To anyone customizing an HP laptop... ::evil thoughts::

500gb western digital laptop drives are now only $109 on amazon.com!

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digit...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1233677684&sr=8-1

The reason I posted this is because I am sure there are a lot of people customizing their units. Especially with the dv7t and higher models, the units have room for 2 drives, so instead of getting ripped off by HP on the hard drive upgrade, you can do it yourself.

my dv7t came with a 320gb drive then i added another 320gb drive for $85 more back in october.... but now with the 500gig drives so much cheaper than in october ($150 in oct), i think this is a good option for a lot of people.

for the 2nd drive, you will need an additional 'hard drive caddy' which is available on www.newmodus.com for about $28 .

fwiw,
- tsd

 

You dont need the caddy. It just secures the hard drive a little better. I have ran two hard drives for some time in my dv7 without a caddy nothing happend.

 

I agree, the caddy isn't 100% completely necessary but having it does make the drive less susceptible to moving around in case the laptop is bumped whether it's by placing it on a desk or being bumped while its in a bag, etc.

there was a user on here that actually stuck a rubber gromet behind the drive and that basically 'squeeze' the drive into place between the pin connector and the back of the hard drive. sure this works, but if you're going to have important data on the 2nd drive, i wouldn't cut corners.

whoever is going for a 2nd drive, it's your choice. I, however, chose to install the caddy.

 

Make sure the SATA drive is 3gb/s (SATA II) for the DV5/6/7 and 1.5gb/s (SATA I) for the DV6000/9000...