Laptop Hard drives... what should i get?

[The Stigenator]

Okay so.. I have the option of upgrading my laptop hard drive to a bigger/faster drive (well i assume faster, i need to see the specs on the one on this laptop).

I went to fry's and they had a fijutsu 60gb for 109 (5400, 8mb, 12ms) and a toshiba with similar specs too. There was a western digital and a Toshiba 80gb for 129 and 139. Both 5400rpm and 8mb buffer.

I am sure my existing drive is a 2mb buffer, but i will check the specs in a second.
I also saw a toshiba 60gb with 16mb buffer and 5400 rpm, would that make a difference.

I am a bit wary of a 7200 rpm drive, but they dotn have much in those in selection and it costs quite a bit more .. around 170 for a 60gb.. I am wondering if the speed differnece is that much. Also the 8mb buffer would be definately faster than what mine on the laptop is righ tnow, which i believe is a 2mb buffer.

The present drive is a Hitachi Travelstar 40gb.. HTS424040M9AT00

Present drive on my laptop specs

 

[Green Man]

Beware of putting a 7200rpm drive in the place of a 5400rpm drive because of the increased heat.
I would shy away from toshiba and fujitsu. Both have an extremely high failure rate. The Western Digital is a good choice. 8MB buffer is nice, but don't expect a huge difference over 2MB.

Edit: just looked at you current HDD specs. 7200RPM will be a lot more heat than 4200rpm.
5400rpm along with 8MB buffer should be a nice speed boost.

 

[The Stigenator]

thanks man..

that heat issue has been a concern for me.. this laptop runs hot, i have it normally sitting on a cooling pad when i am at home.. one of those targus cooling pads with fans on the bottom.. and at school it is on its own.. but it still runs pretty hot.. sometimes..

That reminds me i need to see the instructions on how to take out this present hard drive, hope its not too complicated.