The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Will an External HD Help?

    Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by BigB, Apr 10, 2006.

  1. BigB

    BigB Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    13
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Just thinking out loud. My brother's v2000 has 1280MB of RAM but a 4200rpm HD. He only plays WoW really, and notices a lot of loading going on. Would a faster external HD that only the game loads off of help with his FPS at all? Or would the transfer rate over a firewire or usb2 really make it null and void?

    Thanks in advance.
     
    BigB, Apr 10, 2006
    #1
  2. tullnd

    tullnd Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    83
    Messages:
    446
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    It might help a little...but why bother? Why not just get a faster internal hard drive? The only negatives would be a small amount of increased cost and lower battery life(but not a huge drop). It'd be easier to manage, and if he just wants to keep the old drive for archival purposes, you can get an external cage and hook that up as well, just for backups.

    The sustained transfer rate would only be decent over Firewire. USB2 wouldn't even begin to compare. Even over Firewire 400, you still wouldn't be capable of the same sustained rates you might pull off a decent internal drive.
     
    tullnd, Apr 10, 2006
    #2
  3. BigB

    BigB Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    13
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    How hard is it replacing a hard drive in a laptop? Same as a desktop just less room?
     
    BigB, Apr 10, 2006
    #3
  4. Aero

    Aero PC/Mac...Whatever works! NBR Reviewer

    Reputations:
    733
    Messages:
    1,919
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Real easy on v2000.
     
    Aero, Apr 10, 2006
    #4
  5. Bamboo One

    Bamboo One Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    37
    Messages:
    124
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Probably easier.
     
    Bamboo One, Apr 10, 2006
    #5
  6. Merlot

    Merlot Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    4
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    The slow framerate problem may actually be in the shared graphics 200m. With that much memory it shouldnt be hitting the hard drive too much (except in Ironforge).

    I noticed a big improvement when adding another 512k. Also, deleting virtual memory, defragging, and then putting virtual memory back at a set ammount may help.
     
    Merlot, Apr 11, 2006
    #6