Upgrading to a faster notebook HDD

[_the_duke_]

Hi, it seems to take forever to transfer files on my laptop, and when I do it becomes extremely sluggish. At the moment I have a 40GB 4200RPM 2MB Cache drive:

http://www.seagate.com/cda/products/...81,621,00.html

Would I notice a large improvement if I was to upgrade to a 5400RPM 8MB Cache drive?

Will the faster drive result it any heat problems?

Thanks

[sw1tch]

Definetly upgrade man, you would see a huge increase in speed...I have a 80gig 5400rpm hdd and was looking at upgrading to a 7200rpm but really there isn't all that much difference and it depends on what you would be using it for...i'll copy an paste from a post on another board to explain better what i mean:

Because the 5400rpm 100GB HDDs have higher density of data writting.; i.e. more data is written per plate (or per same amount of space). So the lower rpms of the spinnig plate are then compensated w/ greater amount of data being written on some sector of HDD and then transefered beetwen HDD controller (which then sends data to peripherals) and HDD sectors/plates/... For example: when you start a 3D game, lots of scenery data needs to be loaded into memory. The disk is spinning at lower rpms, but density of data per sector is greater. Even if the HDD control unit is grabing and sending data back and forth beetwen peripherals and HDD media at slower pace, it sends more data w/ each transfer ... In short: we could say, transfer times are smaller (transfer speed is higher) on 100GB 5.4k disks, but access time is higher (access speed is lower), becuse of slower average rotational access ... Conclusion: At approx. the same time same amount of data is being accessed and transmitted using the 100GB 5.4k or the 60GB 7.2k

that is comparing a 100gig 5400 to a 60 gig 7200, i say go for a large (80 - 100gig) 5400 hdd and never look back m8

edit- as for the heat, it should not be a problem, even though the drive is spinning a little faster, if you're laptop is in a relatively cool open environment it should be fine....that said, you don't have a 6800 ultra in your laptop so yours should be even cooler

[theyetti]

Hi _the_duke_, www.engit.com.au at Norwood have the Seagate Momentus range at reasonable pricing. These 5400RPM, 8MB cache, drives have power and heat characteristics that are very close to most 4200RPM drives so heat and power usage should not be affected.

You can price check at www.staticice.com.au

I was considering upgrading to a 5400RPM because of long load times, etc. on my laptop but most of the problems disappeared when I went from 256MB to 512MB RAM. File transfers are more HDD dependant but you could check how much RAM you've got.

Cheers Pedro :-)

[_the_duke_]

Cheers theyetti, I upgraded from 256 to 512MB RAM within a week of purchasing my laptop because of how slow it was running. PricePoint have a Samsung 80GB 5400RPM 8MB cache drive for $150, so I ordered it along with 2x512MB SO-DIMM so I should be set now.

Atleast if I buy a new laptop in the future I will be able to transfer the RAM over and put the hard drive into a USB enclosure.

[Zardoz]

I'd consider the new Seagate Momentus 80GB 5400RPM drives on the market - they seem to be a decent performer. I've got the 7200RPM version and I love love love it

[Captain-Nasty]

lawlz you've GOT to be stupid to get a 100gb 5400rpm over a 60gb 7200rpm hdd


If you need more space get an external HDD or a pc.

[_the_duke_]

Originally Posted by Captain-Nasty

lawlz you've GOT to be stupid to get a 100gb 5400rpm over a 60gb 7200rpm hdd


If you need more space get an external HDD or a pc.

Yeah, because it's so convenient to have an external hard drive.

[sw1tch]

Originally Posted by Captain-Nasty

lawlz you've GOT to be stupid to get a 100gb 5400rpm over a 60gb 7200rpm hdd


If you need more space get an external HDD or a pc.

lawlz you've got to be stupid.

didn't read my previous post huh...or maybe you did and you just didn't understand

[Zardoz]

Originally Posted by Captain-Nasty

lawlz you've GOT to be stupid to get a 100gb 5400rpm over a 60gb 7200rpm hdd


If you need more space get an external HDD or a pc.

The 5400RPM 100GB drives will give you slightly over 50MB/sec - the 7200s will give you a tad over 40. For video editing, the 100GB would be considerably faster.

Plus if you need more than 60GB of space, then the 100GB is not a stupid decision.

Joke is on you. Lawlz!!!

[Andres]

In my notebook i upgraded 256 to 1gb ram, and 60gb 4200rpm to 80gb 5400rpm.... (specs in sig)

The ram made a world of difference, the HDD, was better, but not that amazing.

