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    Serial Ata (SATA) 150 vs 300 Laptop Hard Drive upgrade

    Discussion in 'Gateway and eMachines' started by PopRoxMimo3, Oct 29, 2008.

  1. PopRoxMimo3

    PopRoxMimo3 Notebook Deity

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    I want to upgrade my Gateway P-6831FX (Intel PM965 Express chipset)hard drive to a 320GB... 7,200RPM... Sata: 3.0Gb/s... [Western Digital Scorpio Black WD3200BEKT 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Notebook Hard Drive - OEM ... Possibly even get 2 of them.

    According to cnet the gateway p-6831fx has a 250GB... 5,400RPM...Sata: 1.5Gb/s... Hard drive.

    Now Im not sure if I can upgrade, because I don't know what my SATA Controller can handle?
    Will it be able to handle the new drive at 1.5, 3.0, or not at all?
    If it handles the 3.0 drive, will it just go up to 1.5 or 3.0?
    Im having a hard time finding the proper documentation on my computer to help me make this any easier.
     
    PopRoxMimo3, Oct 29, 2008
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  2. nature2494

    nature2494 Newbie

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    As i know,pm965 support sata2.5 mode(3.0gb/s is included in it),so you can use the hdd in your latptop in 3.0gb/s mode

    Whatever,there will be no dififference between 3.0 and 1.5,because the hdd tansfer speed can not be so high(1.5gb/s) which is much lower than 1.0 gb/s
     
    nature2494, Oct 29, 2008
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  3. DestruyaX

    DestruyaX Notebook Evangelist

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    They are backwards compatible and you won't notice the slightest bit of difference in speed.

    The 1.5/3.0 thing is BS marketing. Even in RAID you're not going to get anywhere near 3.0 regardless. Let the good times roll.

    Also, consider the Momentus 7200.3 - it got slightly better reviews and speed than the Scorpio Black, unless you have a preference for WD.
     
    DestruyaX, Oct 29, 2008
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  4. royk50

    royk50 times being what they are

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    i think people were saying the WD run much cooler...
     
    royk50, Oct 29, 2008
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  5. fiziks

    fiziks Notebook Evangelist

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    DestruyaX,

    You are mostly correct. Yes, they are backwards compatible, and yes the 1.5 vs 3.0 thing is mostly marketing, as the drives cannot achieve those transfer rates, but he WILL see an improvement. As you can see here-> http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2-5-hard-drive-charts/Average-Read-Transfer-Performance,675.html the fastest 7200 drive is 20% faster than the fastest 5400 drive. And I would imagine his current drive is a generation (or more) older than the current frontrunners. I've done many 5400 to 7200 upgrades ad always seen a noticeable improvement. Yes, some 5400 drives are as good as or better than some older 7200 drives, but I don't think he has one of those 5400 drives in his laptop and the WD and Seagate mentioned above are at the top of the chart.

    One thing to be careful of is that there are some 7200rpm 500GB drives out right now and at least one of them is slightly thicker than the standard 2.5" drive and so may or may not fit.
     
    fiziks, Oct 29, 2008
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  6. PopRoxMimo3

    PopRoxMimo3 Notebook Deity

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    Awesome. I guess ill be picking those puppies up soon.

    *first time on this forum, thanks for the help everyone*
     
    PopRoxMimo3, Oct 29, 2008
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