Impossible to find new 2.5" IDE 7200 rpm drives now???

[Aeridyne]

I need to find a laptop hard drive, IDE type in 7200 rpm flavor.

Reason being for a speed boost on an old Inspiron 2200 for a friend. I'm trying to not spend a fortune on it, I've been able to find a ton of 5400 and also some expensive prices on 100+ gb IDE 7200 drives. (Sata 5400 drives are seeming to be by far the most common now). A 40/60/80 would do fine, something like 40 to 80 dollars a pop or better respectively would be ideal, I can find them on ebay too, but I want 7200 rpm, brand new, brand new being the hardest part it seems, fairly cheap, anything over like 90 bucks is probably too much as I'll be lucky to get 80 bucks for the upgrade as it is.

I've already searched the following places to no avail;
newegg
tigerdirect
amazon
buy
frys
axiontech
geeks
outpost
compusa
bestbuy
staples
officemax
officedepot
surpluscomputers
server supply (is ALL their stuff used/refurb or what?)
zipzoomfly
and a bunch of other places I can't specifically remember.

I need help, its like trying to find long lost treasure at this point, haha, all help is appreciated, I'd love to find some new ones I can pick up for a decent price.

Thanks everyone!

 

[rootaxs]

Would eBay be an option? There's quite a few listed there now.
http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_tr...=2.5+IDE+7200+drive&_sacat=See-All-Categories

 

[linjy2]

u must have missed frys deal this week. 120gb WD for $33 and 320Gb 7200rpm Hitachi for $45. brand new. gogogo

edit: nm.. just read IDE.

 

[Aeridyne]

Would eBay be an option? There's quite a few listed there now.
http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_tr...=2.5+IDE+7200+drive&_sacat=See-All-Categories

I have tried that exact same search string, actually with -sata, and it seems there are some out there that SAY they are new, but from my experience on ebay, unless I found some that were retail boxed, someone can seal just about anything and call it new, I don't want to be the rare buyer that is smart enough to run a smart check and see that the drive has already been used for 5000 hours and hassle with the seller... This has been the closest thing I've found so far though, problem is I know its shenanigans with about 99% certainty.

I knew this was going to be a challenge, a darn good one, but someone has got to know some vendors and stores I didn't know existed I thought, someone out there has got to have some actual new 2.5" IDE 7200 drives, question is who.

 

[Aeridyne]

Related to the ebay link above, if you also check "new" the total results are 20 drives;

http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=2....New13180&_fln=1&_ssov=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m282

basically, two sellers, one in china and the other US. Looks like OEM sealed drives, but not coming from a reputable store, I'm not too sure about it. I'd like to find them elsewhere if possible, I don't know if anyone else has ebayed hard drives a lot, but from my own experience its pretty shady just like my luck with mobos and laptops there.

 

[razel]

Kiss IDE 7200 2.5" drives goodbye. No-one is producing any current models anymore. Rest assured though, your choices are still open depending on how much you want to spend. 2-3 years ago I went from a Hitachi 7200 IDE to a Samsung HM160HC 5400 RPM and couldn't be happier. It outbenched the Hitachi in everthing except access time, but what sealed the deal was the Samsung's utter silence. The Hitachi was whiny.

$60 - Samsung HM160HC, WD Blue 160GB (current model still being made)
$90-$120 - Transcend 32GB SSD (awesome entry level)
$120 up - RunCore Indilinix (sp?) based IDE SSD or a SATA Intel 40GB in a SATA-PATA CD-ROM caddy.

 

[VirtualLarry]

BestBuy and Microcenter both carry a WD 320GB IDE 2.5" HD, but unfortunately it's 5400 RPM. I think that's the best that you will find these days, especially if you are looking for new.

I'm not aware of any 7200 RPM IDE 2.5" HDs even being produced.

 

[Aeridyne]

Kiss IDE 7200 2.5" drives goodbye. No-one is producing any current models anymore. Rest assured though, your choices are still open depending on how much you want to spend. 2-3 years ago I went from a Hitachi 7200 IDE to a Samsung HM160HC 5400 RPM and couldn't be happier. It outbenched the Hitachi in everthing except access time, but what sealed the deal was the Samsung's utter silence. The Hitachi was whiny.

$60 - Samsung HM160HC, WD Blue 160GB (current model still being made)
$90-$120 - Transcend 32GB SSD (awesome entry level)
$120 up - RunCore Indilinix (sp?) based IDE SSD or a SATA Intel 40GB in a SATA-PATA CD-ROM caddy.

