M1530 Hard drive: 200gb 7,200rpm or 320gb at 5400rpm?

Not that it costs much to change, but do you think its better to have the larger space of the faster hard drive?

Is the 5,400rpm hard drive fast enough for most people? (I would quite like the space.)

 

At the moment I have a 200GB 7200RPM in my desktop and a 160GB 5400RPM in my laptop and the laptop runs alot faster. If you have a decent amount of RAM (1GB 533 in desktop vs 2GB 667 in laptop) it will really help with the difference in speed.

Grand Admiral

 

I have thte 200GB 7200RPM Seagate Momentus. It works great, but it makes so much noise. I'm thinking of getting the 320GB too. Do you think Dell will change the HDDs without problem?

 

I have 2x 200GB 7200rpm Seagate Momentus drives in my M1730.
I have a 320GB 5400rpm Toshiba drive in my M1330.

The speed is around the same IMO - it certainly seems that way. In regards to the noise, I dont know what you mean. Both my momentus drives are very quiet - in fact thats why I always choose Momentus drives in my laptops.

The 320GB drive is much noisier, like a scratchy noise etc, typical of HDDs. Ive even thought about swapping it with the new 320GB 7200rpm Seagate Momentus drives now available! Seagate, in my experiences, have been the quietest and coolest running HDDs available.

 

I think most people have 2GB these days. Quite staggering, considering I remember being more than happy with 2MB (guess I'm just getting old!).

There are arguably some instances where a 320GB 5400RPM drive would actually provide better performance than a 200GB 7200RPM drive. Random seeks may not be as good, due to the increase in roational latency, but sustained reads are likely as good as, or better than the smaller capacity drive due to the increased data density.

Personally, I'd go for capacity. Speed differences are so negligible that having more capacity gives an overall more enjoyable experience of using your laptop.

Do remember though, there are 500GB drives now availalable for reasonable prices. 320GB is no longer top-of-the-range.

 

yeah, but I can't configure those in the M1530, and I'm not overly confident about taking apart the laptop.
Top-of-the-range doesn't bother me- as long as it holds enough stuff, I'm ok, and if it runs out, I'll get an external hard drive.

 

I have the 160gb 7200 rpm drive. It's actually very quiet though from what I have read on here there's not much difference in performance with the higher speed.

Also while some have complained about having more heat I have noticed very little with mine, it's actually been barely warm after intensive use.

 

The HDD is literally slot in iirc

 

interesting, so which IS quieter?
I guess this comes down to the actual hard drive's manufacturer. It's another exciting game of Dell Roulette. Round and round the little laptop goes, where will it stop, nobody knows.
I am still tempted towards the higher capacity.

 

You don't have to take apart your laptop to install a new HD, you only have to remove some screws, remove the laptop (slide out), put the new HDD in (slide in) and put the screws back. There's a video on youtube regarding the installation of a HD in the M1530

 

Fair enough, but let me fill the included hard drive first!

 

FWIW The 160GB 7200RPM Drive I have is a Fujitsu MHW2160BJ FFS G2

 

Will the 500GB HDD fit in the M1330 or M1530 though??
Apparently its a little thicker then standard, due to the extra platter.

 

it's an interesting question. some people say 7,200rpm is louder, others say 5,400rpm is, some say ... overheats more, others say .... heats up more.
Tempted towards the space still.

 

Personally, Id go for the space if I were you