Good mechanical HDDs for G73JH?

Just as the title says, I'm looking for a good set of mechanical HDDs for my new G73. I'm looking to fill both drive bays as well as replace the optical bay with a third drive; I have pretty heavy storage needs(music, movies, games, photos, backups, etc) so the larger the better.

I know there's been a lot of talk about good SSDs for these machines, but I'm really hesitant to go that route as the cost/capacity ratio isn't there(approx $400 for a 256GB and around $1K for a 512GB is what I'm seeing for decent ones).

What I'm thinking about doing is snagging two 7200RPM 750GB drives and a 12.5mm 2.5" 1TB drive. Are there any recommendations or 'must avoid' models to help me narrow down my search?

 

I haven't heard of anything in regards to 2.5 HDDs, but I'd generally avoid Hitachi, and just focus on the three: WD, Seagate, and Samsung (if you still can find them). Also, unless speed is a great concern to you, I'll say stick with the 5400RPMs, as they are generally much cheaper, run cooler, and last longer.

It is really a shame that you're unwilling to go for SSD, since it will significantly benefit your laptop's performance.

 

Use a Momentus XT for the boot drive, to get the fast startup speeds. The other two can be 750GB 7200 rpm drives. (The 1TB drives are too thick.)

 

The added speed would be really nice, but I keep a lot of applications on my drive... I've got about 350GB used up on the G73's stock 640GB drive just due to games, archives, and music. Even with shifting music and W7's documents folders to another drive I'll likely run out of space pretty quickly. Also, I'm having trouble finding any decent ones south of $400... if I could find one in that capacity for $250 or so I'd really consider trying one. Guess I'm just waiting for prices to drop a little further... :/

Sounds like a potential plan, though I heard the Momentus XT had firmware issues. Has that been cleared up? The optical caddy won't support the 12.5mm form factor, though?

 

Personally I would suggest looking into a boot drive, and have two large capacity HDD for storage. Perhaps you can look into how many spaces you are currently using would benefit from the speed bump (ie Windows 7, programs, games, etc). The rest can be easily distributed onto the storage disks.

For instance, in my case, I have an Intel X-25 G2 80GB drive for just my Windows and programs. So far I'm only using about 60% of the space. The rest is stored on my external hard drive.

 

Very interesting solution. I have heard the X-25 is a pretty good SSD; how does it fare with your machine? I'm seeing the 120GB version for around $220 on Feebay, which would be doable as far as my budget is concerned. May I ask what sorts of programs/games are you running?

 

UL80VT is not a powerful machine to begin with, so SSD is basically the best I can do to obtain performance. Boot time has shrunk considerably from 30s+ to less than 15 seconds. It now boots faster than my desktop, which is sporting a OCZ Vertex with Core i7 950. Most programs start up instantly.

If you want some hard numbers, you can read them at Anand's.
AnandTech - OCZ's Vertex 2, Special Sauce SF-1200 Reviewed

(look for Intel X-25M G2 80GB)

Most programs I run on this laptop are just basic ones: Chrome, Skype, etc. I've ran Maple 15 before, and it works pretty quick too. I also have some games on it, such as SC2 and GTA:SA. Naturally the type of games I can install is severely limited by the unimpressive Nvidia G210M.

 

Yup, this is an easy one. You're looking for performance and don't want to spend for a good/large SSD, the Momentus XT is the easy choice. I don't think I could go back to a normal drive for my boot drive.

Second drive could be a second Momentus XT, or a 750GB 7200RPM regular Seagate, depending on how much storage you want and what you use it for. Something like say transferring shows you watch from your Tivo to the computer and stashing them on the second drive, a normal 750GB drive would work just fine for. Actually running normal programs off it the XT would benefit it.

 

I have to admit the X25 has really piqued my curiosity, especially since it's sitting less than my entire HDD budget. I already have two 640GB drives(the one in my G73 and the one I have stuffed in my ThinkPad X200). With some space management on the X200 I could probably pare down to the stock 160GB drive(I'm using it mainly for on the go Web surfing) and just stuff both 640GB drives and the X25 in the G73. I would be losing out on about 220GB of space versus the dual 750GB drives, but the overall application performance just might be worth it.

 

I have 2 Momentus XT drives on SD25 firmware with no issues. Quiet, and performance is as to be expected.

 

Well, I ended up pulling the trigger. 160GB Intel X25M for $200. Looks like a pretty good deal, though it is a G1... though it looks like with static benchmarks that the G1 and G2 aren't incredibly far off the mark performance-wise. Looks like I've gotta pare my X200 down drive-wise, but that won't be too too bad.

 

Bumping up this thread as I just got the drive situation revised on my JH. I might be late to the SSD party but I'm quite impressed with the overall responsiveness of my system. I've tossed a couple of my more frequently used games on the SSD and I still am using only about 1/3 of it. Having two large HDDs for storage also helps immensely as well. I'm extremely happy with this setup, and my G73 in general; it's likely one of the best notebooks I've ever used. Thanks, everyone!