Thank you Razel, that was exactly the kind of answer I was looking for. I figured it was highly likely that there is a 5400 rpm drive out there for teh same amount or less with more storage that would bench equivalent or better, now, the drives that I have found available for new in 7200 flavor boil down to essentially one model, curiously, all about anyone seems to have is this particular hitachi drive;

http://www.drivesolutions.com/cgi-bin/shop/store.cgi?command=features&kind=laptop&pos=0&type=Laptop

There are three, they are the 100, 80 & 60 gb models of the same Hitachi line.

Razel, you said that those two IDE 5400 rpm drives are still being made? A Western Digital Blue and a Samsung? I think I've seen the Western Digital, in fact I know I have, I don't recall seeing the Samsung anywhere though, considering those might be the only two I could find new at this point, any idea about solid numbers for comparison between those two 5400 models still available and those Hitachi drives?

I was just considering the possibility of an SSD drive since I was about to end up paying more than a dollar a gig anyway if I went with one of those Hitachi drives, I didn't know if they even made an IDE SSD drive though, started to do some reading, found a short article here on an ata-66 model from 2007, it didn't cut it, they theorized that an ata-100/133 model could pull some good numbers if read/write as actually high enough, which in this case would be comparable to a good 7200 rpm laptop drive, which, honestly although I've installed them and used them in my own laptops, I never did do something as simple as load up hdtune and bench it, I would just see how it felt basically, so actual numbers elude me on all of that, which I'm very curious of now actually.

@ Larry, thanks, again I'm wondering how the performance of such drives stacks up against a 7200 model, and also the longevity of the drive compared to say an older but still new (I did find a few outrageously priced on Amazon) seagate 7200 drives, or those Hitachis above, considering it's a WD blue.

 

[bruceb]

The Hitachi drive will be fine. I think that is the same one I have in my Toshiba laptop

 

[Aeridyne]

The Hitachi drive will be fine. I think that is the same one I have in my Toshiba laptop

Ooh, what kind of numbers do you get out of it if you'd be so kind?

And also I was rather hoping Razel would expand on all of that. Also the idea of one of the 5400 rpm drives being as fast potentially as that 7200 but with the benefit of more space for the same price.

(also, i found this article on those Hitachi drives, and the 7200 rpm Seagates as well, these it looks like might have been some of of the first 7200 rpm drives to come out; http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fast-furious,1169-8.html )

 

[razel]

I don't recommend the Hitachi at $100. I'd rather buy the Transcend TS32GSSD25-M 32GB SSD for $120 online or watch for a used one at $90 to pop up on ebay. Just be sure that it was manufactured in 2009 or 2010.

That 7k100 is the same 7200 drive I replaced with the Samsung and the Samsung spanked it silly. I also then replaced that Samsung with the Transcend and couldn't be happier still. Only the WD Blue IDE are current models. I do have HDTach benches for all 4 drives (Hitachi 7K100, Samsung, WD Blue, Transcend) and will try to figure out later how to post them when I have the files with me.

IIRC, the Hitachi has the fastest access time, but the Samsung and the WD Blue beat it in everything else. The WD Blue at 320GB was overall 2-5% faster than the Samsung. At 160GB they'll probably be the same. The Transcend SSD RULES THEM ALL.

In the end, it's a balance of price, performance, and how much longer you plan on keeping the laptop.

 

[Aeridyne]

I don't recommend the Hitachi at $100. I'd rather buy the Transcend TS32GSSD25-M 32GB SSD for $120 online or watch for a used one at $90 to pop up on ebay. Just be sure that it was manufactured in 2009 or 2010.

That 7k100 is the same 7200 drive I replaced with the Samsung and the Samsung spanked it silly. I also then replaced that Samsung with the Transcend and couldn't be happier still. Only the WD Blue IDE are current models. I do have HDTach benches for all 4 drives (Hitachi 7K100, Samsung, WD Blue, Transcend) and will try to figure out later how to post them when I have the files with me.

IIRC, the Hitachi has the fastest access time, but the Samsung and the WD Blue beat it in everything else. The WD Blue at 320GB was overall 2-5% faster than the Samsung. At 160GB they'll probably be the same. The Transcend SSD RULES THEM ALL.

In the end, it's a balance of price, performance, and how much longer you plan on keeping the laptop.

