7200 RPM drive in Toshiba M50?

I have had a Toshiba M50 for a few weeks now, and getting used to it after swiching from a few desktops, as I am going traveling and need protability.....

I have already upgraded the ram to 1.5 gig, and want to upgrade the harddrive now. I was in a store, when the sales person told me that some notebooks cannot power a 7200 RPM 2.5 inch drive as it requires more power then the 5400 RPM ones. Is this right? Does anyone have any experience with the M50 and a 7200 RPM drive? Or any of the current Toshiba notebooks and 7200 RPM drive for that matter.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

Yes, you can upgrade to a 7200rpm HDD as technology has moved ahead and 7200rpm HDD's consume the same amount of power as 5400rpm HDD's. They might dissipate more heat, but in most cases they are in the same range as their 5400rpm cousins.

Hitachi & Seagate produce the best 7200rpm hard drives but both are expensive for what they offer..
Hitachi 7K100
http://www.hitachigst.com/portal/site/en/menuitem.72e3cabd3a6a384ccf1824a0eac4f0a0/
Seagate Momentus 7200.1
http://www.seagate.com/cda/products/discsales/marketing/detail/1,1081,669,00.html

Also take a look at the Notebooh hard drive guide...
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2603

 

Would prefer Hitachis because they have been making them a few years whereas Seagates are fairly new. I see no reason why a 7200RPM will not work.

 

Thanks for the replies.

I was looking at the specs for the Hitachi and Segate drives, and the power requirements were very similar and so I was thinking that it should be ok.

The main decision that I have to make now is if it is worth to spend the extra money over a 5400 RPM drive....

 

They are starting to drop in price now. You can get eh 60GB for $150. A few monthsd ago $200 was the minimum.

 

The main problem is that I need speed and capacity. I am a photographer who also likes to play a few games now and then, and can't go anywhere without music and my favorite movies.

The one I am considering is the Hitachi Travelstar 7K100 100 gig drive, which happens to be not that much more expensive then the 5400 RPM version right now in Australia, so I might just jump on it and consider the consequenses later.

 

hi, just wondering whether you can post a review of the m50 as i am considering getting 1. i have read the other reviews and post but would value another opinion. particulary interested in how easy it is to do the ram upgrade and battery life.

 

I will try to see if I have time, but due to the fact that there is so many things to do while prepairng to move to another country in less then two months, I am not too sure I will have time.

Also the verson I have has dedicated GPU (X600 128mb) so it might be a little different to versions that are avilable in USA.

I will say that the ram upgrade was as easy as in other notebooks I have used / owned, and the hardrive upgrade is too (while not having upgraded it, I have opened the notebook up to see where it is and how easy it is to remove. Battery life - I have no idea as I use it on AC power most of the time, and I use CHC to lower the vultage when on battery power.

You have to keep in mind that I have built every computer I have owned for the last 5 years, and also have done work doing technical support, so the easy of upgrading might not seem so easy for you.

 

Ok Since I am taking a breake and having a Diet Coke, I might as well do a mini review:

Toshiba M50:
CUP: Intel Pentium M 1.73 ghz processor
RAM: 512 PC2700 Defult (one slot free)
Graphics: ATI X600SE 128mb (dedicated)
Harddrive: 60 gig 5400 RPM Hitachi travelstar
Optical drive: Dual layer DVD burner
Screen: 14 inch wide screen 1280x768
Others: Intel wireless lan, Bluetooth, USB2 (4), Firewire, inbuilt card reader.

Size and construction:
This notebook seems quite well constructed, maybe not quite as well put together as my last notebook (Sony Vaio U50), but then not much is. Weight is not too bad, and it does not add much weight to my camera bag. When closed it feels solid, but the keys puts markes on the screen while in my camera bag, as my camera bagg is packed quite full.

Keyboard and touchpad:
The touch pad is a little small, and is very close to the space bar. This is of a concirn to me as I am also a writer, and at times I can spend 2-4 hours at a streach typing. At first you will find that you keep brushing the touch pad, and moving the cursor to other parts of the screen. Very frustrating, but eventually you get used to it. They Keyboard is quite nice, and after half an hour quite fast to type on, but not going to be as good as an external keyboard with a nice palm rest.

Speed and performance:
My desktop systems are all AMD XP systems clocked to 2.5 ghz, with 1 gig of ram. I have now upgraded the notebook to 1.5 gigs of ram, and the speed when running my normal tasks - alot of photoshop CS2, with Breeze browser, and working with RAW files and various filters in 16 bit mode, and having outlook, and firefox open, seems about the same speed as my desktop, only slightly slower when writing to the harddrive. Not bad actually, and quite supprised by the speed. One thing though, is that the resolution is not quite high enough for Photoshop CS, wish i was more like treditional 4:3 aspect.

Graphics and gaming:
After calabration, the colours from the screen are acceptable. Not as acurate as I would like, and the dynamic range is a little lacking, but overall quite nice for a notebook (though not as good as the Sony u50). 3D mark 2001 SE = 12000, and 2005 = 1000. Not fantastic, but these are numbers without overclocking, and runs WOW and tigerwoods quite well. As these are the only two games i play with any regularity right now, I am quite happy. The screen is really good when watching movies, and this is where I am glad I have that 15:6 aspect ratio. The speakers are fantastic for a notebook, but is let down by non-dedicated sound card.

Optical drive and storage:
The inbuilt DVD burner is quite good. Not as fast burning, or riping as my desktop computers, but still not bad. I can burn a disk and play tiger woods at the same time. NICE! On thing is that the inbuilt card reader and PCMCIA bus is still not as fast as USB 2 card reader, and since I am always transfuring CF cards to the harddrive it is quite dissapointing. The original Harddrive is actually not bad, but I think I am going to get a 7200rpm drive.

Well I hope that helps you out, and this is not spell checked.

 

thank you FranchiseJuan,

excellent review. i need a basic notebook for internet, word processing and home photography and this sounds ideal, especially the widescreen, small footprint.

unfortunately i have never opened up a notebook or even upgraded ram on a desktop. if it is not as simple as opening up a latch and inserting a ram stick in, i should probably get a professional to do it.

 

It is as simple as turning the notebook off, closing the lid, fliping it over, use a screw driver to open a latch, and inserting the ram in (it will only go in one way) and then closing everything up. Although I would recommend doing in the store that you are to purchase the RAM just to make sure that the ram is compatable, and that you are not getting a faulty stick of ram.

 

FranchiseJuan is right, about the only things that you can do to a laptop easily are the hard drive and RAM upgrades. Last Monday I ordered my new M60 and I have already decided that I am going to upgrade the RAM, and I am pondering an upgrade of the hard drive as well. I know that in my Satellite 5005-S504 that I had, it was very easy (1 screw) to remove the cover for the hard drive and the same for the RAM. After my machine has arrived, I will do a review of it also.

Take care!

Matt

 

thanks all,

since you run on ac power, do u leave the battery in or out?

i was initially going for the integrated graphics since i don't play games. however, i thinking windows vista is due out q4 next year and so wanted to future proof my lappy thinking vista should run on x600se but not integrated graphics.

sorry, i just realised i am hujacking your thread.

again thanks

 

I leave the battery in all the time, as I need to be able to take the notebook and run at a moments notice. I hardly ever reboot, or turn off the system, as I always just shut the lid, and let it go into sleep mode.

Your point about vista is valid, but since the processor is not 64 bit, it might be a moot point. And one year is a long long time in computing, and planning that far ahead is probably not the best thing to do.

 

i understood vista will be available in both 32 and 64bit versions but i could be wrong