Internal HD or External HD?

O

Outrager

Gawd
Joined
Apr 9, 2002
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Right now I'm using an iBook with a 30GB 4200RPM HD. It's slow and I'm always running out of space. For $150 I can get a 60GB 7200RPM Notebook HD or a 200GB 7200RPM Desktop HD w/ External Enclosure. Would there be a difference in speeds between the two? Would power be an issue if I use an external compared to an internal? Performance and battery life are what I'm looking for. BTW, is there a 7200RPM notebook HD out that's bigger than 60GB? Newegg.com has 60GB as the largest they stock.
 
you would lose battery life if you used the internal 7200RPM.

as for the largest 2.5" HDD, I believe they're now up to 100GB, but I'm not sure if that's at 7200RPM speeds. might be 5400.
 
no you wont, the 7200 doesn't use anymore power, which is why its so expensive, im not sure if your mac will support a 7200 though, i dont really know what macs support but if i were you i would get a samsung 80GB 5400RPM 8MB cache drive, they are cheap and REALLY fast, i am on one right now, i can transfer 31MB/s stable from the drive
 
klowngoblin said:
no you wont, the 7200 doesn't use anymore power, which is why its so expensive, im not sure if your mac will support a 7200 though, i dont really know what macs support but if i were you i would get a samsung 80GB 5400RPM 8MB cache drive, they are cheap and REALLY fast, i am on one right now, i can transfer 31MB/s stable from the drive
Click to expand...

expensive? how is this expensive for a laptop drive?
 
$157 for 60 gigs?!? That's quite expensive. Why not add 40 gigs for $1.91 more.

Details HERE

It's a Seagate 100 GB, 5400 RPM, 8 MB cache.

edit: Sorry, didn't see the 60 gig was 7200. That's still a tad expensive. Here's an Hitachi for $145
 
I'm not going to do much of any gaming, if at all. But a lot of downloading. Would the 5400RPM be enough? Also, if I get a 5400RPM, would the jump from 8MB cache to 16MB cache be much of a difference?
 
What I did was upgrade to the 2.5" 60GB 7200 RPM (Nice and fast) and toss my old 4200 in an external USB 2.0 enclosure than runs off USB power so I could use it any where. Unlike a 3.5 Drive in an external enclosure, which requires A/C power.
 
klowngoblin said:
no you wont, the 7200 doesn't use anymore power, which is why its so expensive, im not sure if your mac will support a 7200 though, i dont really know what macs support but if i were you i would get a samsung 80GB 5400RPM 8MB cache drive, they are cheap and REALLY fast, i am on one right now, i can transfer 31MB/s stable from the drive
Click to expand...

how do you figure spinning the disk 3000rpm faster wouldnt use more power?
 
klowngoblin said:
no you wont, the 7200 doesn't use anymore power, which is why its so expensive, im not sure if your mac will support a 7200 though, i dont really know what macs support but if i were you i would get a samsung 80GB 5400RPM 8MB cache drive, they are cheap and REALLY fast, i am on one right now, i can transfer 31MB/s stable from the drive
Click to expand...
SHENS I SAY! I put a 5400 RPM Samsung Drive in my Inspiron 8200 which formerly housed a 4200 RPM IBM drive....I lost a full half hour of battery life. The performance increase was quite a bit, but to me it didn't justify the loss of a half hour's worth of battery.
 
Actually, a site did a comparison between a 4200, 5400, and 7200RPM drive and it made little impact on battery life. You can find it by going to google and searching "4200 7200 5400 battery life". It should be the second one on the list. (i'm not sure if the site is allowed to be linked on the forum)
 
The laptop I have uses the same amount of power using a 4200 rpm drive or the drive I have now.

If you get an external drive you will need to plug it into an outlet to use it. Full sized drives need AC to power the enclosure.

Best bet is to get the 7200 rpm laptop drive, and stick the 30 gb you have into a laptop drive enclosure. This will give you 90 GB... when you run out, get a full size 300GB external drive or whatever is out at that time.
 
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