L502x - Hard Disk Upgrade - Help Needed

Hi everyone,

I have a Dell XPS L502X with 500gb internal hdd.
I wish to upgrade this to 1 tb. But after googling for sometime I am really confused.

I looked for a 2.5" 7200rpm 16mb cache 1tb hdd ...

i couldn't find any 7200rpm - only 5400rpm's for 2.5" form factor.

Firstly do we get 7200 or 10000rpm in 2.5" size?

Also, other that whot i already am looking at .. What all should I be looking at when i go looking for internal hdd.

Secondly is there a upper cap pertaining motherboard or the built ?
Has anyone tried anything beyond 750gb bcoz dats the max size i know is supported.

Also I want just one disk. I am currently not planning to remove my CD-ROM to fit two hdd's.

Thanks everyone in advance.
Any Help will be reallyy appreciated.

-Rahul Dabas

 

okk .. i solved my first problem

Newegg.com - Seagate Constellation.2 ST91000641NS 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache 2.5" SATA 6.0Gb/s Internal Enterprise Hard Drive -Bare Drive

now my new concern is .. is it safe to use a 7200rpm hdd in laptop-heat concern?

 

The Constellation is 15mm high. It was designed for server use and won't fit in your XPS 15.

To my knowledge, the only 1 TB 7200 RPM 2.5" 9.5mm HDD on the market is the dual-platter HGST Travelstar 7K1000.

 

I would strongly suggest that you put in an SSD [for the OS and programs] and a 1TB 5400rpm HDD [for storage] in a caddy for the optical bay.

For example;
Caddy:
New SATA 2nd Hard Drive HDD SSD Caddy for Dell XPS 15 L501X L502X 17 L701X L702X | eBay

and so you can keep using your optical drive:
USB External Slim CD DVD Optical Drive Enclosure Case | eBay

and you could get an new SSD and HDD for a similar price to what you suggested. (or keep your 500GB and use that instead)

 

I have a M1730 with two hard drives. They were originally 160gb each. I changed the drive 0 to a 256gb liteon ssd and later replaced the second drive with a Seagate 750gb hybrid 7,200 drive. I was going to go with a 5400 1T drive but decided the extra space V lower performance wasnt worth it.

 

well, I am using two simultaneus internal 7200 rpm hard drives on my L502X for more than a year

one is the 320Gb Disk wich came with the unit, it is installed at the original hardware place, this disk have the OS installed plus some apps.

the second disk is installed via a HDD caddy for the optical drive conector. it is a 750 gb hdd I mainly use for games, music,anime and some HD movies.

no problems yet and my machine runs very cool due some mods I did.

 

@capitankasar .. which 7200 rpm hdd r u using ?

@exaltare is ryt. The one i found out was 12mm so wont fit. But the HGST Travelstar 7K1000 is not available on amazon ryt now ..

as far as caddy go ... i m not ryt sure abt that. I really want der to be just one large hdd -- i am planning to buy a docking station if I later need one.
Bcoz I cant carry the external cddrive along with me all the time - to ofc, class n everywer else ...
Dats the last option ryt now ..

 

Yeah, if you use your CD drive regularly on the move, then it wouldn't be the best solution for your case.

 

ST320LT007-9ZV142 installed at the main hdd hole and ST9750420AS installed on a optical drive hdd caddy.

the ST320LT007-9ZV142 came with default with the machine, so I know there are better choices , (in future I may replace it with a SSD or a bigger size HDD)

the ST9750420AS seems faster and I like the storage capability

 

oh, I confirm what NeoMasal said, optical drives are used quite low those days, specially with the laptop allways connected to internet.

I use it only to burn some cds, and ocasionally to dump some disks to iso images or whatch some dvds, but I have allways my second hdd inside.

so if you almost dont use your optical drive, or you use it very few, I recomend to do same I did.

to be able to connect the optical drive as an extra accesory, I got this from newmodeus

eSATA-USB cable (eSATAp), connect SATA optical drive externally [slimSATA-eSATAp-C06] - $24.95 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

it is a adaptor from e-sata to the optical drive conector, that allows me to use the optical drive at the same time I use both hard disk drives, and since it is e-sata, it probably is at the same speed than being conected internally

this also comes with a little fabric bag to carry the optical drive + cable allways with you.

I found this the perfect solution for this laptop plus the hdd caddy

as for the hdd caddy, this is the one I have

http://www.newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=358

I ordered both items from newmodeus and they arrived in one package (hdd caddy and optical drive esata adaptor + fabric case)

very happy with this adquisition

 

Ok I have a question regarding Caddy.

I dont know much about a HDD Caddy .. So I am confused If I were to buy one what all should I look at. Bcoz the two links here in previous postes

have a bigg price difference ..


Also,
If I decide to keep my orignal HDD which is 7200RPM and in caddy if I put a 5400RPM will both work in der resp speeds of will it reduce down to 5400 ??

 

yeah, get the one from ebay, it seems more sexy relating price.

however you will still need the cable I linked before if you want to connect the optical drive sometimes by the esata port.
well, you may also find cheaper alternatives on ebay too.


about your question, your main hdd will work at 7200 rpm and the other one at 5400 rpm

they dont reduce each others speed ^^

but obiusly the one from 7200 rpm will work faster than the 5400 rpm one ^^

 

oh dats ok .. I am planning to install win7 in Original HDD and Ubuntu in slower one .. ubuntu should be able to mamage with slightly less speed ..

 

Hi Capitankasar .. can I use something like this:
Amazon.com: Uspeed USB 3.0 to SATA Converter Adapter Cable - 3 Feet for 2.5 / 3.5 Inch Hard Drive HDD SSD with External AC Power Adapter: Electronics

USB3.0 - sata for external cddrive
I was actually thinking of using my old XPS cd drive itself to use as the external cddrive.. is that possible ??

I am intrested in this as I can also use it with any sata hdd as well .. )

 

that cable will not work.

at least with the stock optical drives from the laptop, that cable is designed to be used with 2.5 or 3.5 sata disks, that is also the reason I needed to buy a hdd caddy to connect a sata hdd to the optical drive ^^

one of the connector is different, let me put a image to see what I mean



so no, the previous cable you found will not be compatible to connect the internal optical drive from a laptop externally

 

My L502x (Win 7 Home Premium) has developed 6 faulty blocks and Dell say it must be replaced. The Hitachi Travelstar 7K1000 0J22423 (1Tb, SATA3, 6Gb/s, 7200rpm ) is now available. I gather SATA3 and 7200rpm are OK. Does anyone know if 1Tb size is OK for the L502x? I'd hate to buy one and find it doesn't work!

 

it shouldnt have size issues.

1 tb 7200 rpm will be great for this laptop

I have been using a 750 gb disk on the optical connector for some long time, working like a charm

this laptop can become awesome when it have a lot of space on it to be used with interesting stuff