7200 rpm hard drive

im really looking hard at a zt 3000 notebook, and will be running demanding applications, but really need the mobility. i was thinking a 7200 rpm hard drive would increase performance, but was wondering if it will kill my battery life. Id appreciate any help

 

It does increase performance a great deal and in PCmag review it only decreased battery life by like 3 minutes on a centrino system with a 5 hour battery life...so the increase in power consumption is minimal. Do a search on this forum and you may find a link to the pc mag article.

Jack

 

Here is the link, I guess it was from Tom's hardware.
http://www.tomshardware.com/mobile/20031031/index.html

Jack

 

I have seen Quikster suggested turning the brightness of the screen lower and this may be a major thing to squeeze out some extra time.

 

Just a quick note, the ZT3000 will not get the advertised battery life of 5 hours. The max you will get will be 3.5hrs. There have been a few people who have posted that their unit, either a Presario X1000, HP NX7000 or HP ZT3000 (basically all the same unit) who have complained that they can't get the 5hrs, including myself on an HP NX7000. If you were to max out the power management settings, you may be able to squeeze out an extra 30mins, but that's it. The 7200RPM HDD will probably cut around 10mins off your runtime (a bit higher just to be safe), plus there will also be an increase in heat that the drive will produce. Nothing major, but noticable.

-Vb-

 

thanks for the input, how hot are you talking about the hard drive getting, and is replacing the hard drive on the zt3000 difficult?

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Venombite

 

Silver5...did you replace your zt3000?
I take it you're happy with this one.
What's the new configuration?

Thanks,
Bob

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by aecky01

 

Can anyone (based on their experience) recommend specific 7200rpm drives for the zt3000? I'd also like to know where to buy and the price range.

THanks,
Bob

 

I think there is only a few manufacturers that make 7200rpm notebook drives. There is the Hitachi/IBM Travelstar 7K60 60GB w/8MB Cache approx. $260US & the Toshiba MK-5024GAY 50GB w/16MB Cache approx. $200US. If there are any additional drives out there I don't know about, please list them. They should both work in the ZT3000.

This is where I got the models & pricing from:
http://www.drivesolutions.com/cgi-bin/shop/store.cgi?command=features&kind=laptop&pos=0&type=Laptop

-Vb-

 

MWave.com is cheaper and one of my two favorite toy stores. They have the new 40GB model too.

I put a Hitachi 60GB 7200RPM drive in my HP Athlon 64 notebook, MobileMeter says it idles at around 40C. Heat just isn't a problem. These are very well designed drives. Highly recommended. I wish HP offered them.

 

When you replace the hard drive, is the warranty still valid?(I have 1 year extended and accidential warranty-and 5400 rpm 60 GB HDD in Zt3000 and may replace it with 7200 rpm as long as the the computer does not become out of warranty)

 

Kapon,

Replacing the HDD will not void your warranty because it's a User Replaceable Part (if the original drive ever dies, HP will ship the part to you so you could replace it yourself). The only issue is that you have to be very careful when replacing the HDD, there's an adapter as posted here that this user broke and was lucky enough to find a replacement. If the replacement drive fails, you don't return to HP for repair, you send it back to the manufacturer, Toshiba, Hitachi, etc...

-Vb-

 

What about reloading Windows and drivers on the new hard drive? Apparently you have to have to buy your own seperate version of Windows if you want to replace the hard drive. Is this true?

 

That's what I've heard other people say in other forums. But HP support told me it only comes with a backup cd with xp, not a full copy, not sure what that means though. Could it possibly be because I'm in South Africa and things like this are different?

 

The machine comes with 2 cds 1 is windows and 1 is drivers, It should be no problem to replace the drive.

zx5000 :: 2.4M :: 512 DDR :: 40gb 4200 RPM HD :: 15.4" :: Radeon 9600 Mobilty M10 :: Aquamark3 22,856

 

It could be, but it's more likely that HP Support doesn't know and guessed wrong. Even if they do send you a restore CD rather than a full CD you should have no problems using it on a new drive. Either way, the CD will be keyed to only work in HP notebooks but that's the only restriction I know of.

