Notebook HDD: 60GB 7200rpm or 100GB 5400rpm?

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tiraides

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With the new 100GB drives finally out, I was thinking about getting one with my new laptop. (The planned specs for this computer are a 15.4-in monitor, 2GHZ Pentium-M, 1GB RAM, 128MB Mobility Radeon 9700, 10/100 Ethernet and 802.11g wireless.) I normally make all of my computers gaming computers since I know that they can handle almost anything you could throw at them, but in this case I would really like to have the added space. I do plan to play some games with this notebook, but a LAN party is not in my immediate future. I also plan on keeping this notebook for at least two years. In the long run, is it more beneficial to have the added hard drive space or the increased speed?
 
in my case, i know the hard drive is one of the bigger bottlenecks on this laptop. 80 gig is great, i filled it up quick. but 4200rpm.... ugh. but with the added ram i notice a decent increase in performance. still a 5400 would be an improvement, and a 7200 would be welcome, but only if i could keep the space, and only if it didn't change battery life significantly.
 
I'd go with the 60/7200 personally.

get the fast drive, you can always add external hdds later (or modular drives, if the laptop supports it)

With my T42P plugged into the docking station, i can support:

internal 60gb 7200rpm, 80gb 5400rpm (in modular bay, w/ DVD-RW removed)

External 80gb 4200 rpm, 80gb 7200rpm, 200gb 7200rpm, and 10gb 4200rpm (plus an external thumdrive & DVD +-RW plugged into the laptop's side USB)




if you're going to buy an external hdd, and need it to go with you, an external enclosure is just $20 or so for a laptop drive. A laptop drive doesn't require an AC outlet; it can be powered by the laptop's USB.
 
NecessaryEvil said:
if you're going to buy an external hdd, and need it to go with you, an external enclosure is just $20 or so for a laptop drive. A laptop drive doesn't require an AC outlet; it can be powered by the laptop's USB.
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thats what im doin. gonna buy myself a 40gb 7200rpm to upgrade from my 40gb 5400 then gonna stick my 5400 into one of those vantec external enclosures.



seeing as ur notebook wil have 9700, i assume u will be gaming. i play hl2 on my laptop and the loading times are hecka long and fps also suffers at times when it needs to load so highly suggested that u go for a 7200rpm drive
 
definitely go with one of the Vantec NexStar enclosures...they're very nice, and definitely a good purchase. I've had one for almost 9 months, and it's only given me trouble on shuttle PCs (the shuttle's USB didn't put out enough power)


I just bought one of these for the 80gb 4200rpm drive I ordered on Thursday.

I'll keep the 10gb in the Vantec for school work and other fun stuff, and use the 80 in the mapower for when I need more than my X30's 40 allows.
 
NecessaryEvil said:
definitely go with one of the Vantec NexStar enclosures...they're very nice, and definitely a good purchase. I've had one for almost 9 months, and it's only given me trouble on shuttle PCs (the shuttle's USB didn't put out enough power)


I just bought one of these for the 80gb 4200rpm drive I ordered on Thursday.

I'll keep the 10gb in the Vantec for school work and other fun stuff, and use the 80 in the mapower for when I need more than my X30's 40 allows.
Click to expand...
My dad uses one of those, I have to agree that it is awesome. Small, lightweight, and stylish.
 
peterhoang2002 said:
thats what im doin. gonna buy myself a 40gb 7200rpm to upgrade from my 40gb 5400 then gonna stick my 5400 into one of those vantec external enclosures.
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That's what I would do. Great decision.
 
Thanks for the input... I guess I'll be shooting for the 7200rpm drive then.

So, does anybody know when the 80GB 7200rpm drives are expected to arrive? :rolleyes:
 
i doubt they would come soon. hitachi seems to be the only one making the 7200s for laptops abd they got the 40gb one into the market not too long ago
 
Toshiba currently makes a 7200 rpm drive also( MK-5024GAY ). 16mb cache, 50 gb, 7200 rpm.
 
Right now my laptop is running a 4200rpm laptop drive (the 5400 one died) and the disk thrashing is downright crippling.

Definately go with the faster HDD.
 
So, does anybody know when the 80GB 7200rpm drives are expected to arrive?
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I was just kidding about that part....

... Anyways, I decided to get the 7200rpm drive. Thanks to everyone for their input.
 
NecessaryEvil said:
I just bought one of these for the 80gb 4200rpm drive I ordered on Thursday.
Click to expand...

thought I'd bump this since I just got the Mapower enclosure.

It's thicker than the Vantec Nexstar, but the drive is MUCH more secure than in the NexStar.

I put a piece of felt in the bottom of my 10gb drive in the Vantec so it couldn't jiggle around.

the Mapower there is no issue with a loose drive, as it can't move around.

They both use USB power, but the Mapower offers a 6pin Firewire (I'd assume that a 6 pin to 4 pin will not work, as it uses those extra 2 pins for power, but haven't tried it out yet)
 
Since the subject seems to have started to shift, I'll just ask a follow-on question (since I still want one of those new drives, I'll just make it my external drive). Could you give me some recommendations for external drive enclosures that are powered by just the USB bus? (I would say FireWire but most laptops normally come with just one port....)
 
I wouldn't call it a thread hijack, as many people here mentioned going with external enclosures. I was just following up on one I'd commented on, now that I've had a chance to use it.

Anyway...

if you're just interested in USB bus power...go with a Vantec NexStar. The Mapower one is nice, but not really worth 2x the money if you're not interested in firewire.


I'll still carry the Vantec with me daily as it's smaller than the Mapower...
 
so does anybody know when 80 or 100gb 7200rpm hard drives are going to be released?
 
I would guess after the Red Sox win two years in a row.... :rolleyes:

The short answer is I don't know. Like I said in the beginning, the 100GB 5400rpm drives have only shown up recently.

And NecessaryEvil, thanks for the advice.
 
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