it really is. So thanks for all the advice but does anyone happen to know anything about this problem specifically?

The model you provided seems to be exclusive to Germany, and maybe a few other countries. Anyway, there isn't anything to worry about, it's still an SF314-42, it's the same overall with the main difference being a different amount of soldered ram and a different M.2 ssd. There isn't exactly a way for this to have a noticeably worse battery life or louder fans, it's the same package, just different configuration.

[Schred]

Thanks for your help, I did go with the 512GB SSD and 16GB RAM model.

[EvgeniyF]

On 2/23/2021 at 8:22 PM, Schred said:

Thanks for your help, I did go with the 512GB SSD and 16GB RAM model.

In case you`ve purchased it, what about your fingerprint scanner? Does it work properly?

[Schred]

On 2/26/2021 at 11:18 AM, EvgeniyF said:

In case you`ve purchased it, what about your fingerprint scanner? Does it work properly?

Yep, it works perfectly fine for me.