Beef up your laptop!

[Kaido]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822148374

Wow :Q

Moved to Hot Deals

- Apple Mod Aphex

 

[TheStu]

Not really sure if the 7200RPM-ness is worth the extra $40 though... I having been thinking about getting a 500GB drive with my tax refund, since it is definitely the best bang for the buck laptop drive-wise.

Those that have 7200RPM drives, do you think it is worth the extra $40?

My current drive is a 5400RPM and I have never really felt all the constrained by it.

 

[Kmax82]

I definitely can tell a difference between a 5400rpm and a 7200rpm drive. I would upgrade to this, but I still have around 100GB free on this current drive. When I hit the 50GB mark, however, I'll definitely be grabbing one of these, or a bigger one if it's available then.

 

[secretanchitman]

dammit, i just put a 320GB 7200rpm in my mbp...oh well! ill probably upgrade to this later this year...

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: TheStu
Those that have 7200RPM drives, do you think it is worth the extra $40?

It was worth the upgrade for desktop rigs years ago. If I were upgrading one of my notebooks now, I'd do it.

 

[sjwaste]

What's the best 7200rpm laptop drive these days, regardless of capacity? Something that's relatively quiet, but a top performer?

 

[ng12345]

Originally posted by: sjwaste
What's the best 7200rpm laptop drive these days, regardless of capacity? Something that's relatively quiet, but a top performer?

would be interested in this as well

as an aside -- do you think this could work with an external enclosure -- or would it overheat?

am trying to find a good 2.5" drive for use as a compact external drive

 

[EXreaction]

How much extra wattage is going to be used by a 7200 RPM drive over a 5400 RPM drive?

 

[Cheesetogo]

Originally posted by: EXreaction
How much extra wattage is going to be used by a 7200 RPM drive over a 5400 RPM drive?

I would like to know this as well.

 

[videopho]

You'd need a nuclear power plant next door to power your laptop.
Almost kidding...you'd need a much more beefier battery to sustain the wattage for the size of this hdd.

 

[gorcorps]

Originally posted by: Zap

Originally posted by: TheStu
Those that have 7200RPM drives, do you think it is worth the extra $40?

It was worth the upgrade for desktop rigs years ago. If I were upgrading one of my notebooks now, I'd do it.

IMO it depends on the uses. The 7200rpm drives draw more power and are louder on average. I don't see the benefit unless I plan on gaming. That's just me though.

 

[Apex]

Originally posted by: Cheesetogo

Originally posted by: EXreaction
How much extra wattage is going to be used by a 7200 RPM drive over a 5400 RPM drive?

I would like to know this as well.

The older 7200RPM notebook drives were already coming reasonably close to the power consumption (both idle and in use) of 5400RPM notebook drives.

http://www.storagereview.com/H...020K9A00.sr?page=0%2C5

Every generation gets better. This one should be the most power efficient 7200RPM 2.5" available. It's probably comparable to a last gen 5400RPM drive.

 

[tvdang7]

i think like 1 year ago i saw a few seconds faster of loading css in steam with a 7200rpm over 5400. thats about it though.

 

[Glavinsolo]

Originally posted by: ng12345

Originally posted by: sjwaste
What's the best 7200rpm laptop drive these days, regardless of capacity? Something that's relatively quiet, but a top performer?

would be interested in this as well

as an aside -- do you think this could work with an external enclosure -- or would it overheat?

am trying to find a good 2.5" drive for use as a compact external drive

Western Digital Scorpio Black

5yr warranty over competitors usual 3yr

 

[ELopes580]

Seagate's pdf of the 7200.4 claims power draw of .67W at idle and 1.55W during seek.

 

[Pneumothorax]

Originally posted by: tvdang7
i think like 1 year ago i saw a few seconds faster of loading css in steam with a 7200rpm over 5400. thats about it though.

5400 drives are able to keep up with 7200's due to their usual higher density. Now that the 7200 drives have the same density as the current top-of-the-line 5400 drives, the gap in performance should be bigger. Also the power gap has definitely closed also.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: ELopes580
Seagate's pdf of the 7200.4 claims power draw of .67W at idle and 1.55W durking seek.

Here's a chart with some more Seagate 2.5" drivers (80gb - 200gb):

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Seagate/ST9200420AS/

idle = .8/.25w
seek = 2.3w

So it looks like the new 500gb 7200rpm, despite being bigger, is actually more power efficient :thumbsup:

 

[tbogstad]

About 2 years ago on a P-M 1.6ghz with 2mb cache 533FSB with 2gb ram laptop I had a 60gb 5400rpm drive and upgraded to a 60GB 7200RPm drive and it made almost everything noticebly faster.

I am all for 7200RPM drives in laptops, my older P-M single core laptop was much more responsive then my friends New core2Duo 1.8ghz machine with a 5400RPM drive.

I feel 7200rpm drive's are more benificial then dual core cpu's for the average joe just surfing the web and running office every once in a while.

Just my experience.

 

[Yo2]

Originally posted by: Glavinsolo

Originally posted by: ng12345

Originally posted by: sjwaste
What's the best 7200rpm laptop drive these days, regardless of capacity? Something that's relatively quiet, but a top performer?

would be interested in this as well

as an aside -- do you think this could work with an external enclosure -- or would it overheat?

am trying to find a good 2.5" drive for use as a compact external drive

Western Digital Scorpio Black

5yr warranty over competitors usual 3yr

I have that - was on sale not too long ago - replaced seagate 320/5400 with 320/7200 on my performance laptop. Very quiet, battery lasts exactly the same hd tach went from 35/57MB/s to 45/72 - Vista loads 20 seconds faster- Windoze 7 really flies on that machine :thumbsup:

Having said that - what is the motivation of building an external drive with enclosure?External notebook drives, even 500GB can often be found for way less than cost of enclosure+drive(+ labor), and they usually come with some quite useful softwares (back-up, synching, encryption...). Also I am not sure that 7200 vs 5400 will be that noticeable over USB.

I just bought a seagate 250GB external drive with stand (very cool) at COSTCO for $79.90+tax. Very handy and quick.

 

[Loop2kil]

would the extra heat a 7200 generates gonna be a big issue for some setups? That would be my main concern

 

[postmortemIA]

7200 rpm drive does not consume more heat nor it takes more power - simply it is faster, thus more efficient, why would it be worse than 5400 drives that spend more time spinning?

i've switched from 100gb 7200 rpm to an 250GB 7200rpm drive and difference is very noticeable. imagine what is difference if you have 5400rpm drive.

afterall, hard drive is still system bottleneck.

the only way to make notebook comparable to desktop PC is to get the fastest drive you can get your hands on.