Laptop Harddrive Speeds

[JzL]

My Company bought me a Dell D800 not to long ago. This thing is pretty much loaded except a few crucial components.

I got this laptop as a total desktop replacement for here at work. I've been using it for a while now and noticed the rather sluggish performance out of it. So I figure i am going t throw a gig of Ram at it (to replace the 256 in it now). The Question is this..... I have a chance to trade for a 40gig 5400 RPM harddrive for it. All its going to cost me is a 80gig 3.5" drive. Will I see that much of an improvement to mess with it? It will be going from a 40 gig 4200rpm drive.

 

[cy7878]

i think DELL in general makes some of the more sluggish hardwares. My brother's new Inspiron 9100 (P4 2.8G, fully loaded) takes about 2 minutes to load up. All the thinkpads I tried PM 1.3 - 1.8 load up less than 45 seconds (range 28-45 sec). You can try to upgrade RAM and HD, but I'm skeptical.

 

[JzL]

I am not talking OS load time.. as that makes no difference to me what so ever. I am sure that we can go on an on about brands... The dell is what I got.. not going to change that.. I just need to know if the hdd is worth it. Thanks for the reply tho.

 

[GnomeCop]

yes the 5400 is worth it, especially at higher capacities.

 

[dnuggett]

Yes the 5400 is worth it. How are you geting a "total" desktop replacement that has 256 RAM and a 4200 RPM drive in the first place?

 

[JzL]

Originally posted by: dnuggett
Yes the 5400 is worth it. How are you geting a "total" desktop replacement that has 256 RAM and a 4200 RPM drive in the first place?

This is the config that they shipped me, I am just trying to beef it up a bit so that it can be used as a desktop replacement. I worded that wrong...

josh

 

[DoctorBooze]

Definitely worth the faster drive. Seagate (and probably others now) do a line with 8MB cache, and Hitachi now have 7200rpm 2.5in drives you might want to take a look at; the latter probably use more power but that may be OK in a desktop replacement. (A new 5400rpm will draw less power than an older 4200rpm drive anyway.)