laptop hard drives

[RU482]

I wanted to get some thoughts on a situation I have encountered at work.

We sell laptop type computers. Our older model mainly has Toshiba and Hitachi 4200RPM hard drive. The Toshiba drives are crap. I've RMA'd at least 35 of them in the last six months, and I have another 10 on my desk waiting to send in. The Hitachi, on the other hand, with an approximately equal number installed, have only seen about 4-6 failures total.

So anyway, our "newer" model uses a Hitachi 5400RPM drive. For service reasons, I'd like to move to just using one model of hard drive for service repairs. I think the customers of the old computers would appreciate the benefits of a quicker drive.

Im sceptical about heat issues. Will the 5400RPM drive run significantly hotter than the 4200RPM drive? Will a reduced seek time on the faster drive help counter it (the customers use these computers for alot of data intensive invoice and inventory applications)

Input is appreciated!!

 

[alimoalem]

i really doubt it. 5400rpm seems to be the norm, too, so i would switch. i just purchased my first laptop a month or two ago and it came with a 5400rpm drive. i see no less performance from it than my hdd in my rig and it doesn't get hot. it does get a little warm but not hot at all

 

[pkme2]

My Main HDD is 40C and second 30C. Both are 7k60s in my Inspiron 600M.

 

[ixelion]

The 5400 might be slightly warmer but If it's working properly it should be stable. If the drive is failing due to heat issues then i'd consider it defective.

 

[corkyg]

The 5400s are somewhat of a sweet spot for laptops - especially the 160 GB perpendicular recording Seagate. I have a pair of them and there is no significant heat released in my HP dv1000.