After a few hours of research and looking up benches on models of parts I could find, I was loosely coming to the same conclusion, although I should note that you indeed rock Razel, lol. I found this article saying the Samsung at the time was the fastest drive out there; http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...worlds-fastest-ata-ide-mobile-hard-drive.html
Which I was about to post and ask if that was shenanigans for legit for the most part. That is a really good price for the Trancend, but I'm looking for on the cheap here too, best performance per dollar, but also keeping it toward the cheaper side, looks like either that Samsung, or on of the WD blue would be the way to go, in my opinion, sustained read/write is the numbers that matter most on a drive I would be using in a home type setting for a laptop.

If you could throw those benches up somehow or link em that would be awesome, you could always throw them in a word file or something and email them to me as well if you wanted.

Just to be sure here, we are talking about this Samsung drive;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822152110

These WD Blue drives;
(WESTERN DIGITAL WD800BEVE 80GB PATA/IDE 5400 RPM 8MB)
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...tCode=10006055
(WESTERN DIGITAL Scorpio 160GB EIDE WD1600BEVE 160GB PATA/IDE 5400 RPM 8MB)
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...tCode=10007591

Basically the BEVE type it looks like for the WDs.

Both of those drives are about the same price, and have more storage space, so if they actually perform faster, why the hell not, it would be stupid to get a smaller slower drive at that point. The Trancend is tempting, but I already have a Samsung 200gb 7200 rpm Sata drive in my actual laptop, wonder how that one benches now that I think about it, I paid a LOT for that sucker a while ago too, anyway, I only have room for one drive in my Latitude D830, so the Transcend would be way too small for all the crap I keep on it, would be stellar for running VMs though if only it were bigger. These drives I'm debating about right now aren't for me though, these are what I intend to stock up on a bit before they are gone for folks who come to me with an old laptop that want a speed boost, I've found faster hard drives usually translates to a healthy increase in speed, but since I need to make it an affordable upgrade, I don't want to spend too much on the part itself, still though, I wanted to know what the fastest IDE devices I had to choose from were, seems like Razel has backed that up pretty darn well.

 

[Aeridyne]

So I guess my final question is this, which one does everyone think will live the longest, the Samsung 160, the WD 160 or the WD250?

(most durable and long lived in service is what I meant by that btw)

 

[bruceb]

I can't give you exact numbers, but it boots to the login box within 30 seconds. I got the drive used from CorkyG on here. You may want to PM him and see if he has any others he can sell to you. He is very fair on his prices and I had no issues with the unit.

 

[Aeridyne]

I can't give you exact numbers, but it boots to the login box within 30 seconds. I got the drive used from CorkyG on here. You may want to PM him and see if he has any others he can sell to you. He is very fair on his prices and I had no issues with the unit.

Thanks Bruce, much appreciated honestly, however I think I'm going to amazon a few of either the Samsung or one of the WDs ( cheap freaking price compared to elsewhere and I happen to have Amazon Prime for free 2 day shipping ), I'm having a hard time finding MTBF numbers for each of them though? (I assume MTBF numbers would be a good indicator of expected lifetimes.)

**so i found some numbers on the Samsung drive;
http://www.shop.bt.com/products/samsung-spinpoint-m5-2-5--160gb-5400rpm-8mb-cache-64RL.html
Looks like 60,000 parks and 330,000 hours MTBF

For the WDs though, I can't find SQUAT for reliability information other than the touted 3 year warranty???

 

[Aeridyne]

I couldn't wait for numbers anymore, I ordered 4 of the Samsungs

 

[razel]

3 of the numbers are already on that notebookreview thread. Page 1 has the Samsung vs. Hitachi 7K100 and page 18 has Samsung vs. WD Blue 320GB vs. WD Black.

 

[Aeridyne]

3 of the numbers are already on that notebookreview thread. Page 1 has the Samsung vs. Hitachi 7K100 and page 18 has Samsung vs. WD Blue 320GB vs. WD Black.

Yes, as I continued reading the entire article, i noticed that, thanks though Razel had I not seen them already, only numbers I was still curious of was that Transcend SSD you had mentioned, sustained read & write was what I was curious of, of course I'm sure seek an such is ludicrously fast already, haha.

 

[razel]

Apparently I'm not allowed to post attachments or images. I don't know why... I got a lot of good p0rn. Regardless,

CrystalMark 3.0 100MB Transcend 32GB IDE
SEQ: 81.2 / 45.2
512K: 79.0 / 31.0
4K: 16.9 / 2.1
4K Q32: 18.5 2.1

The HDTach sequential read was about ~83 MB/s. I also wouldn't fret too much about the low sequential write... that 45MB as fast as the Intel V SSD.