SZ680 and Hitachi 7200rpm 200GB drive...WOW!

I just installed a new drive (the Hitachi 200GB 7200RPM TravelStar to be exact) in my SZ680 and cannot believe what a difference it made! The installation itself was a piece of cake...you just have to pay attention to what you're doing.

If anyone is on the fence as to whether or not to replace their 5400RPM drive I say go for it!

 

Did you find any good deal the hitachi? I've been considering swapping my hdd too.

 

Hitachi 7K200 Series 200GB 2.5" SATA Hard Drive For $219

 

That is a very good price. But thanks for letting us know the difference.

 

Hmm

After my midterm, I'm gonna do that too.

Did you format everything or did you clone your OS and just replace it?

 

I had P1 install the same HDD when I ordered my SZ691 so I can't compare it to another HDD in the SZ. However, with the 7200rpm Hitachi, P1 bloatware removal, and Vista tweaks in the "Windows OS and Software" section authored by Flamenko, the start up is amazingly fast.

If it wasn't for my Blackberry Redirector and sometimes the NOD32 booting-up, boot-up is super fast. I'll have to quantify it shortly.

 

According to some HD Tune benchmarks the Seagate 7200.2 200GB performs equal to the Hitachi, so if you can get a better deal on the Seagate that might be interesting.

 

No..Here's some review about Seagate 7200.2 160GB & HITACHI 7K200
Hitachi Travelstar 7K200

PS:Seagate is 160GB & HITACHI is 200GB...

Does size really have an effect on performance?

 

Yes, because of the higher data density on the 200GB model, it's faster.

The HDtune results were posted here somewhere on the forums. The 200GB models performed very very similar to eachother.

It would be nice though to see a real review. I wonder which one is more quiet and uses less power.

 

Yep..Thnx for the info

 

The Hitachi drive is sata 150 which is half of speed of sata 300. Segate momentus 7200.2 has sata300. Where did you get that info those 2 hdds are the same speed?

 

Can you please specify what are the differences between the 7200rpm to the previous one that is as I understand a 5400rpm disk ?
You mentioned the fast loading time at windows start/restart .

I'm asking it since my laptop has a 4200rpm disk and before I bought it I was sure that I'll have to replace it . But now , few weeks after , I really don't see how a 7200rpm may improve my workflow because this 4200rpm disk looks to me very , very fast .

 

HITACHI 7K200 Support SATA2 (300)

 

For those of you looking for a cheaper alternative:


Best Buy has the Hitachi 200GB External USB 2.0 Drive on sale for $149.99.

Link to product on BestBuy.com


**YMMV**
The drive is sold as 5400rpm, but apparently many contain a 200GB 7K200 (HTS722020K9SA00) 16MB Buffer SATA drive inside. I've personally confirmed this with 2 separate units already.


There seems to be at least 2 different batches of these drives. It looks like the 7200rpm drives have the serial number sticker on the bottom of the package, with the S/N starting with "DTG0E". The ones with the 5400rpm drive has a the S/N sticker on the back of the packaging starting with some number other than "DTG".


Note that this external drive is only covered by Hitachi's warranty for 1 year, as opposed to the 3 yr warranty on the retail drive alone.

 

Wow that might actually be worth getting:
1. are these drives available in store?
2. you put this drive into your sz?

 

Yes and yes.

Use this coupon for another 10% off.

 

Just picked up the SZ650N/C...I tried to see where the hard drive is located so i can upgrade it to the Hitachi 7200rpm 200gb drive, but i wasn't under either of the 2 accessible panels that's there. For those who have upgraded their HDs, did you do it yourself or did you take it elsewhere? Thanks!

 

I have yet to figure out where the HDD is on my SZ330P and I had this for almost 2 years, I just haven't tried taking out the entire bottom cover yet. I do know exactly were it is located on my FZ180E as I tried a 5400rpm drive on it and went back to the 4200rpm drive as I saw no speed gain at all and saw no need to change the drive at all, I not planning to game with my FZ180E anyway.

