2.5" Hard drive for W3V

Hi, I am looking for a bigger hard drive for the W3V at the lowest price possible, and I'm a UK buyer.

I've found this, http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...m9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=81599&_LOC=UK

any good?

Any advice will be apprechiated

 

A very good hard disk - Seagate's are my favourite notebook HDDs at the moment - and at a very good price.

I have no personal experience of the supplier.

I would recommend that you add an external enclosure http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=74822 to your order. You can then use the old HDD as extra storage.

John

 

I have always been partial to Hitachis myself. The 7200RPM drive will give desktop like performance and is cheaper than the Seagates version.

 

What 72900RPM drive? What Hitachi? Got a link? (UK buyer)

 

The Hitachi 7K100, such as this http://uk.insight.com/apps/productp...oduct_id=HTGA04HU9&nbs_search=K=7k100&x=0&y=0.

However, check carefully since the 7K100 comes in various sizes and as both SATA and PATA (the W3 needs PATA).

You are paying a substantial price increment to get a small increase in performance. To see what you might get as increased performance look at http://www.tomshardware.com/storage/20051111/index.html.

Remember that a faster HDD only gives benefit when it is being used. You will save a few seconds on Windows startup and other activities that use the HDD will run a little faster.

John

 

Thank you,
so are you saying that it's better to stick with say a 5400rpm 100GB ?
Also I have another question, does the 7200rpm significantly increase the amount of heat building up over the laptop and increase the noise of the fan? Or is it the complete opposite?

 

The performance difference is noticeable to me although not as big as 4200 to 5400. The Hitiachi 7200RPM drives are starting to come down in prive. You can get the 60GB at ZipZoomFly for $130.

 

Three things to consider: Capacity, performance and cost.

Capacity:What are you going to put on the HDD? Do you need 100GB (but is is useful to have about 20% free space). If you have a DVD writer then DVDs provide cheap off-line storage.

Performance: The faster, the better (but avoid HDDs with only a 2MB cache). But expect some additional power consumption and heat generation. Maybe this years' 7200RPM HDDs use less power than the previous models, but technology improvements most probably benefit the slower HDDs as well.

Cost: As with CPUs, there is a price premium for top-of-range models and whatever you buy now will be less expensive in the future. Six years ago I paid £250 for a 10GB 2.5" HDD!

I would recommend that you delay investment in a new HDD until you have used the computer for a few months and see how the space is filling up. You will then be in a better position to determine your requirements.

John

 

Here's something to consider........ Seagate's 7200rpm line just recently came out. Dealer price is not that much less than you can buy it at a store...... a hard drive is NOT something I'd buy on Ebay...... you're talking about a sensitive product that is going to be storing all of your important information and you're going to rely on it for the life of your computer.......... find it at a reputable store and make sure to purchase a new one.

 

My recommended hard drives:
-5400RPM - Western Digital Scorpio's. Quietest and coolest running hard drives out there. Never a whisper from them. I have one, won't buy any other brand.

-7200RPM - I like the Hitachi 7200RPM's - 60-100GB. Get whatever capacity you need.

 

I bought a hard drive on eBay for my external case, but I keep everything backed up on DVDs as well.

 

Apart from the plastic tray that comes with W3V, do i need anything else (adapter?) to connect up the hitachi/seagate drive?

Also, will flash memory (say sandisk ultra II memory stick pro) be comparable in turns of read/write? Flash memory does have much faster read but not sure about the bus speed (whereas hard drive seems to be the opposite).

Any comment will be appreciated.

 

I don't recall seeing a plastic tray in the W3. The essential component is a special ribbon cable to connect the HDD to the socket in the computer.

Flash memory is usually slower to write than to read and, in general, flash memory is slower than hard disks although there is a bewildering number of speed ratings (such as 60X) now available. Sisoftware Sandra http://www.sisoftware.net/ includes a flash memory benchmark. You can run this on a hard disk and compare the result with the database of flash memory results.

John

 

Thanks John. I actually tried it with a 2gb 60x memory stick last night (couldn't resist as it was very good price). The access time was many times faster than the 5400rpm hd but transfer (I assume it's usb2 on the W3V) was way too slow. Also CPU was flat out so too much work is done on the s/w driver side.

Anyway, looks like i'll just have to spend money on the 7200rpm hitachi...

 

after thinking thru all the options, i wonder if i can use a 3.5" 7200rpm but connect to the 2nd hard drive bay of my W3V via a "3.5 to 2.5" adapter?

this will be much cheaper than an 2.5" 7200rpm (almost half the cost)....