DV7T What speeds and size HDD can it take?

I know it can take 2 hdd. It is being shipped with a 320GB 5400 RPM. I'd like to put something faster in it or simply larger. (Whichever would help with games and storage more).

It is a large 17" notebook, but I'm assuming it still uses 2.5" drives?

 

Hard drives only affect the load times of games, not the in-game performance itself. That said, there are 500GB, 5400RPM HDs on the market right now by WD, Samsung, and Seagate. I would recommend staying away from the Samsung M1, however, as it does have some reported issues.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010150380 1309740009&name=500GB

PS; all notebooks use 2.5" drives, and are limited to 7200RPM HDs at most due to power consumption, heat, and vibration issues past that RPM.

 

A faster hard drive will help games load faster, as well as boot time and application load time.

Some smaller notebooks and most netbooks use 1.8" drives. No notebook (that I know of) uses 3.5" drives. The fastest 2.5" drives today are 7200RPM, most likely because manufacturers cannot make a 10,000RPM drive that creates a small enough noise/vibration footprint to be satisfactory in a notebook.

 

I guess I will look for the 5400 and 7200 rpm drives. More storage for things will be great.

I have to order a SATA hdd?

 

Yes, you do.

Btw, I would recommend reading buyer's reviews to make sure that specific models you're looking at don't have problems. For example, Samsung's M1 produces loud clicking noises all the time.