HM640JJ or WD7500BPKT for multiple uses?

Currently stuck on if I should get the HM640JJ or the WD7500BPKT as of yet..

I use my laptop to game mainly, and I need quite a bit of storage space as I don't particularly like slow 3.5" external drives that only max out at 25MB/s if I am lucky... As I don't have an eSATA card on my laptop or USB 3.0.

However another thread on the forums here says that HD Tune and other programs hate the HM640JJ: http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...-2-5-hard-drive-9-5-mm-standard-height-5.html

Another thread on the forums here also shows that the WD7500BPKT is really... really fast: http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...7500bpkt-750gb-7200rpm-western-digital-2.html

At the moment I currently have the WD5000BEVT 500GB Scorpio Blue. (Came with my laptop).

My Drive HD Tune:
http://i51.tinypic.com/idhvth.png

Someone else's Scorpio Black 750GB HD Tune:
http://img836.imageshack.us/img836/5513/hdtunereadwd7500bpkt.png

Someone else's Samsung Spinpoint HD Tune:
http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/1575/hm640jj.png

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My Drive CDM:
http://i53.tinypic.com/3483wq8.png

Someone else's Scorpio Black 750GB CDM:
http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/6333/wd7500bpktcdm.png

Someone else's Samsung Spinpoint CDM:
http://i53.tinypic.com/2m7w5lt.png

I'm not very happy with my speeds really... though this drive is meant to be a power saving 5400rpm drive... To be honest I couldn't care less about saving power. This laptop never comes off the AC power so I don't need to worry about battery life ever.. Also if I really cared about Battery life then I know numerous ways to squeeze 4 or so hours out of my laptop.

Point is, I want a really fast mechanical drive, I am not even considering an overpriced SSD drive. I'm not paying more for something that is only 64GB and can only do 100MB/s. That seems like robbery to me. I need the space so I don't have to mess around with slow external drives.

So it's between the Spinpoint (HM640JJ) and the Scorpio Black (WD7500BPKT) for me. I am not even considering the Momentus XT line of drives.. I feel they are far overpriced for just 4GB of NAND.

The closest and cheapest place I can get both these drives from is here:

HM640JJ: Tietokonekauppa.fi - Samsung 640GB 2,5´´ SATA 8MB HM640JJ 7200rpm
WD7500BPKT: Tietokonekauppa.fi - WD Scorpio Black 2,5´´ SATA 750GB/16mb/7200RPM

This website changes their prices very, very often but only by 1 or so €. The prices they offer are also pretty amazing compared to what some people on Ebay and Amazon.co.uk want. Bear in mind I'm in Finland, north Europe so Newegg is totally OOTQ. I wish it wasn't.

Now when I said size doesn't matter, I mean that the 110GB difference between the drives isn't important and wont make me choose the larger over the slightly smaller. What I would like to know is which would be the better choice.

That in general, would it be worth spending an extra $51 USD for another 110GB and the scores that the WD Scorpio Black gets compared to the Samsung Spinpoint. Will I see a good enough difference in performance from the scores I have now, to what the Spinpoint could do for me? Or should I really spend an extra $51 USD (36€ for the Scorpio Black?

I plan to sell the drive I currently have as Used on Ebay anyway so that should make up for 40% or so of what the new drive will cost me. I would just like to know what people think of the Spinpoint compared to the Scorpio Black in copy speeds, overall snappiness, gaming and real world use. Because the Spinpoint is only just behind the Scorpio in many of the tests on this website: Western Digital's Scorpio Black 750GB notebook hard drive - The Tech Report - Page 1

Anyway this thread has now become a wall of text.. I'd basically just like to know if the Spinpoint is a good choice for a fast 7200rpm drive. Or that, if I am going for a 7200rpm drive should I may as well go for the Scorpio Black, is the performance difference really worth the extra $50 bucks? Passmark states that the Spinpoint is better than the Scorpio Black 750GB.

Cheers. If anyone here has one please post your benches!

 

See the Tom's Hardware charts.

John

 

IMO with your 500GB HDD being 88% full, and adding ~140GB to your system with the 640GB, would not be quite enough eventually; and you might as well get a 750GB HDD now to get ~250GB more disc space (plus I personally think that; based on the drives I have had from both; that Western Digital is a far superior company/ HDD than Samsung is, or ever will be -that alone justifies the WD over the Samsung in my book)... and the WD seems to be 20Grams lighter

 

Western Digital

 

I'm going to see about this guy in Thailand on Ebay who sells Scorpio Black 750GB and only that.. with no reserve. He's sold 70+ so far and has 100% Positive feedback.

He's sold a lot for 30€ less than what the website I listed above is selling for. I'll see if I can get one for that price. If that is the case then it's only going to be as expensive as the Spinpoint which is peanuts to me.

 

Ok I got a Scorpio Black 750GB from Ebay from the Thai guy (lol) for 37€ inc. postage which means that I got it for less than the Spinpoint from the same Finnish place.

When I get it I'll roll over to the WD7500BPKT thread and post my benches as well

I honestly don't feel bad or guilty at all now.. I would have hated to get the Spinpoint and find out it sucks...

 

You will see a nice deal of improvement in your laptop performance. I remember my upgrade from 320GB 5400RPM to 500GB 7200RPM.


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37Eur incl. ?

 

Good choice with the 750GB Black. Both drives are close in performance; close enough that you would not notice a difference in everyday performance.

 

I remember a small upgrade on an older computer from a 320GB 5400rpm to a Seagate Momentus 160GB 7200.4. The difference in snappiness was redicilous in the higher rpm drive.

I meant for the difference between the Spinpoint and the Scorpio.

I bought it for 74€ which includes the postage. It was 65€ without the postage. On the website I linked 'Tietokonekauppa' they want 96.50€ + 7.50€ postage. Which is $157 USD, which is cheap. This drive sells for $180 AUD on Ebay. The item came with a 1 year replacement warranty from Thailand and it already has a 5 year warranty from WD. No idea if it's a fix or replacement though. Either way I saved myself 35€ or $50 USD... so basically I paid the price of the Spinpoint drive for the better WD7500BPKT drive. I got a really good deal. One person on the sellers reputation actually got the drive for $75 USD + $15 USD postage. Which is amazingly half the rrp price.. The guy from Thailand really is basically... giving them away. No idea where he got them from but he states they are brand new and unused... hahahah maybe he is nicking them from where he works

I cant wait to see how much faster this drive is than what I have. My CDM and HD Tune scores are horrible... though this drive is meant to major in power saving over performance. I think I will be very happy though. I just probably have to wait at least 3 weeks for it to get here :/

 

That is even not the best case:

1- You are getting a downgrade from the data density unless your Seagate is a single-platter drive.
2- Seagate 7200RPMs have similar performance to other brands' 5400RPMs.

If you upgrade from 320GB Scorpio Blue (5400RPM) to 500GB Hitachi 7K500 you will definitely see a much better improvement.

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