Can you add a hard drive to a Dell Inspiration 8000 laptop?

[Noriaki]

Can you add a hard drive to a Dell Inspiration 8000 laptop?

Or even replace the default one...
20Gig is the standard, dell charges $400 to upgrade to a 30gig

Can you like buy a 40gig after market or so and put it in yourself?


Also do you know how many SODIMM slots there are? And can you put 256MB in one? Or only 128MB?
Dell charges ALOT more than Micron for SODIMMs...

 

[Pariah]

Provided you know how to take the laptop apart, and it uses a standard 2.5" drive, you should be able to replace it. You will have to watch the height as well, the current largest are 12.5mm which probably shouldn't be a problem with a Dell.

As far as drive options go, IBM is basically it. The current top of the line available is a 32GB 5400RPM (Travelstar 32GH)and it runs about $400, so you aren't go save any money doing it yourself. They have announced a 48GB version as well, but I haven't seen it for sale anywhere. A cheaper route to go might be to go for an external firewire drive.

 

[Noriaki]

External firewire drive?

Does the 8000 have a firewire port? Becuase that would be fine...

20-30 gig is enough for my programs and OS. It's just extra Mp3s mostly...

How much does a firewire drive cost?

Actually you know...30gig might be enough....

 

[Pariah]

Go to crucial.com and look up the laptop model for DIMM configurations.

I'm not familiar with Dell laptops, but my guess would be no for built in firewire, Sony is the only brand that I know that has it on every laptop they sell. A cardbus card will cost about $65-75. The one major downfall for external drives is that they almost always require to be plugged in, if you plan on using your laptop while it is near an outlet most of the time, then it won't be an issue. A 60GB firewire drive sells for under $300, while a 30GB is under $200. If 60GB isn't enough, Buslink sells an 80GB drive for $315.

 

[Ark]

I have 1 year old i5000 which is very close to i8000 that time (don't know about today's models). Saw new i4000 - very similar too:
- You don't have to dissasemble laptop at all -
Harddrive is under small cover with one screw, just slide it out.
But 2.5in drives are VERY expensive, prepare to pay 3-4 times more than normal drive of the same size. BIOS should support it.
Another option - look for bay drive (pull CD out and put second drive), but it will be expensive too.

Memory: similar one screw cover, 2 slots SODIMM,
I had 64MB in one originally, added recently 128MB in the second slot.
You have to look in manual for max memory size or go to crucial site.

 

[Apex]

The i8000 has a 12.5mm tall tray and uses standard 2.5" IDE type drives. In terms of low cost, there are 2 options:

1. Standard 9.5mm 30.0gb drive. The best is the IBM DJSA-230000. They're about $230 or so.

http://www.storage.ibm.com/hardsoft/diskdrdl/travel/tr30gt.htm

2. 12.5mm 32gb drive. The best is again an IBM, the DJSA-232. They're about $247 (Global Micro, 800-595-8288)

http://www.storage.ibm.com/hardsoft/diskdrdl/travel/tr32gh.htm

I'd suggest paying the extra few dollars and getting option #2. Why? Both have 2mb buffers. The thing is, option 2 has an industry leading 5411, whereas most other notebook drives (like the 9.5mm one) are at 4200rpm.

Believe me, when you're already using slow harddrives, this DOES make a sizable difference.

In terms of installation, it's very easy. You're going to use the HD adaptor from your current 20gb harddrive on the new one. It's a simple swap.

The i8000 does have a firewire port:

<a target=new href="http://
http://www.dell.com/us/en/dhs/products/model_inspn_3_inspn_8000.htm">http://www.dell.com/us/en/dhs/products/model_inspn_3_inspn_8000.htm</a>

However, a firewire drive is not going to be as convient as simply replacing the internal one.

256mb SODIMMS fit fine in the i8000 and are also easy to install. There's absolutely no reason to save the few dollars and get the 128mb SODIMM now that the price difference is so small.

 

[Noriaki]

Thanks Apex.

Does the i8000 have a docking bay?

I was looking a sweet Toshiba lappy the other day, that has everything integrated into the main unit (AC, VGAout, Keyboard in, etc etc etc). Does the i8000 do that, or does it need a docking bay?

 

[Apex]

Yeah, pretty much all the ports are already integrated on the i8000. They don't have a full docking station, but they have what's called a &quot;port replicator&quot;. This just makes plugging things in easier. It's what most people think of when they think of a dock.

BTW, there's a great coupon for their software and accessories store, for 20% off. The coupon expires 6/19/01, and brings the price of the dock down from $200 to $160. Unfortunately, they don't allow the posting of coupon codes here. I do have the code on my webpage, and you can probably find it at many others as well.

 

[RossMAN]

I would also recommend adding 256MB RAM which you can get for 20% off direct from Dell [details]

The coupon code is posted in this FatWallet thread.