Most Quiet HDD under $50 help

Hey guys, this is my first post on this forum and I'm looking for a new HDD for my old Toshiba Portege 3500 Laptop. This is a tablet laptop that I use to take notes and currently it has a nasty Toshiba MK4019GAX HDD in it and its painfully loud and everyone stares at me in class because you can hear it echoing through out the room. Not to mention that its pretty slow also.

So here's what I'm looking for, quiet is the number one concern by far, and secondly I would like it to have decent performance. I'm sure anything made now a days will out perform the current one. I won't buy anything from WD because of the way they have treated me in the past and their terrible customer support. My preferred manufactuer is Seagate, however I'm certainly open to trying another brand (not WD) if it is recommended. Thanks for everyones assistance.

 

I have almost new HDD that I don't need .. pm me for more info.

I'm in Atlanta GA as well, so maybe no shipping too

 

Thanks for the replys, except I guess no one is familiar with my laptop or HDD. Well its old, which means that it is IDE not SATA. Should have mentioned that in my first post but I didn't think about it. So I need recomendations for IDE HDD's, thanks.

PM sent miro_gt

 

Yes, your laptop does use IDE/PATA/ATA harddrives. Currently the best drive for that interface is the samsung HM160HC, as it trumps the competitive 5400 and 7200rpm drives for the interface. I bought mine maybe four months ago from Lagoom for $74, and I know now it is a litte more expensive, so if you can dish out a little more than $50, it would be a great upgrade.
Its a very fast drive, the fastest for the interface, and it uses a single 160gb platter. Since it has one disk instead of two, it vibrates less and runs exceptionally cool. I find the drive to be very quiet as well, and that is most likely due to it only have one disk.

http://www.lagoom.com/Samsung_Spinpoint_M5_160GB_2_5/HM160HC/partinfo-id-578898.html

Here is a link to my review of the drive:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=264209

K-TRON

 

I certainly appreciate the recommendation however, as I stated in my original post I'm not looking for the top performance drive right now, just something of average performance but as quiet as possible. Plus the best performance drive would not be used to it's full potential going in such an old platform to begin with. Also I absolutely can't go over my $50 budget... I am a college student.

PS. Size is of no concern, as I stated before, the drive is only used for taking notes during class and occasional web browsing. The data saved from class is then synced with my desktop and I don't have any other data on there. To put it short, I have a 40GB HDD now and I'm only using 15GB.

 

Samsung HM160HC is $54. It's quiet, cool and power efficient. Perfect choice. I have one here.
http://www.google.com/products/cata...en&show=dd&cid=4430254550254321824#ps-sellers

 

You could try your luck with this open box HM080HC and have change out of $50.

Samsung HDDs are usually cool and quiet. Fujitsu are usually also quiet.

John

 

wow, i didnt know they made a 80gb version of the drive. That would mean it has one platter and one head. So in essence it should still perform as good as the 160gb model with 1 disc and two heads. It would still have the same data density, and for $40, I think John found the perfect drive

K-TRON

 

The Samsung HDD site no longer lists the HM080HC but has an HM080GC. However, if you look at the PDF datasheet you will see that it is shared with the HM160HC. The HM080GC can be bought for just under $50.

If you look at the weights of the different versions of the HDDs you will see the 80GB one weighs 2 grams less than the 160GB version, which supports the theory of only one head.

John

 

The HM080GC should be good with a single 160GB disk, but one Head.

Whereas the HM080HC seems to have 60GB per disk, so probably 2 Disks; 3 Heads (One head with limited mobility ?!).

 

Well found! Confusing naming system!

The HM080HC clearly belongs to a previous generation. The -GC has slightly lower power consumption and noise as well as a much faster data transfer rate. I would pay the extra for the -GC.

John

 

To make things a bit more confusing, I came across this HM080HC.

It seems that the M60 series had 60GB per disk, and the M80 series has 80GB per disk --> so the latter should have 1 Disk; 2 Heads....But the HM080GC is still better with a single Head and a more denser side (disk) .

 

So to sum it all up you guys decided the HM080GC is the best performing one? I'd have to say I got a little lost with all the different names with only 1 letter difference. The site John Ratsey linked has it for $49 so if you guys think this would be the best drive for under $50 I'll go ahead and pull the trigger. Thanks for everyone's help.

 

For $5 more you have 80GB more in the HM160HC.

 

I'd rather save $5 since I will never even come close to filling up an 80GB HDD.

 

Well it turns out that ended up going for the HM160HC, I got it for $60 here. I really wanted to get the HM080GC because I know that 160GB will go to complete waste on this laptop, but the best price I could find the HM080GC for was here but after shipping it ended up being about $4 more then the HM160HC. Even though this is slightly over my budget I guess it will have to do.

 

I hope your purchase meets, or succeeds your expectations.

Maybe you will find the extra space useful in the future.

John

 

The HM160HC was a good choice, its an excellent drive and well worth the money

K-TRON