160 Gb Hard Drive for gaming??

I just found a SWEET deal on an Alienware M11x for 550$!! The only let down is that it has the lowest upgrades on it. It comes with a 160Gb hard drive at 5400 Rpm , which is pretty standard. But is that enough for gaming?

 

Pics or it didn't happen!

Refurbished? I would go for an SSD or like the Momentus XT

 

Heres a pic. And is it worth it to buy the SSD?

And no. I believe its brand new!

 

Just to be clear, the HDD does not affect gaming performance - the only times when you need to think about the HDD when you're talking about gaming are A) when you see how many games you can install, since modern games tend to take a lot of hard drive space, and B) game load times (ie, how long it takes for the game to start up). Only those are dependent on the HDD, other gaming-related stats such as framerates won't change regardless of the HDD/SSD.

 

Well ya i know that. I just wanted to know if its enough for gaming. (Sorry I dont think I specified that before.)

 

How many games are you looking to put on it?

Most new games are around 6 to 8 Gb each, while older games can be as little as 500Mb.

 

Umm i dunno. I dont think LOTS of games, but a decent amount.

 

You can get a refurb M11x with 4GB RAM, 250GB 7200RPM HDD, SU7300 for $499.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/not...09-alienware-m11x-599-00-a-2.html#post6925813

Note that it says $749 until you go to "add to cart" then the $250 off shows up.

 

I think we have a deal.

 

It will be more than enough for gaming.

 

Thanks for hooking me up with that deal htwingnut. And Trottel you think so? Cuz all of these newer computers are coming out with like 1TB of HDD.

 

How many games do you plan on concurrently installing? The average game is only 3-5GB.

 

Most laptops come with 320GB or 500GB hard drives usually. That's pretty much the largest size in standard 9.5mm height. Now there's 640GB and 750GB drives at that height but they're pretty new.

But like Trottel says, depends on how many games and what games.

Expect Windows 7 to consume 20-25GB with OS files, swap file (you can safely reduce to fixed 2GB to save space if you like), hibernate file (disable if you don't use it to save 4GB). Actual space on a 160GB drive is probably about 149GB, so you'll have quite a bit of space for games. Just don't fill it up past 130GB or so otherwise performance will take a nose dive.

I plan on putting my Intel 80GB SSD into my M11x, so will have even less room for games, but it should be adequate for a few select games I plan on playing on it. Until I can afford a larger one. Hoping Intel G3's will push down the price of the 120GB G2 to about $150 in a couple months!

 

If it's not enough space, just buy a new HDD later. It's one of the most easily upgradeable parts of a laptop.

 

uh... just look for another refurb with higher specs? the 25% off should apply to those as well (keep checking back as they restock and sell rapidly often times, especially during a sale - so be ready to spend if you really want to)... i would go for at least a 250 gb hdd and 3-4gb ram... unless if you're going to swap out the hdd for a SSD (which is realllly nice if you're just multitasking low to moderate intensity programs)

 

Just buy the one with the 160 GB HDD, make the recovery discs or clone the hard drive later on. Isn't terribly difficult plus hard drives are a dime a dozen these days and will only continue to fall in price so if you have live with 160 GB for now..

 

^^^^ This.

If you get one really cheap with a 160GB HDD, buy it. Unless you can get one for maybe $30 more with a larger hard drive, I wouldn't bother. You can buy a 7200RPM 250GB - 320GB for about $50. Sell your 160GB for $20 on eBay and you're good to go.

Heck the Seagate Momentus 7200.4 (not the XT hybrid) 500GB is only $50 right now at newegg.com.

 

You can use the built in NTFS compression with no performance impact.

 

$20, i am selling 160gb 7200rpm on ebay for $30 plus $6 for shipping. put it for 26 plus 6 for shipping and pick up a 500gb drive. there is some pretty good deals on ebay around this time.

 

I just upgraded my m11X to a 750GB HD. Can put all my music and videos on it with no issues.