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    Where is the 7200rpm hard drive for the 1720 Laptop?

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by Jenson1, Jul 10, 2007.

  1. Jenson1

    Jenson1 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Where is the 7200rpm hard drive for the 1720 Laptop?

    Why would anyone get the 5400 rpm hard drive? It kills performance. Trust me I know I've been in the industry for 20 some years now.

    IF the only programs you are using are microsoft word & internet explorer then a 5400 rpm hard drive is fine.

    If you want to do anything else that is somewhat intensive you HAVE to get a 7200 rpm hard drive.
     
    Jenson1, Jul 10, 2007
    #1
  2. janmik

    janmik Notebook Enthusiast

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    I don't understand why it's not offered with the 1720, especially since it was an option on the old 1705 and on the new 1420 and 1520 models. I've contacted dell several times on this subject but no one can explain why it's not offered or even if it will be offered in the near future. I agree that the 7200rpm HDD would enhance performance, I think this is a big blunder on dell's part and wish someone could explain further.
     
    janmik, Jul 11, 2007
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  3. ecaggiani

    ecaggiani Notebook Enthusiast

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    I just got my 1720 and I ordered it with the smallest hard drive because I bought a 200GB 7200RPM from newegg to replace the one that came with it. The weird thing is that when installing the 7200RPM drive, I couldn't get Vista to install on it (kept getting BSOD) until I went into the BIOS and switched the SATA mode from AHCI to ATA.

    Now I'm not sure what all that means. To disable AHCI I also had to disable some sort of flash cache thing in the BIOS. But once I did that, Vista installed fine and all is good.

    The big question is...does a 5400RPM drive run faster than a 7200RPM drive if you have the flash cache and AHCI enabled for it in the BIOS? Does anyone even know what all that is?
     
    ecaggiani, Jul 12, 2007
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  4. dc74

    dc74 Notebook Consultant

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    Dell Canada does have a 160GB 7200RPM option for the 1720. I configured mine with one. I hope it doesn't cause problems.
     
    dc74, Jul 12, 2007
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  5. djatomikbomb

    djatomikbomb Notebook Guru

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    ecaggiani, i did you a favor and searched wikipedia for AHCI, and this is what it said:

    Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) is a hardware mechanism that allows software to communicate with Serial ATA devices such as host bus adapters which are designed to offer features not offered by Parallel ATA controllers besides higher speeds, such as hot-plugging and native command queuing. The specification details a system memory structure for computer hardware vendors in order to transfer data between system memory and the device. The current version is 1.2[1]

    AHCI is fully supported in Windows Vista and the Linux operating system from kernel 2.6.19. Older versions of Windows require drivers written by the host bus adapter vendor in order to support AHCI.
     
    djatomikbomb, Jul 14, 2007
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  6. GloStiX

    GloStiX Notebook Evangelist

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    ^I got a 1520 with a 7.2k RPM HDD and that Wiki tip helped me a lot. Now I jsut need to figure out what the "host bus adapter" is on it so I can get some drivers. lol
     
    GloStiX, Jul 14, 2007
    #6