 

Thanks, I'll try get that out of them soon. They should be phoning back tomorrow. I'll tell you what they say.

 

Ok, I spoke to someone a lot more helpful at HP. He said that all the stuff others have been telling me is utter nonsense. What they meant by HP HDD and RAM is HDD and RAM that they supply. And they unfortunately do not sell any 7200rpm HDD.

And he said that upgrading RAM is no problem and will not void the warranty were I to do it myself.

However, replacing the HDD myself would void the warranty, apparently because you have to transfer the casing from the old to the new HDD, which is easy, but something they do not want any old person to fiddle with.

And he said that the nx7000 comes with 12 CD's with Windows, drivers, etc. so that if I were to replace the HDD I would be able to reinstall everything the laptop comes with. He reinstalled everything on his own nx7000 just yesterday. But the warranty would be void.

Because of this, and because my father is very wary of us changing it, I am going to get them to do it for R350 ($50).

Thanks for the help. At least I knew what to ask about and could tell them validly that others had no problem changing the HDD and RAM.

PS: He said that because the directions to change the RAM are in the manual, it was ok to upgrade it. But, since there are no directions on how to change the HDD in the manual, it would void the warranty. So, maybe the manual that you get in US or UK does have directions on how to change the HDD. In that case, you should be fine, otherwise, I would make sure and ask HP yourself.

 

Instructions are in the HP Hardware Guide towards the end, page 8-21:

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c00090106.pdf

You get to the hardware guide by searching for Support and Troubleshooting Information for Pavillion zv5000z and selecting Manuals under Product Information. I don't think HP would support helping you reinstall Windows on a new drive, that I can understand, nor would they support the new drive, but if something incidental breaks...? Hard drives fail often enough that to void the warranty for the whole machine just because a user replaced the HD doesn't make sense, not that they wouldn't do it anyhow.

It's not precisely accurate information, it doesn't mention the plastic adaptor that attaches to the IDE connector, but it's there.

They also explain why they lock out non-HP wireless miniPCI cards on page 8-1:

"WARNING: The FCC does not allow unauthorized Mini PCI devices to
be used in this notebook. Installing a PCI device can prevent your
notebook from operating properly and might result in a warning
message. To resume proper notebook operation, remove the
unauthorized device. Contact your HP Customer Care Center if a
warning message about your Mini PCI device displays in error."

Which is a load of crap since IBM is the only other company that does this, Dell/eMachines/Acer/etc don't. But HP's own high-level techs tend not to know about this, one told me that he was told that it must be an I/O conflict, HP wouldn't do anything as stupid as deliberately lock out non-HP cards. [V]

 

Well, I've had enough of this tug-of-war of who's right and who's wrong. I'm just going to let them do it. It's a safer option.

 

unless you break it while placing it in they would never know, because as long as you keep your old hard drive you could just put it back in if you need to send it in for repairs.

zx5000 :: 2.4M :: 512 DDR :: 40gb 4200 RPM HD :: 15.4" :: Radeon 9600 Mobilty M10 :: Aquamark3 22,856

 

There shouldn't be any issues with swapping your HDD. As long as you don't break anything in the process, HP will never know you did anything. Just replace the HDD with the original if you need to send it in for replacement. I've swapped and removed the HDD from my NX7000 multiple times and HP did not question me what so ever when I returned the system to them (of course I put all the original parts back in).

-Vb-

 

Well, getting them to do it is a safer option. And since my father is quite insistant that he prefers them to do it, and since he's prepared to pay for it, them I'm fine with that.

I'm hopefully going to get it today. Getting the DU259A (1.6GHz, 2x256 RAM, CD-RW/DVD combo, 1280x800 resolution, etc.). I'm upgrading to a 7200rpm HDD (probably 7k60) and 2x512 RAM and getting an HP 420e external DVD writer (apparently the NEC2500A in an external box).

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by marcog

 

Well, unfortunately my father's happier spending R350 to get them to do it then taking the risk.

But thankjs anyway.