Laptop hard drive recommendation

[Joe Average]

Ok, I'm usually one of the people that spits out suggestions left and right and makes recommendations but this time I'm not quite sure what to get so...

I can pick some ordinary physical hard drive, or I can spend up to $200 or so on an SSD. I'm leaning towards the Patriot 64GB SSD (maybe the 128GB model) because I've seen some benchmarks that I have a little faith in that show it to be a damned good performer - no I can't afford the Intel SSD stuff, but it sure would be nice to have.

I've got an HP/Compaq nx7400 business class laptop I just snagged off Craig's List for $300 and right now, even with just 1GB of RAM in it and an 80GB 5400 rpm drive (Seagate Momentus 5400.2) I swear to god, this thing is running Windows 7 build 7000 so ridiculously fast I almost pissed myself when it rebooted. Windows 7, man... I swear, it's so awesome and it's not even anywhere near being tweaked for speed...

I'm at a crossroads: stick with the old tech - and I don't care about storage space really as I can just connect to my home machine and use it for storage since that's where all my content really is. The idea is performance, not capacity, so I know a lot of people will instantly jump on the SSD bandwagon, and believe me, if I could just buy an Intel SSD right now without consequences - meaning not keeping my apartment for the Wife and I, being able to eat, that sort of thing - I'd order one from Newegg with overnight delivery as soon as I get done with this post, but... I can't.

So... do I make the jump and grab an SSD once and for all (haven't bought or even used one yet, to be honest), or stick with the tried and true totally matured physical hard drive technology that works fine and is more than acceptable for performance.

I just want something faster... and I can't put a Velociraptor in this laptop or it'll melt. And believe me, I've considered getting one. If anyone has been brave enough to actually do that - get a Velociraptor and remove the heatsink and use it in a laptop, I'd love to know it and what results you're getting for heat production/battery life, etc.

Gimme some recommendations, and again, massive capacity isn't the primary concern, performance is but I know that because of platter density on large capacity drives makes a big difference in performance overall, that matters too.

Happy New Year everyone, and I appreciate any input you all would be willing to offer. I checked several 'reputable' websites but found no decent benchmark data, and while I prefer to do benchmarking myself, I simply can't afford the time required to travel around buying up hard drives and then returning 'em.

Thanks, and have fun, always...

Just so we're clear: I need recommendations for the best performing 2.5" SATA drive out there, under $200, or close to it, either physical hard disk or SSD, doesn't matter at this point.

EDIT:
I guess I better explain why I even mentioned a Velociraptor - this nx7400 laptop actually has some space inside the drive compartment, so even with the fact that the Velociraptor is around 12mm thick, it would fit, without issues... and of course I just realized that this possibility is null and void: the Velociraptor apparently is a 12 volt drive, not a typical 5 volt one... how interesting.

 

[Old Hippie]

I need recommendations for the best performing 2.5" SATA drive out there, under $200, or close to it, either physical hard disk or SSD, doesn't matter at this point.

And you want the best in what parameter? Go to Tom's 2.5" benchmarks and pick 'ur poison.

If there was an SSD priced under 200.00 worth buying, I'd have one.