I also picked up a $30 HDD caddy, so now i keep all my dig photos and stuff externally. So the 60-80 upgrade is in reality much larger.

No heat or battery life issues from what i've noticed either with the new HDD.

[Dr Kildare]

Went from a 30GB / 4200RPM / 2MB -> 60GB / 5,400RPM / 8MB HDD & it was well worth the investment.

[Mitch01]

The upgrade from 4200 to 5400 is large in terms of speed, but upping to a 7200 is apparently not that much faster than a 5400rpm drive.

I'll try and find the site I found in regards to that comment.

Also 100 or 120GB 7200rpm 2.5" drives are bloody expensive!!

[Zardoz]

Originally Posted by Mitch01

The upgrade from 4200 to 5400 is large in terms of speed, but upping to a 7200 is apparently not that much faster than a 5400rpm drive.

I'll try and find the site I found in regards to that comment.

Also 100 or 120GB 7200rpm 2.5" drives are bloody expensive!!

Looking for a site? This is the site. This very post.

Yes, there is a difference. Yes, it's noticable after a while - your systems feels much more responsive. But the 4200->5400 difference is big - and what made a bigger difference was going from my Travelstar 60GH 60GB 5400RPM drive to a Hitachi DK23FB. And a regression with going back to the Fujitsu after warranty replacement kicked in twice. Why? Data rate. The 60GH was the first 5400RPM drive on the market - but the density was poor and as such, it peaked at 20MB/sec. The Hitachi? 35. BIG difference. Was night and day. The Fujitsu? About 30-32. I noticed my system ran a tad slower with that drive. Benchmarks on the Seagate 5400.2s are showing 48MB/sec which is a current generation 5400RPM drive up to 120GB.

The 7200.1 is about 40. The 5400.3s are likely to be up in the 50-55 range. I'm waiting for someone to get back to me from notebookforums with benchmarks of the Travelstar 7K100 but spec-sheet wise that thing smacks the 7200.1 down flat. I've heard 55-60MB/sec. If that's true, I'm selling my Seagate. With drives that are three years old that can do 35MB/sec, I find the 40MB/sec a bit lacking. A lot of people will be upgrading from older 30GB drives that do 25MB/sec so you'll notice a big difference there. Going from a 5400RPM current-gen Seagate to a 7200 and you may even notice a decrease in performance. Seek time won't save you here.

It was similar to when desktop HDDs introduced 7200 RPM disks with the Quantum KA drives. There was a difference, oh yes, but it was marginal unless you were doing a LOT of disk activity (eg, running NT and doing lots of swapping because you couldn't afford the gigamegs of RAM for it). Data densities and consequently data rates were slightly less on the 7200s due to the error rate with running bits past the heads that fast. So for most applications - the data rate benefit outweighed the seek time, especially for those with sufficient RAM to do read disk caching of big bits at a time. If you've only got 512MB RAM, a 7200RPM notebook drive is probably going to give you a bigger improvement than if you have over a gig like myself because your disk cache isn't going to grab large bits off the disk when it thinks it needs to.

I bought the 80GB Momentus 7200.1 and somewhat regret not going for the 100 - going from 60 to 80 is piddly. It gives me breathing space though (and the other drive still sits in my media bay module) but still - I had to pay an extra $160 to get the 100GB over the 80. Like, that's an 80GB 5400RPM drive plus a $10 USB2 caddy. You have to draw the line somewhere. The plan was to get a 100GB 5400 for the media bay at $270... but you know, with the talk of the new Seagates going up to 160 and higher data rates, this may be a better solution to wait because you will get some rocking data rates from these babies.

Also remember that 7200RPM drives in notebooks are young. Toshiba and Seagate have only just started shipping (i.e. in the last week or so) their 7200RPM models. Hitachi are on to their second generation (and it really shows with their R&D that they put in to it). This is early days. The 7200.2s are due next year and they promise 120GB and much faster data rates.

So yes, in closing, there is a difference. Some people may not notice it. But I was expecting more for my money. Consider this one taken-for-the-team ;p

EDIT: _the_duke_: can you download HD tach and give us some benchmarks of your current drive?

[Mitch01]

Zardoz: Mate thanks a heap .. you just saved me about 3 hrs of searching through hyperlinks to Technical Articles

[Pazu]

You can also have a look at the Toshiba's 16mb cache 5400rpm hdd. I've just got one, and I like its performance.