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    which is the best HDD for a laptop out today?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by JonnyFrost, Jul 5, 2011.

  1. JonnyFrost

    JonnyFrost Notebook Consultant

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    Even if I have an SSD, I store much of my movie, some games and videos that I create, on a standard HDD, this is obviously due the major size...

    Sometime though I feel like my seagate Momentus 7200.4 (ST9500420AS) could performe better (notice that It show me this as firmware Drive Revision:0005SDM1 ), sometime when I load games from teh HDD they still shutters or lag a bit...

    Maybe it is an impression of mine, but I were wondering if there are other hard drives that perform betters...
     
    JonnyFrost, Jul 5, 2011
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  2. tilleroftheearth

    tilleroftheearth Wisdom listens quietly...

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    The 7200.4's are horrible performers.

    A Hitachi 7K500 is much better - even a Scorpio Blue 500GB drive is better than the Seagate in my experience.

    A Scorpio Black 750GB model is the top performing mechanical HDD currently and highly recommended.

    If your system is dual drive capable (or, you want to sacrifice your optical drive for a second HDD), then follow this link:

    See:
    http://forum.notebookreview.com/win...gramdata-folder-separate-drive-partition.html


    to install your O/S and programs to an SSD and move the users folder to the mechanical HDD.

    The 7200.4 series is now over 2 years old - almost any other drive from the same time (Scorpio Blue 500GB...) or newer will perform substantially better.

    Good luck.
     
    tilleroftheearth, Jul 5, 2011
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  3. JonnyFrost

    JonnyFrost Notebook Consultant

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    thanks, I only have some program here and windows xp second boot, I guess I'll read and see if I can move things quickly in the same way as seven
     
    JonnyFrost, Jul 5, 2011
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  4. tilleroftheearth

    tilleroftheearth Wisdom listens quietly...

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    In XP to move My Documents, right click on the desktop icon and select move to new location. You can also cut and paste other special folders like the XP desktop and Favorites, for example, to any other location you wish.
     
    tilleroftheearth, Jul 5, 2011
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  5. accorbell@hotmail.co

    [email protected] Notebook Enthusiast

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    Is there a 1TB drive that you would recommend?
     
    [email protected], Jul 5, 2011
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  6. atobe

    atobe Notebook Enthusiast

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    I don't think they made a 1tb in 2.5 size yet.
     
    atobe, Jul 5, 2011
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  7. Phil

    Phil Retired

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    There are several 1TB drives. I recommend the Samsung M8 the only 9mm 1TB drive.

    @ Johnyfrost, consider Momentus XT. For normal usage it's the fastest HDD.
     
    Phil, Jul 5, 2011
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  8. JonnyFrost

    JonnyFrost Notebook Consultant

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    thanks, and If I were to use some older games?
     
    JonnyFrost, Jul 5, 2011
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  9. Phil

    Phil Retired

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    For game loading you probably won't see significant differences between the Black and XT, unless you play the same game many times after eachother. In that case the XT will cache the most read blocks to SSD and be faster.
     
    Phil, Jul 5, 2011
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  10. JonnyFrost

    JonnyFrost Notebook Consultant

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    thanks, as I thought,

    anyway I took a screen shot with HD tune, with custom options, FAST benchmark and 16k block size, (and I did other test too, like 5/6, with different setting, but forgot to get Screens)

    [​IMG]

    guess everything is fine? (there are constant drops anyway in every test I did beside one)
     
    JonnyFrost, Jul 5, 2011
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  11. Phil

    Phil Retired

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    I don't understand why the beginning seems to be limited to 90 MB/sec. For the rest it looks normal.
     
    Phil, Jul 6, 2011
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  12. JonnyFrost

    JonnyFrost Notebook Consultant

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    ok, thanks you guys:

    Phil, I did other test, with upgraded drivers,
    and the HDD performance were NOW way better, very similar to the WB scorpio black and Hitachi 7k500...

    In reality though, I still experience those annoying micro shutter and micro frame drops.

    EVEN AFTER running HD tune various times in SAFE MODE, It ALWAYS evidenced some crazy speed drop...

    So I ordered a new Scorpio Black 500 GB, and I've already prepared my back up with Acronis, so yeah, guess I'll post back my result when the new driver arrive.


    Thanks
     
    JonnyFrost, Jul 17, 2011
    #12