help plz

i am having trouble deciding what hard drive to add to my hp dv7t i am going back n forth between the 640 gb 5400 rpm dual hard drive and the 320 gb 7200 rpm dual hard drive...which is faster and better for moderate gaming and school work

 

All opinion here. If from HP suspect the two 160GB's will have faster random access the two 320GB might have faster read/write or at least equal.

For the needs you stated? Honestly I don't see much difference with either choice. Why do I say? Well neither sound HDD demanding. Even hardcore gaming only makes use of the HDD for level/scene changes. General schoolwork any current HDD should suffice?

What is the cost? I assume you can't run RAID? If you can I assume software (not that great)? Do you need the larger space? I asked about cost because buying from NewEgg for example can get you a better deal sometimes.

My main concern with the two 160GB 7200's is they have lower areal density than the two 320GB and that would in many ways give up the advantage of increased rotational speed. There are 160GB that do not suffer this but OEM's do not tell you what HDD they are putting in.

Consider this a bump I am sure someone else can add info.

Good luck!

 

DANG !!
Dunno how I missed this thread..

EDIT: I think the DV7t doesn't support RAID. Have you already bought the notebook or still in the process ?
I believe a 160GB 7200RPM + 320GB 5400RPM will be better. The former for the OS, and the latter for storing stuff, or probably dual-booting. BTW Seagate 7200.3 prices are pretty low.

 

eh? I'd be really surprised if it didn't.

Intel says:
http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/matrixstorage_sb.htm

Now... doesn't it use one of those chipsets?

In any case, you could ask in the HP forum... I'm sure someone's at least tried to set up RAID on these systems.

Another option would be a low-capacity SSD for the OS and programs, and a plain low-cost hard drive for storing data.

 

Well, yeah, I also thought that a premium 17" notebook with 2 HDD slots would, and should support RAID.

I am not sure if it does, or not....But the specs page doesn't indicate anything about RAID.

Well, the Chipset codes won't help you find out if a notebook supports RAID or not. It is the southbridge controller. If the DV7t has the ICH9M -> No RAID, if the ICH9M-E -> Yes RAID.

(And I remember flipfire once stating, that the Pavilions don't support RAID) But who knows ?

 

First off does software RAID not suck (talk to K-T?). So what is the point? I am asking.

Andy any good infielder needs a good outfielder to handle what gets by them. But yea how did you miss?

 

hp laptops do not support raid. They only offer spanning mode between harddrives. You can run two harddrives, but they will act indepently from one another. Plus even if it did have a software raid controller you would only see about a 5% increase in harddrive speed. If you had a hardware raid controller like my laptop does, than you would get about 80% increase in efficiency through raid.
I would go for for the 640gb of space, cause that means it has 2 320gb 5400rpm drives, which for one, are fast, and two silent. They are great drives, and will be fast enough for your demands. Plus ou would have 640GB!
well it would format to just under 600Gb, I think 596GB.

welcome back pp,

K-TRON

 

ok... well then if it doesn't support RAID and you want a 17"... then get a different laptop! But if you're dead set on the HP then just get one average drive for data and buy a 32-gb or so SSD to put the OS and your main apps on.

 

Well, software RAID isn't all that bad, unless your CPU isn't rubbish, since on a S/W based RAID system, the system's CPU has to do all the processing work and it does whatever the H/W RAID chipset does, but through software.

I remember notyou uploading a chart regarding software vs hardware RAID, in which hardware does well in one test but loses out to software in another.

EDIT: