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    Need help choosing a new hard drive for Dell xps m1210

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by cailey, Jan 19, 2009.

  1. cailey

    cailey Notebook Geek

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    I have some pretty dumb questions since I'm about to invest in a new hard drive. I read through the hard drive guide, but I would appreciate some real-time input.

    I'm upgrading my dell xps m1210 - which I got thanks to advice in this forum, and thanks guys, it's the best computer I've ever owned and is still going strong after 2.5 years of heavy use!

    1) I know it takes SATA drives, but I'm wondering about the new 3.0 Gb/s specification - I'm looking at drives on Newegg and the ones I'm looking at seem to have this. I'm pretty sure my computer is too old to support it - right? Can I get a drive that is SATA 3.0 Gb/s and will it work in my computer?

    2) Currently considering
    -- 320GB 7200rpm Western Digital Scorpio Black ($80)
    -- 400GB 5200rpm Western Digital Scorpio Blue ($90)

    Alright.... I have read up on the whole 5200rpm vs 7200rpm thing and it appears that this Scorpio Black drive is no more power-hungry or hot than the equivalent slower drive. That's good, because my m1210 runs a little hot sometimes and I don't want to make that a problem.
    So my question is more about size: will I take a performance hit on the larger 400GB drive? Does the size of the drive affect performance? Or just the speed?

    3) Can anyone recommend a good, relatively inexpensive SATA laptop drive enclosure? I like the flexibility an external enclosure gives me with my old drives, but the $10 cheap one I got a while back broke.

    Thanks for any help!
     
    cailey, Jan 19, 2009
    #1
  2. AuroraAlpha

    AuroraAlpha Notebook Consultant

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    If your laptop has a SATA connection then it will work. The drives are backward compatible with SATA 1.5GB/s; this is irrelevant though because the drives aren't fast enough to use even the old connection, so you haven't lost anything.

    As for the actual drive, the 400GB will be a bit slower. If you can increase your budget the 500GB drives give you the most space and are as fast as the 320GB-7200RPM drives. Here is one:
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136314

    A bit more expensive at $110, but that's only $20 more than the other one. :D The 500GB drives are also very power efficient which means low heat. A nice touch. The only problem with them is cost.

    You can pick up any enclose, normally they just work. I got one for $1.50 as a combo with my 500GB drive a few weeks ago. Try waiting for a few weekday/weekend cycles and the combo will probably start again (though no guarantee). Your only real choice is if you want USB, eSATA, or both. Do you need an AC adapter with it, do you want cheap plastic, or aluminium, or something really nice?
     
    AuroraAlpha, Jan 19, 2009
    #2
  3. cailey

    cailey Notebook Geek

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    cailey, Jan 20, 2009
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