HDD choices

Im planning on buying another hdd for my m17. The 2nd hdd will be for storing data and games, so im not sure if its wise to go for an 5400rpm.

Basically thats the thing that worries me the most, is it wise to install and play games from a 5400rmp drive ? Is the difference in loading screens etc noticeable in contrast from a 7200rmp drive ?

The we come down to the brand/model. Heard good things about WD Scorpio drives so is this drive a good choice ?

Or shall i go for a 7200rmp drive like this one ?

Here are the choises in case you believe something else will be better in this case.

Also note, i want the hdd to be as quite as possible. I have no "issues" with my current hdd from AW so i guess anything around that db range will do. Also, does adding a hdd raise the temps of the laptop in general ? Since new hardware -> something else running around 40c in your notebook -> generating more heat in the notebook -> other parts increase in temps too

Thanks for the info

 

Nowadays there is no reason to not pick up a 7.2k drive. They used to be expensive and carried a premium over a similar 5.4k drive.

I have had nothing but good experiences with Hitachi and Seagate mobile drives. Some Seagates can get a little noisy so I'd recommend a Travelstar.

 

Any products you recommend of the site i linked ? Bit easier for me since i already have an account there and im pretty satisfied with them

 

This would be great as well as this.

I didn't see any 250 or 320's at 7.2k that were Seagates. I say go with the Hitachi

 

mmm, never owned a Hitachi hhd. Cant be that different from the rest i guess

 

I would get one of these; (WD Scorpio 500GB 5400rpm)

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/500G...T-Scorpio-25-SATA-300-5400-rpm-8MB-Cache-2-ms

I know its 5400 but the 500GB WD Scorpio HDs are excellent and I too asked this question in another forum and I was advised by most users to get this one as my secondary HD with a nice 128GB Gskill as my primary.

that extra 180GB roughly is worth it....you know how fast these things fill up.

I dont notice loading games from it being particulary slow either although its faster from my main SSD naturally.

ps, dont you load most games up from C/Programmes anyway??

I do run COD4 from this external though as it does not need installing like other games and I dont notice that much difference.

good luck.

 

If theres no difference in loading games etc (or performance decrease in games in general) i wouldnt mind a 5400rmp to be honest. More battery + cooler drive

 

If you dont mind a 5400rpm then definitely get the WD Scorpio.

I was really apprehensive about buying a slower HD considering the one I bought with my M17 was the usual 7200 I thought I was taking a step back.....all those thought prove to have been un-founded and Ive not thought at all about in the 2 months Ive had it....absolutely perfect HDs for the money.
Remember; its just for storage purposes so the bigger the better. Its hard to get a 7200rpm 500Gb, I think only Seagate have them and are probably not cheap...hell I dont think we(joe public) can even get them...searching Google 2 months back for one yielded nothing!
I would get one of these WDs!! cant praise them enough really.

its the same HD that most people fit into their PS3s. good bang for the buck!

 

Yea since the OS is not going to be on that drive i doubt i will see any performance hit in anything but games (since those are going to be installed on the secondary drive). The problem is that i have no idea whats the disk usage during games or if 5400rpm is sufficient to run a game without any slowdowns.

 

Firstly....I am correct in saying that you plan to install your games on your PC therefore in C/programmes which in my belief is where the game load from and therefore is loading from your main HD which is your better faster HD!

Secondly....if you are somehow planning to load games from this second HD and not just store your games files(ISOs and such)there Ive heard the only difference is the time the game takes to load and between levels increases a little. The overall performance of the game is not degraded whilst in-game its just the load times which IMHO is not really noticeable...for me anyway!

I would like somebody to correct me if Im wrong but Im sure what I said above is true!

 

I always install my games in :d or e: so no c:\program files in my case

I always go for a custom installation and change the destination.

in ps3 for eg the difference between a 5400 vs 7200rpm drive is 1-2 secs which is nothing, not sure if the same "rules" apply for pcs though.

 

The best reason to do this is speed in recovery data but not necessarily putting everything on a separate partition, just the data for the apps.

 

Main reason why i do this is because most of the games dont require re installation when you format etc (of course some of them do). So its quite nice not to have to install all the games again. And of course you can temporary store other files that you will need as soon as you format.

At the moment it seems like all my hard drives are running low (notebook and two externals) so another internal seems like a good idea for now. And since games are using more and more hard disk space as years go by i think it would be nice to start installing them on a bigger hdd so i dont have to move them afterwards etc. But the main question is if the new hdd will affect games or not (considering i go for a bigger/slower drive).

Of course in the case i am now theres no performance gains from having a partition but i explained above as why i do it

 

I would just get a 500GB 7.2k (just go for the best price regardless of manufacturer).

I still don't know why you wouldn't go for a 7.2k. Doesn't really make any more noise, power usage is not much different, more cache (usually), and games/files/whatever will load MUCH faster. All-in-all it's just a win all around vs a 5.4k.

Anyway, good luck with whatever you decide and to each his own

 

Wouldnt mind a 500gb with 7200rpm but as you can see from the site the are none that meet both "requirements"

 

What's wrong with this drive?

That's what I would go for. Also, I believe you could get better prices elsewhere but I am in the US so I don't know too much about EU pricing....

 

Yea thats the only 500gb with 7200rpm available but i heard "bad" things about the noice seagate's make.

Prices in UK vs US is just silly sadly Could probably find a better offer if i looked elsewhere as well but this company was always great at all aspects, deliveries, service etc and i would like to support them by giving them money (lol). I know its an odd thing to here since people just aim for the cheapest possible offer they get but ow well

Will probably end going for a 320gb hdd. Can anyone spot the difference between these two drives except from the price ?

this one and this one. Although i guess its something that they dont have in their sites spec since its a different model

 

I am an old-school tech guy -- I stick with what I know and am comfortable with lol.

Don't have any experience with mobile WD drives, but there desktop drives are great.

Out of the 5 seagate drives I have here at the house only 1 makes any noise and it isn't audible when inside a system (only barely noticable in an enclosure).

 

Yeap all my desktop drives were seagate as well The time i stop wanting to buy seagate hdd for my notebook was when i compared the noise this laptop makes with my old one (rip 7950gtx). The old one (seagate) was like chopping wood

Of course it has to do with models etc but it was kinda annoying

 

you can get the 7200 rpm 500 GB seagate for $85 from Dell.....or 120 from newegg lol (US prices)

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...etail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=341-8658

 

Doubt you can actually do that (order a product with US price) or else everyone from eu would order their notebooks that way

Except if i misunderstood what you mean

 

dell sells this 500 gb for $84 but it doesnt say it works fo rm17x....

yet on another dell parts store i think its the same look here http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...=19&sku=341-0101&mfgpid=202798&chassisid=8841
this sells for $184.

while this
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...=19&sku=341-8658&mfgpid=192793&chassisid=8465

sells for $84, looks the same hard drive to me. what exactly are the difference between the 2, do they both work for delliware m17x.
are these hard drives the same? Why is there a huge pricing disparity?
can you guys check these 2 hard drives out and see if they both work with m17x?

 

The more expensive one is listed under external devices so it may come with an enclosure. The cheaper one is a great price. If I didn't already have 4 of them I'd buy it.

 

As long as it is a SATA 2.5" drive it will work with the M17x.....

 

Ya really...don't fall for Dells stupid marketing crap. If it is a notebook SATA drive, it will work, buy what I linked and nothing else.

 

Sometimes Dell doesn't get there listings right (specs, photos, etc can all be wrong) so just look at the model number and that's all.