 

well didnt see the above post - go to best buy - serial number has to start with DTG for it to have the 7200rpm drive in there....

 

If you plan on using you Wireless N adapter and get N speeds it will work good with Netgear or D-Link routers, I get constant speed of 144mbps on my FZ180E on a Netgear WRN834N router, but could never get N speeds on my Linksys WRT350N router,so I would say don't use or get a Linksys router at all.

 

the SATA 1.5gig or the SATA 3.0gig interface on the HD would only make a difference when paired with the same interface on the MB.

I have an SX-230 and the interface is SATA 1.5gig. There was a marked difference when I upgraded my drive from the 5400rpm to the 7200rpm.

 

can the sz6 support the 3.0gb inteface?

 

I see SonyStyle has option for 200GB 7200rpm harddrive upgrade on SZ640 and SZ680. Anybody know the make/manufacturer of the drive they are using?

 

the HD is under the wrist rest on the keyboard side. you have to remove the set screw(s) for the keyboard, then the 3 screws for the wrist rest, then open the laptop and GENTLY release the keyboard tention clips (at the top of the keyboard), then slide the wrist rest away from the keyboard.

The hd is held down by 3 to 4 screws on the side closest to you as you sit facing the laptop screen. There are several good walk-thru's on how to change the HD on the sz-xxx series of laptops.

The drive removal is easy and straight forward if you take your time, have a small screwdriver set, and ARE VERY CAREFUL WITH THE CONNECTORS AND RIBBON CABLES!!!!!

 

Just upgraded the HD from the stock hybrid drive to the Hitachi 72k drive...The 33% increase in rpm is definitely noticeable. For those who are on the fence about upgrading, this is a needed upgrade...Especially for the amount of disk thrashing that Vista does. I don't understand why sony used the 5400rpm drive...It was almost unbearable to use it...That's after a clean install on the hybrid drive.

BTW, after reading this thread i went to bestbuy and picked up the Hitachi usb drive that someone mentioned here and can confirm that even though the drive was advertised as a 5400 rpm drive, i got one that had the serial # that begins with DTGxxx and it was indeed the 72k drive. At $139 + tax, you can't go wrong. Thanks again everyone!

 

can i see pics of your average mb/s on hdtune? because when i went from 100gb 7200rpm to 250gb 5400rpm - there was an actual increase in speed

im assuming because the 250gb is a much newer and more platters, etc but still would like to see an average mb/s and average ms

 

How about the noise and vibration compared to your old drive?

 

how are you transfering all the info? is there a good application that can clone the drive in a simple step?

 

Didn't feel like reading 20 somthing post. But was the heating issue covered for the high 7200rpm speed? does it get crazy hot if u use it for long hours.?

 

no diff in heat, at least from my short experience. I put this into a sony 691NX and after a few problems with ACronis, I got it working. NIce drive, nice price. thanks for the tip

 

Tonight I am going to try fitting a Seagate Momentus 7200.2 160GB SATA HD into my SZ680. Should speed things up considerably, I hope. Will post the results later.

 

Only $190 at ZipZoomFly now, plus free shipping. Rocks in my MacBook!

 

OK I did it ! ! !

Was a close thing though, when I was putting the "hood" back on (the bit with the power button, S1, S2, etc...) I got a ribbon cable caught between the hood and the chassais and nearly went through it with a screw from underneath.... be CAREFUL!

But the results are AMAZING! Bootup is now 45 seconds even without a clean install (am still waiting for The PortableOne DVDs). I recommend this upgrade to anyone - well worth it, and I now have an external 120 Gb USB drive with the old one (in a case bought for 20 euros). Seagate drive cost me 150 euros, by the way from PCSNEL.NL

 

How are you guys swapping all of your information? Are you just doing reinstalling vista on the new drive? I hear a lot of people use Acronis: does the free trial have all the features I need to make a direct image copy of my current HD? How would I go about doing this?

