Does anyone know if any notebook HDD review sites exist? I'm thinking about upgrading my laptop's hard drive, and I've got no point of reference besides spindle speed with which to gauge performance. (Basically all laptop hard drives have an 8MB buffer, besides Toshiba, which has 16.) The only 7200 RPM laptop drive I can find is made by Hitachi, but I've heard too many horror stories about their 7200 drives... does anyone have any recommendations? I'm interested in performance and reliability both--I don't want a screamer that's going to self-destruct in 9-months, but I also don't want something ridiculously slow. Right now I'm running a 5400RPM Hitachi drive, so keep that in mind as a base for performance. Thanks in advance, guys.
Laptop hard drive recommendations?
- Thread starter TrueWisdom
- Start date
I have a 60gb 7200 rpm drive and so far I'm happy. It's a little noisy at night but I can live with that (at least better than my desktop
.
.Anyone else have any ideas? Brand names, spindle speeds, buffer size? What seems to work best and most reliably?
I for one have never heard of a laptop drive with a 16MB Buffer... much less a Desktop drive with a 16MB Buffer.... So if these things actually exist... please clue me in further... Cause Fry's Electronics don't got em.
As far as brand name buffer size RPMs... I'd say get what you need. If storage is an issue... then nevermind speed and go for the size appropriate for your needs... If you truely want performance... then I'd say pick a drive that has the highest RPM rating and then think about capacity after speed. Keep in mind that the larger capacity drives will perform faster than smaller capacity drives in most cases... As the larger drives will pass more data under the head than a smaller capacity drive could. Think of it as more information crammed into a smaller spot on larger drives... If the RPM speed is the same on a 40GB and a 60GB and both are two platter drives... then the 60GB drive will outperform the 40GB because more data will pass by the head because there is more data in the given space. Anyway... I guess hard to explain without a picture... least for me...
As far as brand... usually it's the luck of the draw... I'd be willing to bet that if you asked for brand name you'd have about 20 different views on the matter all saying they had a brand that someone else liked that failed on them even after taking it back and getting another one. and they'll continue to say that they bought a different brand and it's been going for years where as someone else will say the exact same bad thing about the drive that worked well for someone else.
As far as brand name buffer size RPMs... I'd say get what you need. If storage is an issue... then nevermind speed and go for the size appropriate for your needs... If you truely want performance... then I'd say pick a drive that has the highest RPM rating and then think about capacity after speed. Keep in mind that the larger capacity drives will perform faster than smaller capacity drives in most cases... As the larger drives will pass more data under the head than a smaller capacity drive could. Think of it as more information crammed into a smaller spot on larger drives... If the RPM speed is the same on a 40GB and a 60GB and both are two platter drives... then the 60GB drive will outperform the 40GB because more data will pass by the head because there is more data in the given space. Anyway... I guess hard to explain without a picture... least for me...
As far as brand... usually it's the luck of the draw... I'd be willing to bet that if you asked for brand name you'd have about 20 different views on the matter all saying they had a brand that someone else liked that failed on them even after taking it back and getting another one. and they'll continue to say that they bought a different brand and it's been going for years where as someone else will say the exact same bad thing about the drive that worked well for someone else.
The 16MB buffer drives are made by Toshiba. Here's a link to both of them.
I'm pretty well-versed in desktop hard drives, so I know that buffer size and firmware can play an even larger role than spindle speed, when you're talking about overall performance. My main gripe is that I can't find reviews on laptop HDDs ANYWHERE, so I don't know which drives are generally faster, cooler, and more reliable. I'm debating between getting the 60GB Toshiba 16MB drive, or a Hitachi 60GB 7200RPM drive. I just wish I could look at some benchmarks, and get some feedback from users, to see which drives seem to perform more reliably.
But thank you very much for your input. Hopefully more people will chime in, and I'll get a good idea of what I should buy.
EDIT: Fixed broken link.
I'm pretty well-versed in desktop hard drives, so I know that buffer size and firmware can play an even larger role than spindle speed, when you're talking about overall performance. My main gripe is that I can't find reviews on laptop HDDs ANYWHERE, so I don't know which drives are generally faster, cooler, and more reliable. I'm debating between getting the 60GB Toshiba 16MB drive, or a Hitachi 60GB 7200RPM drive. I just wish I could look at some benchmarks, and get some feedback from users, to see which drives seem to perform more reliably.
But thank you very much for your input. Hopefully more people will chime in, and I'll get a good idea of what I should buy.
EDIT: Fixed broken link.
check xbitlabs.com for laptop hdd reviews.
Here's a potentially good thread for info.
http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=13572&highlight=upgrading+hdd
I also saw some review/comparison over at Tom's Hardware(?) regarding 4200rpm Vs 5400rpm Vs 7200rpm drives with varying amounts of buffer. The gist of it was that if at all possible to get the highest spindle speed you can with the biggest buffer you can.
Heat and power consumption were tested and found to be a non-issue compared to the very substantial performance increase compared to 4200rpm 2mb buffer drives.
Hope that helps.
Here's a potentially good thread for info.
http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=13572&highlight=upgrading+hdd
I also saw some review/comparison over at Tom's Hardware(?) regarding 4200rpm Vs 5400rpm Vs 7200rpm drives with varying amounts of buffer. The gist of it was that if at all possible to get the highest spindle speed you can with the biggest buffer you can.
Heat and power consumption were tested and found to be a non-issue compared to the very substantial performance increase compared to 4200rpm 2mb buffer drives.
Hope that helps.
Hmm... I didn't realize that the Hitachi performed that well. But I'm still torn between a faster-spinning drive and a slower drive with a bigger cache. Argh!
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