HD for Laptop

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slugger_2003

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 30, 2007
Messages
365
Which HD would you folks recommend for my Dell Inspirion 9400? The HD is on it's way out so I think I'll need to replace it. I'm looking for one which is minimum of 160GB. I was looking at HD's with 16mb cache but wasn't sure if the brand or anyhting else made much of a difference? Will there be a noticeable difference between any two HD's that both run at 7200rpm and have 16mb of cache?
I use the laptop mainly for programming, internet use, gaming and watching films.
Any comments appreciated.
 
The only thing I saw on those links was a kinda guide on how to turn ur HD into a flash drive? Maybe i missed something?
Any more suggestions?
 
slugger_2003 said:
The only thing I saw on those links was a kinda guide on how to turn ur HD into a flash drive? Maybe i missed something?
Any more suggestions?
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Yes, that is essentially what it would do. It would use flash technology as the hard drive. By this kinda creating your own special Solid State Drive.


I recommend getting a larger HDD (either 7200 or 5400rpm) because I find myself always looking for some more space somewhere....
 
Old Hippie said:
"Bout the same as all HDDs.....not a whole lot. Make sure of your drive's interface (SATA,PATA), and go to Toms Hardware 2.5" drive charts to make your final decision.
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In that list I could only see three hard drives with 16MB cache, are 2.5" HD's with 16MB cache really THAT rare?
Also, the one at the top of the list has 16MB cache but the other two are floating about elsewhere in the list, it doesn't look like cache makes much difference to writing transfer. Also...the other two drives don't look to be to be too good in any of the other categories?

The Hitachi Travelstar 7k200 and the Seagate Momentus 7200.2 seem to be pretty darn good all-rounders....yeah?
 
That link is kind of old but you are right about Hitachis. I love my 200 GB Travelstar 7K200, although quite pricey. I got it cheaper since Hitachi sometimes shoves the exact same drive into an external enclosure thats advertised as a 5400 RPM drive. The external drive was on sale at Best Buy and was 70 bucks cheaper than the retail internal drive version.
 
That link is kind of old but you are right about Hitachis.
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That it is, but still relevant. I have used the "E" versions in some of my lappies, but they were all DTRs (Desk Top Replacements) and plugged into 110v all the time. They just don't spin down, like a good lappy HD should. :)
 
I'm not familiar with that particular drive, but if you're interested in comparisons, the charts at Tom's are constantly updated.

RAM, HDD, and optical disc upgrades are usually very easy. There's usually an easily removable cover and the HDD is usually in some kinda caddie with an interface adaptor. The caddy may be one piece or a couple rails bolted to the drive, and the interface adaptor is usually mounted to the front.

Swap caddy and adaptor, and you're good to go.

Good Luck!
 
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