Fastest laptop drives?

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djBon2112

Supreme [H]ardness
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My laptop has a shitty Dell 5400 RPM SATA drive in it, and I've been really feeling it lately. I was wondering what the fastest replacement solution would be? I was thinking VR but that hope was dashed in another thread. Capacity doesn't matter, it's all about the speed.
 
THG has 2.5" comparison charts with several different types of benchmarks. The two fastest drives on the market are the WD Black 320GB and the Seagate 7200.4 500GB drive; the Seagate is faster for average sustained read speeds but the WD has a bit of an edge in access time even though both are 7200 rpm.

The WD Black 320GB is usually at Fry's for about $110 out the door...

As for SSD hardware, if it's older it might suffer from the MLC random write issues (there are ways to alleviate them, however); if it's newer it should work better. But if you need speed and capacity, the WD Black 320GB or the Seagate 7200.4 500GB will do you fine for years to come.
 
I'm going to hazard a guess that if the OP is using an old Dell and wants to speed up his computer a bit, I think an extreme SSD would probably be a bit of a reach out of his budget range, and a new laptop would probably be a better investment in that case. ;)

That being said, Joe Average's suggestions are good as far as platter-based media goes; a WD 320GB 7200RPM drive would do you well.
 
I was gonna say something earlier but but but... :D

I don't consider SSDs "laptop drives" even though they come in 2.5" form factors, that doesn't automagically make them "laptop drives" either. And they don't - at least in current form and maturity - offer any tangible power savings or battery life improvements and run time, so it's best to stick with the tried and true and very highly capable real hard drives for some time to come.

'Nuff typed.
 
This laptop drive doesn't seem like a bad deal. Hitachis are usually well-regarded in the mobile market for nice performance
 
http://shop2.frys.com/product/5838583

That price will be good through next Thursday, it's in today's Fry's newspaper ad and that sale is Fri through Thurs. It's not the Scorpio Black (meaning 7200 rpm) but, considering the cost and the amount of storage and it's still damned fast too, it's a great deal.
 
Joe Average said:
I don't consider SSDs "laptop drives" even though they come in 2.5" form factors, that doesn't automagically make them "laptop drives" either. And they don't - at least in current form and maturity - offer any tangible power savings or battery life improvements and run time, so it's best to stick with the tried and true and very highly capable real hard drives for some time to come.
Click to expand...
Current laptop drives, crap compared to current desktop drives.
Current SSD drives, less than crap compared to current desktop drives.
Draw your own conclusion.
 
Having upgraded about a dozen 4200rpm and 5400rpm laptop drives to 7200rpm ones I can say they feel much better and it's a worthy upgrade. I'd suggest the WD Black (Scorpio) series.

That said, if you can afford the SSD I'd go that route.
 
Syntax Error said:
I'm going to hazard a guess that if the OP is using an old Dell and wants to speed up his computer a bit, I think an extreme SSD would probably be a bit of a reach out of his budget range, and a new laptop would probably be a better investment in that case. ;)

That being said, Joe Average's suggestions are good as far as platter-based media goes; a WD 320GB 7200RPM drive would do you well.
Click to expand...

It's not old, it's a year-old Vostro 1700. I love the thing, and almost everything about it, but the 5400 RPM drive just feels slow, slow to boot, slow to load apps, etc. (running Ubuntu Studio 8.10 x86_64). An SSD isn't out of the ballpark, but I'd rather not spend $300+ on a hard drive upgrade if you know what I mean. I've got to upgrade the wireless too and money is a little tight ;)
 
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