Acer Aspire 3620 Notebook Hard drive...

[jacktesterson]

Hello all,

My father has an Acer Aspire 3620 notebook. Its 2-3 yrs old and still running strong with XP for all he does. I am trying to give it a little boost.
It originally had 512MB ram, that was upgraded to 1 GB. Its just a Celeron M 1.5 GHz with PC2-4200 Ram

Next, it has a 40 GB hard drive...which is fine for him space wise as he has an external 250 GB USB drive.

The 40 GB drive though is only 4200 RPM (I am pretty sure). I would like to throw in a 7200 RPM drive...cheap upgrade to 80GB Hitachi for $85 +tax.

Would he see a big difference? Worth $85 to you guys? Will I have any issues going from a 40 GB 4200 to a 80 GB 7200?

My experience with notebook components isn't lengthy by any means so I want to make sure.

Let me know

thanks!

 

[jacktesterson]

bump

 

[tcsenter]

I would be wary of going beyond 5400RPM due to potential heat issues in a laptop that was designed before 7200RPM drives were commonly available. It would improve system boot and "first-time" application launch performance, but probably not by any huge difference. It depends how frequently your pops reboots his system rather than using hibernation or sleep mode.

After the system fully boots to the desktop and all the background stuff is finished loading, there generally isn't much going on with disk or CPU utilization until a user launches an application. The first time an application is launched (per boot), it takes longer to load than subsequent launches of that application, until the system is rebooted again. A faster drive can improve 'first' launch (per boot) but will not do as much for subsequent launches or overall system responsiveness.

However, either of these might do more for overall system responsiveness than a faster hard drive:

Intel Celeron M 390 1.70GHz (400MHz FSB) 1MB L2 CPU - $40.00 + shipping

Intel Pentium M 745 1.80 GHz (400MHz FSB) 2MB L2 CPU - $93.00 free ship


Both of which are supported by your Aspire 3620, according to options shipped on the model and Acer's specs:

Intel® Celeron® M processor 370/380/390 (1 MB L2 cache, 1.50/1.60/1.70 GHz, 400 MHz FSB) or higher

Intel® Pentium® M processor 725 (2 MB L2 cache, 1.60 GHz, 400 MHz FSB) or higher

The Celeron M 390 has the same CPUID and TDP as the 370 that came standard, while the Pentium M 745 has the same CPUID and TDP as the 725 that Acer shipped with this model as an upsell processor.


Check that you have the latest BIOS: v1.06

 

[Old Hippie]

My own experiences with upgrading 2.5" HDDs to 7200 RPM units have not shown heat to be a factor. Most everything I've read supports this. There's a small discussion here.
Believe me, going from a 4800 to a 7200 makes a world of difference.

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: Old Hippie
My own experiences with upgrading 2.5" HDDs to 7200 RPM units have not shown heat to be a factor. Most everything I've read supports this. There's a small discussion here.

The manufacturer's published specs tend to show slightly higher power consumption (and noise) among 7200RPM drives. I've had drives of all three common rotational speeds installed in identical 2.5" USB2.0 external cases (I purchased a dozen of the same enclosure) and noticed the 7200RPM was a bit warmer than the 4200RPM, though not significantly so. Just noticeable.

Believe me, going from a 4800 to a 7200 makes a world of difference.

Only if the primary bottleneck in the system is the HDD. In his case, a better argument could be made that his processor is more likely the primary system bottleneck.

If I had to chose between the Pentium M 745 or faster hard drive for roughly the same price (within a few bucks), I would go with the CPU upgrade. The faster processor is going to impact system performance globally, not just during boot and application launch. The difference between Celeron M 1.5GHz 1MB and Pentium M 1.8GHz 2MB will be more significant than 4500RPM and 7200RPM.

Of course, there is no reason why we have to chose one or the other, except budget limitations. New CPU + HDD = teh winnar!

If the OP has the cash to spare, maybe he could buy both, and let us know how each impacted system performance. Make a little review out of it. It would be especially helpful to document the CPU upgrade for others to use as a guide.

 

[Old Hippie]

If the OP has the cash to spare, maybe he could buy both, and let us know how each impacted system performance. Make a little review out of it. It would be especially helpful to document the CPU upgrade for others to use as a guide.

Now, there's a good idea. :thumbsup:

Maybe if we buy him a :beer:?