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    Which ATA drive is better?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by seiyafan, Oct 4, 2011.

  1. seiyafan

    seiyafan Notebook Evangelist

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    I am currently planning to upgrade my laptop hard drive (ATA-6 interface), and found three drives that have small price differences.

    1. Hitachi Travelstar 80 GB 7.2K RPM 8MB Cache $63

    2. Seagate Momentus 80 GB 7.2K RPM 8MB Cache $52

    3. Toshiba 100GB 5.4K RPM 16MB Cache $54

    So basically go with faster speed or larger cache?
     
    seiyafan, Oct 4, 2011
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  2. Deks

    Deks Notebook Prophet

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    Depends on which one is newer.
    Some of the newer 5.4.K RPM drives are faster than their 7.2K RPM counterparts... though I cannot be certain when it comes to ATA hdd's.

    You could try searching for their benchmarks online and see which one performs better.
     
    Deks, Oct 4, 2011
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  3. Phil

    Phil Retired

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    Phil, Oct 4, 2011
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  4. seiyafan

    seiyafan Notebook Evangelist

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    seiyafan, Oct 4, 2011
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  5. seiyafan

    seiyafan Notebook Evangelist

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    My current drive uses ATA-6, it is only 40GB, will the HM160HC be compatible with it in terms of interface and disk space?
     
    seiyafan, Oct 5, 2011
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  6. Phil

    Phil Retired

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    What laptop is it?

    In case it's a Dell xxx, I suggest to go to the Dell forum and ask "Is Dell xxx compatible with 160GB ATA drive?".
     
    Phil, Oct 6, 2011
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  7. Tsunade_Hime

    Tsunade_Hime such bacon. wow

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    I would say it depends on the laptop. I remember for the D600/D610/D800/D810 something in the BIOS where you can't partition more than XX size. I was planning on a Scorpio Blue 320 GB PATA drive for my D600 and it kept on locking up when trying to partition it. I ended up going with a 160 GB Samsung 5400 rpm for it, works like a charm. Actually I have a 2nd Samsung in my dad's Inspiron 6000.
     
    Tsunade_Hime, Oct 6, 2011
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  8. seiyafan

    seiyafan Notebook Evangelist

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    sorry, it's Acer Traelmate 2420.
     
    seiyafan, Oct 6, 2011
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  9. User Retired 2

    User Retired 2 Notebook Nobel Laureate NBR Reviewer

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    The 160GB-per-platter Samsung HM160HC and Western Digital WD3200BEVE are the fastest 2.5" PATA HDDs.

    You could go faster by swapping out the optical drive and use a sata-to-pata optical bay caddy with a SATA SSD or HDD. See http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...rage-using-optical-bay-caddy.html#post4936086 if interested. The same idea lends itself to putting in a PATA SSD like a 2.5" Renice E7 and putting the existing HDD in a PATA optical bay caddy.
     
    User Retired 2, Oct 6, 2011
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  10. eurasianlynx

    eurasianlynx Notebook Enthusiast

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    I have an Acer Travelmate 2412. The hm160hc works just fine in it.
     
    eurasianlynx, Oct 6, 2011
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  11. seiyafan

    seiyafan Notebook Evangelist

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    thanks, that's good to hear.
     
    seiyafan, Oct 6, 2011
    #11