Is a 7200 RPM drive worth $105 extra?

[Infohawk]

I'm looking for the sweet spot in terms of price and performance. I'm looking at the Vostro 1400 and 630. The laptop will have vista, core 2, and 2 gigs of ram.

 

[onlyCOpunk]

5400rpm drives are fine in notebooks. They run cooler and save battery life, unless you need the blazing speed of the extra rpms. Or you want to skim off that extra second when loading a game.

 

[Throckmorton]

I've never had a 7200rpm drive in a laptop and I've never had any slowness problems. I never even notice that I'm not using my desktop.

 

[aigomorla]

for 105, you can keep your drive, and BUY a 7200RPM drive, and just SWAP it by yourself.

Heaven lords, dont pay that much for an ugprade like that.

Also, i believe larger capacity 5400rpm drive are faster lower capcity 7200rpm drive, so pick your drive wizely.

Meaning a 160GB 5400 drive will be faster then a 100gb 7200 rpm drive. But a 160gb 7200 rpm drive will be faster then a 160gb 5400 rpm drive.

 

[corkyg]

I agree about buying your own drive and upgrading post-puchase. I replaced the 160 GB 5400 HDD in a Thinkpad T60 with a 200 GB 7200 HDD, and the speed increase in apps was very noticeable as well as boot/load time.

 

[Boo Boo]

don't pay dells upgrade costs, they rip you off

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: Infohawk
Is a 7200 RPM drive worth $105 extra?

No!

 

[Parasitic]

Originally posted by: VinDSL

Originally posted by: Infohawk
Is a 7200 RPM drive worth $105 extra?

No!

Actually I think that it's not too bad if you get a 100GB or 160GB HDD with it. The price of a 100GB on NE runs ~ $100 shipped, and swapping a non-user-serviceable part can avoid your warranty. For roughly the same price I'd rather not take the risk.

Now if Dell wants $200 then it'd be a different story.

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: Parasitic
I'd rather not take the risk.

Different strokes...

I'm risk adverse!

When/if my lappy quits running, I'll throw it away and buy another one...

If swapping out the HD kills it, it wasn't worth owning anyway, IMHO!

I don't live my life for warranties! Who wants a refurb?

Having said that, some 5400RPM drives are actually faster than 7200RPM drives...

That would be my fear - spending $105 extra on a faster drive and finding out it's actually slower!

 

[RaiderJ]

Originally posted by: Parasitic

Originally posted by: VinDSL

Originally posted by: Infohawk
Is a 7200 RPM drive worth $105 extra?

No!

Actually I think that it's not too bad if you get a 100GB or 160GB HDD with it. The price of a 100GB on NE runs ~ $100 shipped, and swapping a non-user-serviceable part can avoid your warranty. For roughly the same price I'd rather not take the risk.

Now if Dell wants $200 then it'd be a different story.

Swapping a hard drive doesn't void your warranty. It's about one of the easiest things to change out, save for memory and maybe PCI cards.

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: RaiderJ
Swapping a hard drive doesn't void your warranty...

True...

Assuming the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act applies to laptop/notebook innards (and you're using OEM Approved products)...

I digress: I went through this with my Honda CiViC!

Basically, Magnuson-Moss applies to most of the car - the exception anything between the air filter -> catalytic converter.

You can change/modify anything else you want, and the car will still be warrantied! However...

Put another way, messing around with the motor on a Honda CiViC WILL void your warranty - guaranteed!

EDIT

Just did a quick Google and RAN ACROSS THIS

Read the 'small print'!

On a purely legal issue:Memory Uprgrades often hears reports that a OEM representative has told a customer that using third party memory or hard drive products will void the systems warranty. Using this logic, the sales representative will try to coerce the customers into purchasing their own products, usually at much higher prices than Memory Upgrades is charging. This sort of threat spreads fear and uncertainty into consumers...

Some of our larger clients when faced with this issue have asked these OEMs to put in writing that installing Approved products into their systems would void their warranty. To our knowledge, no OEM has put that in writing.

This warranty stuff (or voiding thereof) *smells* like a grey area to me...

 

[Skott]

The OP doesnt say how much of a upgrade the 7200 drive is. It could be a good deal if the 7200 drive is much larger. I agree however dell upgrades are over priced generally speaking. Especially their ram. Used to be anyway. Was cheaper to go buy dell approved ram and then do it yourself. Been a couple years since I bought a dell laptop though.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: Skott
The OP doesnt say how much of a upgrade the 7200 drive is. It could be a good deal if the 7200 drive is much larger. I agree however dell upgrades are over priced generally speaking. Especially their ram. Used to be anyway. Was cheaper to go buy dell approved ram and then do it yourself. Been a couple years since I bought a dell laptop though.

SHINS!!!

i dont know where you been buying your ram... but since when expecially in the past 6 months has ram been cheaper @ dell then online.

Even PCMALL and CDW which i consider the most expensive stores has ram cheaper then DELL.


Last time i also looked the 105 upgrade for a laptop was of near capacity. If you want the drive that i and a lot of high end users want/have, Hitachi 7K200 200GB thats a 200+ dollar upgrade. You can buy the hard drive for 190 new!

 

[zixxer]

There is a noticeable difference between a 5400 and 7200 rpm drive even when windows is loading and doing general stuff. I greatly prefer 7200rpm drives.