best hd for the 8660

Is the general consensus still that the 5400rpm 320gb is the coolest running hd for the 8660? It's the only component I'm still having trouble deciding on.

 

i think you should get a 5400RPM 320GB HDD as well.

more space, less revoltuion per minute (less heat) = win win

 

I've got an old 4,200rpm lying around that I can sell to you - even fewer rpm should make it cool as a cuke in the 8660! The GBs are a bit low, though (only 60, if I recall)

 

it seems though that the WD 7200rpm that most european sellers are using are cooler than the american used hitachi's

 

Most Clevo resellers like Eurocom or p4laptops actually put some good 7200 hard drives in the M860TU. Its only Sager's one that have problems so far.

 

So is there any way of finding out which HDDs Sager is using, or is it just a random thing based on their current supply?

 

From the several users here, it seems totally random but recent stocks seems better.

 

Actually the latest generation 7200rpm drives are very power efficient. I have two Hitachi 7K320's, and both run really cool. Their power requirements are roughly the same as the 5400rpm drives. I would look into getting the 7K320, or the WD black edition drives, since they will be surprisingly faster than the 320gb 5400 drives, and they will not run much hotter, if at all.

3500th post

K-TRON

 

I would assume that the SATA I's (160Gb and 250GB 5400rpms) would run cooler, and seem to be doing so in people's configs.

 

they may not since they are older technology.

 

In my opinion, SATA I or II doesn't change anything as its an interface. Its like saying that USB 2 runs hotter than USB 1.1 because its faster.

The rpm still has something to do, but not much. There's some 7200 running OK and others not.

 

i didnt mean about the sata I or II, i meant everything about the drive, like the fact that these new 7200rpm's use the same amount of power that the 5400's more or less with no downfall. I can only immagine that the 160gb drives are power hungry and hot to a degree.

 

SATA 2 drives do run hotter than SATA 1 drives, but that is because the Sata 2 drives have different data chips on the harddrive pcb, which tend to use more power than the sata 1 drives.
The sata 1 drives are generally more pwoer efficient, cause of sata data transfer differences. However in reality, no mobile harddrive can max out the sata 1/150 interface, so there is no point in getting a sata 2/300 harddrive. The interface is not the limit, its the drive itself.

I have a 160gb 7200rpm 7K320 and it runs about 5C cooler than my 160gb 5400rpm drive.

K-TRON

 

Is SATA I kind of outdated now? I mean would the 250GB 5400RPM SATA I act as a bottleneck in comparison with all the other cutting edge components?

 

I believe K-Tron just said that the drives aren't anywhere near bottlenecked by the bus, both SATA I and II far outclass the drive's read/write speeds, so SATA I would seem to be the better choice... more efficient and uses less power

 

ha ok, thanks...I couldn't make any sense out of k-trons post tbh

 

About the only notebook class(ish, though not really) drive that is pushing SATA I limits is the velociraptor. Apart from (good) SSD's of course, they def need SATA II

 

What's the point of making SATA II hard drives if they have the same transfer rate (in practice) as the SATA II. I'm sure there's some reasons to that. I was shopping for another hard drive for my desktop and SATA II hard drives are cheaper...

 

^^ Maybe that - cheaper, due to the industry (desktop mainly) moving to SATA II? I'm assuming.

 

maybe a dumb question, but is the hard drive heating problem a result of the hard drives chosen by Sager, or is it caused by poor ventilation on the chassis

 

At the beginning, it seemed that only Sager's notebook had problems with hard drives but a Eurocom user have reported a hot hard drive while another one with the same specs have much lower temperatures. Also, you can see some improvements when you block the vent and update the drivers so I believe its a combinaison of a hot hard drive, poor ventilation and drivers maybe. There's more than one cause to this problem IMO.

 

They are whatever Sager has in stock . . . I have seen all sorts of drive makes, including Hitachi, Seagate, and Samsung. It is like that with all major makers of notebooks.

Regarding the heat . . . don't let that be a bother, buy the drive that suits you best. The 7200RPM drives are the performance kings at the moment.

 

Ok...well I'm starting to realize that the hard drive heat reports don't really bother me. Since the release of the m860, despite all the heat concerns, I believe that there's been only one report of it having an affect on performance (by daweism). I will probably store all my important files on an external drive just to be safe, but even if the hard drive on the 8660 does eventually fail and I have to spend 150 dollars on a new one...big deal...even with that extra 150 dollars on the bill, the sager is still a better deal than anything else out there. Also, I can't understand why everyone complains about the heat on the right palm rest...in the last 5 years I don't think I've ever rested my arm on the right side of my laptop...not sure why anyone would.

 

i totally agree with you. i have been installing windows vista/updates/programs for the past 2 hours straight, ontop of my wood desk. The right palm is very slightly warm. If this is what everyone is worried about, i could honestly care less. I have felt a few laptops before that were warmer. I backup my data on external hard drives also, so even if it was HOT, which it is not, i would not worry seeing as hard drives are dirt cheap now adays.

On a side note, holy crap this thing is quiet. I think i am just use to my desktops....