Looking for new Laptop HDD suggestions

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07 Apr 2010 07:01 #3434 by Leonresevil2
I currently have a 120GB Hitachi stock HDD, SATA 1.5Gb/s and I wondered what's good, whether I can do SATA 3.0Gbs on it, and if I can buy something that will support LanOC from our sponsors. I was aiming for 250GB or higher, not sure if 7200 rpm was worth it, and hopefully less than $100. An enclosure for my existing HDD would be a nice benefit, as I plan to get one for it anyways.

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07 Apr 2010 10:42 #3435 by garfi3ld
I am assuming this is for your laptop?

the Seagate Momentus is a 7200RPM drive with a 500 gig capacity for less than $90

www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148374

I would HIGHLY recomend jumping up to the 7200RPM drives. The speed makes a difference in both transfer speed and random access. Both will help things load much quicker for you.

Also SATA 1.5 and 3 are backwards compatible

Wes

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07 Apr 2010 10:44 #3436 by garfi3ld
Also, you may want to wait until the lan for the 2.5 inch enclosure. I know we have a few to give away. Even if you don't win one, you could pick one up really cheap

Wes

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07 Apr 2010 11:41 #3438 by zrigged
You can use any SATA format.

I used dual 3.0GB/s 250GB 7200 Seagate's in my 7 series Gateway FX (RAID0) and they were flawless. That laptop got HOT and the hdd's just spun away without an issue. I purchased those almost two years ago, but even then they were < $100 each. MicroCenter.com usually sells OEM 2.5" drives for very inexpensive, so I would get the biggest 7200 hdd you can afford. Off the shelf stuff can sometimes be had for cheap, too, but you're probably better off finding one at NewEgg/Microcenter, etc.

I've used a variety of enclosures, but so far the most convenient has been a small sleeve (no-name, cheap model from MicroCenter) which came with a USB to IDE/SATA cable and a power cable, which is very cool. Makes testing/formatting new or old drives a snap since they don't have to be installed. I think it was about $15. I still use it with an 80GB 2.5" IDE and an 80GB 2.5" SATA that I use for backups and transfers.

If you're going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you're going to be locked up. HST

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07 Apr 2010 22:09 - 07 Apr 2010 22:14 #3521 by Oh4sh0
Most general consumer hard drives still have transfer rates that are <150MB/s IIRC, so SATA150 vs SATA300 would make no real difference. It's been a while (okay, like 2006) since I was fully immersed in the technicals of HDDs, but a drive such as (www.storagereview.com/western_digital_caviar_black_review_2tb) has a listed transfer speed of 138MB/s which falls below that 150 threshold. Transfer bursts may come closed to exceeding that, and 10k rpm hdds as well as SSDs are likely to exceed SATA150 capacity, but most general drives do not, and therefore whether theyre sata150/300 are irrelevant. Try to find actual technical details on the hdd you're looking at purchasing - sequential reads/writes, random reads/writes, cache size, rpm, and latency are largely going to determine overall performance. Someone feel free to correct me if my technical understanding has lapsed in my old age. :P

On another note, I just put one of these in my Macbook Pro @ work, and damn is it bitchin': www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item...20-167-024-_-Product
Last edit: 07 Apr 2010 22:14 by Oh4sh0.

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15 Apr 2010 03:00 #3798 by Leonresevil2
Tried running Demigod on my laptop, and it chugs horribly. So, instead of paying up for a new hard drive in my laptop, I think I have decided to put that money towards a gaming rig, which will allow me to install mostly games, and reapply the hard drive space on my laptop to better, more run-able things. Probably should've realized this sooner. But I hadn't really played anything too new on my laptop.

So, now I have to start putting together ideas for a nice rig. I would like something that will last me a long time, ideally, but I think it may be better to just get a decent rig for now, until some of the new tech comes out in the next year or two. Any advice start?

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