Western Digital Scorpio vs. Hitachi Travelstar in a ThinkPad T61

Hi,

I just bought a Lenovo ThinkPad T61 (15.4" display), which shipped with a Western Digital Scorpio 160 GB/5400 RPM hard drive. I find this hard drive a little noisy and would like to replace it with a Hitachi Travelstar, which I had on my previous laptop (a Compaq Presario x1000) and made almost no noise at all. Just to make it clear, I would be purchasing a new Travelstar hard drive, not placing my old hard drive in the new ThinkPad. Does this sound like a good idea or does anybody have any other recommendations? Thanks so much!

 

Let me tell you what happened to me. I had a Hitachi 120 GB in a Lenovo R61i which ran very quiet. I bought a Dell that came with a 120 GB Fujitsu and I switched the hdds between the 2 laptops just so I don't have to transfer data from on to the other. Both were 5400rpm hdds.

Let me tell you: the rubber that came on the sides of the Hitachi hdd in Lenovo made the noise difference. If in the Lenovo I couldn't hear the hdd, after I moved it in the Dell laptop (without the rubber noise reduction because there was no room) it was very loud.

That's what I experienced. Maybe you have the same noise reduction system and you should consider what I said above and not give your money away.

 

What age is your Compaq? It's possible that the Compaq has a parallel ATA hard disk, which would not be compatible with the ThinkPad's Serial ATA hard disk interface.

 

He already said he would BUY another hdd, not use the old one.

 

(bonks self on head) Some days, my fingers outrun my brain.

Travelstar drives are generally faster than the WD Scorpios. However, reports from Storagereview.com indicate noise levels aren't all that different.

 

My travelstar (7k200) is so quiet I thought it was defective and not spinning when I first got it! You NEVER hear it read/write. Ever.

 

I've been reading so many of these reviews... I had quite the opposite experience. The drive was extremely loud. Almost offensive. After lots of testing I found it to be damaged.. than later, I found out that it wasn't even fully compatible with my system.

 

What do you mean by "fully compatible"? Please explain. And what model of Travelstar drive were you using?

I've used a number of Hitachi Travelstar drives since 2000. Like the other manufacturers, noise levels vary by model number of drive, since acoustic signatures can vary due to rotational speed, firmware (which can be optimized for low noise level or performance), and other factors.

As for damaged drives, they happen. They happen regardless of manufacturer, and I could relate a failure from pretty much every brand of drive on the market. The key is how high a percentage of a given make/model fails across the thousands of drives sold.

 

it is interesting that you have this experience. in my experience, hitachis, since they are usually the better performers, tended to be the loudest, while western digitals are usually silent. samsungs are also known to have fairly quiet drives.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article29-page2.html

http://www.storagereview.com/WD2500BEVS.sr?page=0,5

just some noise benchmarks that may help you what you are looking for.