320gb HD for Compaq nc8430 advisable ?

I have a 2-year old HP/Compaq nc8430 notebook with a 100gb SATA hard drive. The hard drive is running out of space. Can I replace it with a 320gb hard drive without overloading the power supply or raising the internal temperatures or incurring other penalties (apart from the financial ones) ?

 

I think it has the ICH7-M Controller. New drives are quite power-efficient, namely the Hitachi 7K320/Seagate 7200.3/WD Black. These drives have almost the same electrical specs as the older SATA drives. (500mA; 5VDC; 2.50W max)

So, upgrading to the 320GB 7200RPM drives will be good. You'll notice a nice boost in performance, and temps will be fine.

You can also go for the 160GB/platter 5400RPM HDDs.

 

What's the power supply capacity? Anyway, like Andy said, new drives are usually efficient power wise.

 

I foresee no issues for you.

 

Thank you all for these replies.

I'm not an electronics or laptop specialist but if that Hitachi drive is using 2.5 watts then I can't imagine that heat should be a problem.

I'm particularly keen to keep the heat down because this Compaq nc8430 - according to Notebook Hardware Control - frequently runs up to 85°, even when it is seemingly idling, i.e. CPU activity and disk activity are negligible. It was like that from new and I just had the machine professionally cleaned and vaccumed out to make sure that the air passages are not obstructed. I can't fit a cooler under the notebook because it is in a docking station most of the time and I'm now thinking of getting a little fan gadget - I can't remember the name - which plugs into the exhaust air vent and sucks the air out of the machine.

 

A quick feedback on this in case it is of use to others*: I just imaged my 100gb hard disk with Acronis True Image and then replaced it with a SATA 320gb/5400rpm/12ms/2.2W Spinpoint M6 (the computer Device Manager reports it as a Samsung HM320JI), restored the image to the new 320gb drive, and expanded the restored image with EASEUS Partition Manager 3.0 to take advantage of the extra space on the new drive.

The resulting notebook works fine.

Paddy

* Various postings around the web had made me unsure as to whether the nc8430 would accept a 320gb drive but the reassurances on this forum together with a reassuring telcon with someone at the HP distributors here who sounded as if he knew what he was talking about led me to go ahead with it.