upgrading a 7200 PATA drive

i've currently got a Dell Inspiron 630M, with 2gig of Ram and an 80Gb 7200rpm Hitachi travelstar PATA hard drive.

I'd like a larger hard drive, as I've got a lot of music and emails on this machine, plus I want to turn it into a dual boot Ubuntu/XP system. It's my only machine, getting used for all sorts, from general surfing to photoshopping and a bit of audio editing.

I can't find any bigger PATA harddrives that are 7200rpm. I can get a Hitachi Travelstar 5400rpm drive up to 160Gb, and a 5400rpm Western Digital one up to 250Gb, but 7200rpm PATA drives are pretty rare these days.

Will my system be noticeably slower using one of these drives?

Thanks.

 

Sorry, just read the sticky on 5400 vs 7200 rpm drives, where a lot of this is covered. It seems my choice would be a minor performance loss in exchange for more space. Doesn't help me to decide though!

 

Yes indeed the new high density 5400rpm drives will not be slower, in some cases even faster.

I went from a 80GB Seagate 7200.1 to a 160GB Samsung 5400rpm and it's faster. Here are the benchmarks of the Samsung drive: link.

Your other option would be the Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD2500BEVE.

 

alex, this thread of mine will help you put big time. DOnt invest in a 7200rpm parallel ata drive, they are proven to be slower than a high density 5400rpm drive.
The Samsung HM160HC, is the fastest PATA notebook harddrive. It is a 160gb 5400rpm model, and it outpaces the 250gb 5400rpm wd, and every 7200rpm PATA notebook drive.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=264209

The drive is alsp very inexpensive, so for about $70, you can really make your laptop shine again.

K-TRON

 

thanks for that guys. K-Tron - those benchmarks are exactly what i needed to see... spot on

Leaning towards the scorpio at the moment. Both seem fast enough for my purposes (faster than what i've got now), but think i'm sold on the scorpio's extra space... it'll probably get filled up pretty quick

 

As you can see in the benchmarks the Samsung has higher transfer rates but the WD250 has faster acces times.

In real world benchmarking there will not be much difference between them.

If you choose one of those drives you won't go wrong.

 

thanks phil, it's reassuring to hear you confirm that, and looks like dabs have got the scorpio in stock, so better dig out my credit card

 

Both are very nice drives, with the Scorpio providing more storage. Your credit card will hate you, but your laptop's gonna love you.