 

Yes, download Acronis Migrate Easy, and its as simple as connecting the new USB drive and running the program. It takes at least an hour to image the drive onto the new one, but after that, you simply put in the new drive and you are good to go.

 

I did a semi-clean install after upgrading to the new drive. I went from an 80GB 5200RPM to the 200GB 7K200. In my experience temperatures have increased slightly but only when on "Speed" mode. My CPU temp when doing low-intensity tasks has always been 33-36C when on Stamina mode, and this did not change when upgrading the drive. On Speed mode I have gone from 37-39C to 39-42C doing the same tasks. The thing about this laptop is the fan kicks in at 34C, so temperatures never drop more than a degree or so below that. As such there probably is an increase in heat output while on Stamina mode, but the fan simply turns on more frequently to regulate the heat to 34Cish.

As far as battery life goes it's very difficult to tell. I timed it as 3:03 on Stamina and 2:25 on Speed after the upgrade. Before the upgrade my times were actually less (2:45 on Stamina), but it was an old XP install so I reckon quite a lot of bloatware was using up CPU time and hence battery. When I first got my laptop I was getting 3:30ish on Stamina, and my battery has degraded 12% since then, which accounts for a 26 minute loss since then. In other words, at least for low intensity applications, the upgrade has not affected battery life to any noticable degree.

 

Yeah, I'm also upgrading from an 80gb 5400 to the 200gb 7k200...

Allright - I'm feeling pretty good about this HD swap. I never wanted to before because I was unsure about how vista would be to do a clean install (to a brand new unformatted drive), but since this is as easy as copying the image to a new HD, I'm now EXCITED lol.

 

Pejx, how noisy is your drive? if you put your hand on your laptop, can you feel any vibration?
Thanks

 

I just did the HDD swap about a week ago and all I can say is the good outweighs the bad. There is a tiny bit of extra vibration (barely noticeable) and it makes a little bit more noise (only noticeable in a silent room), but its soo much faster and I adore the extra space!

 

My new Seagate 7200.2 HDD is not silent, but it is quieter than the original one in my SZ680. If I put my ear to the front-left of my SZ I can hear the disk spinning but it is a reassuring noise, not high-pitched but instead a soft wooshing. When the disk is being accessed you can hear the heads moving quite clearly but again this is not distracting.

From what I have read on these forums and elsewhere, the Seagates are among the quietest drives out there. However, the SZ does not lend itself to quiteness on the HDD front because - as others here have noted - the HDD bolts directly to the metal chassis of the laptop. Because the SZ construction is so solid and uses a lot of metal I guess the vibrations and sound from the HDD get transmitted very efficiently. Thus, regarding your question on vibration, I can feel slight vibration around the left palmrest area but it is less than with the original 5400rpm drive, and is in no way alarming.

So, in short:
Seagate 7200rpm compared to original sz680 5200rpm:
1) Slightly quieter (but you can still hear it)
2) Much less vibration (but you can still feel it)
3) Much, much, much faster!

Hope that helps.

EDIT: As for temprature, the drive is definitely cooler than the original, which is surprising since it is spinning almost 50% faster...

 

dont use a 100gb seagate 7200, they are known for a "marble dropping" noise that is very annoying. I had it before and it was annoying.

 

Mine is a Seagate Momentus 7200.2 160GB SATA: No marble sounds!
(Also has built-in anti-shock drive head parking)

 

yea, noticed I said "100gb" version. its the only one that is well documented with that noise.

 

Check out this: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article771-page1.html

 

amerks, thanks, I just read the review - obviously very thorough but I don't find it in line with my experience... My Seagate Momentus 7200.2 has very low noise and vibration. However, to be fair, I only have the original SZ drive to compare with. The original (a Hitachi) was both noisier and had a higher level of vibration. Maybe it depends which batch you get?

 

well, i agree, I now some macbook pro owners who share your experience

 

sz1 supports sata II 3.0gb/s?

 

Did anybody of you guys put Hitachi TravelStar 7K200 in any of old SZ1XX models?