HDD for 8204 help

HI all,

Planning on getting the 8204 as my first laptop for studies overseas. And I also wish to upgrade the hdd to a 7200rpm one. And some questions.

i) Is there any sticker or label covering the hdd that will void the warranty with a change? Any picture guide to replacing the hdd?

ii) I read some reviews where the 7K100 supports both IDE and SATA? Will that work, since is a bit cheaper than a dedicated SATA, or do all vendors only sell either dedicated PATA or SATA ones? A bit confused here, like here. And here.

Thanks!!!

 

Upgrading the hard drive does not void the warranty. It is usually fairly easy though I am not super familiar with the 8204.

The 8204 uses SATA, so don't get the PATA drive.

 

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures or anything, although I might do a bit of digging around tonight just because I'm slightly interested.

My main question would be why, is there something specific you are doing that really needs that faster hard drive, so far I've found the performance of the 5400rpm drive very acceptable (I've taken video off my camcorder, over an hour of footage without a single frame dropped which my old PC with a 7200rpm drive always dropped at least a few frames).

 

I wanted to get another hdd for cloning in emergencies, and figured I might as well get a 7200 one, and use the original as a backup. Also, I will be gaming a fair bit and would like a quick load time.

Only problem is that the SATA 7200rpm costs quite a bit more, and deciding btw Seagate and Hitachi. All my drives on my desktop are Hitachi, but being away, the 5yr warranty by Seagate looks interesting.

Thanks guys!