Zxian Posted January 6, 2005 Share Posted January 6, 2005 Hey everyone, I dropped into the local computer store (at least the one with decent employees) and I asked about a new hard drive for my laptop. I'd like to go from40GB 4200RPMto80GB 5400RPMCache I'm not too worried about since my current hard drive is only a 2MB cache, and pretty much anything out there will have more.The guy in the store said that he could order a Toshiba drive (5400RPM) for $210 CAD (that's about $170 USD or 90 British Pounds).Is this a good deal? I didn't get the chance to ask him about warranty, but I'm guessing I'd get the standard manufacturer's warranty.Good deal? Bad deal? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XtremeMaC Posted January 6, 2005 Share Posted January 6, 2005 i'd go with hitachi's 7200rpm laptop hdd's http://www.hitachigst.com/portal/site/hgst...fa0466460e4f0a0http://www.hitachigst.com/hddt/Dlocator.ns...mptool/comptoolthey've serial-ata 2.5"'s as well... E7K60 40GB is around $120, i dunno the rest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zxian Posted January 6, 2005 Author Share Posted January 6, 2005 I'm trying to stay away from the 7200RPM drives since they draw more power than 4200/5400RPM.I bought my Centrino Laptop for a reason... Thanks for the input though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XtremeMaC Posted January 6, 2005 Share Posted January 6, 2005 well the e series draw less.. either way keep in mind that hitachi exists, and i'd compare the power usages... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zxian Posted January 6, 2005 Author Share Posted January 6, 2005 Hmm... further investigation has propted me to consider the Hitachi 5K100 series drives... I definately like the 5400RPM speed combined with the 2.0W read/write power useage. I'll just have to see how much it'll cost for that...If the price is too high then I'll probably look into a 4200RPM drive that draws the same power as mine does now.Just as a side bar... do you think that an extra 0.5W makes a difference? I mean... how much is that compared to the power used by the CPU, RAM, wifi card, screen, mobo, etc etc etc? Not to mention I've got an ATI Radeon 9200 Mobility in my laptop... probably also draws more than 0.5W. My gut feeling is that it's not all that much difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XtremeMaC Posted January 6, 2005 Share Posted January 6, 2005 if u're asking me, i've absolutely no idea , i've used my laptop as desktop, it was mostly running on electricty rather than the battery... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiquidSage Posted January 6, 2005 Share Posted January 6, 2005 Get the 7200. The power requirement is negligable. The real power drainer for a laptop is the display and the cd drive. Also, i find that a lot of people leave attached devices (wifi card, usb items) in when the laptop is working on battery and that IMO adds up more than a higher speed HD.Let the HD work a little harder so it spends less time in use seeking and writingI upgraded from a 4200 HITACHI Travelstar DK23EA-60 to a 7200 Travelstar E7K60 and with Hitachi's femto slider feature I really haven't seen a negative impact in speed or power use. Also, it's pretty silent. The overall heat my laptop gives off hasn't changed from what it used to be.I am happy enough with my upgrade to ramble on and recommend it here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zxian Posted January 6, 2005 Author Share Posted January 6, 2005 Hi LiquidSage,Thanks for the input. I was guessing that the extra power usage isn't that big of a deal.I looked at the 7K60 model that you have, but I'd like to have an 80GB drive. I don't know if there are 80GB 7200RPM hotebook hard drives available... maybe I'm chasing a wild goose here... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zxian Posted January 7, 2005 Author Share Posted January 7, 2005 Muaha!!!I think I've found the best buy in town (Vancouver, Canada).There's a store called Atic Computers here in Vancouver which is known to be the best place to get stuff for really good prices.Anyways, they've got a Hitachi 80GB 5400 RPM 2.5" 8MB Cache Hard drive (link) for $178 CAD ($144 USD). Even better price than I had found before!The only Hitachi drives that match the given specs are the 5K80 and 5K100 models, both of which will do me just fine. (It'd be really nice if it was the 5K100... but I doubt that... probably more pricey)Compared to my current hard drive (the 80GN 40GB 4200RPM 2MB Cache), I think that I'll have a pretty big improvement.Spare parts are also nice to have as well... (my old HD as backup).Thanks for all the input! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiquidSage Posted January 8, 2005 Share Posted January 8, 2005 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zxian Posted February 2, 2005 Author Share Posted February 2, 2005 I know I'm digging up an old topic here, but I just got my hard drive this past sunday, and WOW!!!This thing really kicks a**!! Despite the fact that it's a faster hard drive, I'm actually getting longer battery life since the hard drive knows to turn itself off when not in use. (some Hitachi drive S.M.A.R.T technology or somethin)The extra speed and storage makes a huge difference too... I have enough space to store my Acronis backup on the drive itself, as well as a couple of VMWare hard drives, and still have more than enough space to spare. Waking up from Hibernation takes no time at all now too! For anyone else in the general Vancouver area (hey, you never know), Atic computers has really great deals on computer parts. They're where I'm gonna be going to build my next desktop computer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tarquel Posted February 3, 2005 Share Posted February 3, 2005 Good news You never mentioned the laptop you have tho. I'd be interested in details of it and how much u got it for - for my little topic on the very lovely subject hereThe ol' forum has helped out again!! Regards,N. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zxian Posted February 4, 2005 Author Share Posted February 4, 2005 Hey there,My laptop is a Compaq Presario X1050CASpecs:Intel Pentium-M 1.4GHz CPU1.25 GB PC2100 RAM (came with 2x256MB)80GB 5400RPM HD (came with 40GB 4200RPM)15.4" WXGA display32MB ATI Radeon 9200 Mobility graphics cardThe base model cost about $2000 CAD with taxes (on sale for $1700 before).There was a problem with the original HD, and it took me a while to get HP to actually look at it... they told me that it's normal to take 25-30 seconds waking up from hibernation with 512MB... stupid tech support. They took it in in the end and ended up giving me a new drive.I've put another $400 into it for the RAM and HD over the past year.Hope that helps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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