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Upgrade to 7200 rpm Harddrive on Laptop

M

mehmetmunur

Senior member
I have a compaq presario 1275, which was made circa 1999 with the following configuration:
AMD k6-2 366
160 MB Ram
4 GB HDD (probably 4200rpm, maybe 2 mb cache)

I recently had to take the laptop apart in order to fix the motherboard power jack, which seems to fail often in compaqs. So I thought to myself, Is it worth upgrading to a 40GB hitachi travelstar 7200 rpm 8 mb cache HDD, which seems to perform marvelously. I have already maxed out the RAM, and the CPU will not get to 500 Mhz without thermal issues, which is really hard to fix in laptops.

So the questions is, should I invest about $120 in a new harddrive for better performance?
 
Yes, it'll be the best bang for your buck. Those under 10gb 4200rpm drives are painfully slow. With a 7200rpm drive you'll at least be on equal footing with a desktop. Since you have limited memory, the drive speed is even more important of an issue.
 
the hard drive prob only has 512kb of cache if it is truly a 4200rpm model...
which is weak

the upgrade would be nice, especially if you are getting more space outta the move 🙂
 
I would do it. You should get a nice performance gain from the benefit of 7200rpm and 8MB of cache. It should give you a little extra longevity from the machine until you're ready to replace it.
 
I think that is the Max RAM that the machine will run. Most of the 1200 and 1600 Series had one SoDimm slot and like 32 Megs onboard. I have a 1650 with a 128 and the 32 for 160.

I tried a 10GB 5400 Travelstar in place of the origional 3GB drive that was in the machine and it made quite a difference in loading speed of windows and apps. If the laptop still does what you need it to do I would say go for the newer drive if you can not afford a new laptop for a while. Mine has a PII@266 and like I said I could see the difference.
 
All these comments have merit. But, basically, a 1999 laptop is too long in the tooth to really be worth upgrading. Prices on laptops have dropped a lot since 1999, and you would be wise to simply replace it. 5 years is a normal, useful life for a laptop as it transitions from obsolescent to obsolete. 🙂
 
I might want to upgrade to a new laptop before the fall of 2005. I was hoping that if I did that upgrade, I could put the new 7200 rpm hard drive in the next laptop I am going to buy. Though battery life is a concern, I don't use the laptop much without plugging it in.
 
One problem might be that your laptop won't even recognize a 60GB hard drive.

I went from a 5400RPM to a 7200RPM in my laptop and the difference is noticeable. Overkill? Definitely. But fun.
 
Dell has been running some sick sales on Inspirons in Home/Home Office. Check out the Hot Deal forum for details.

Yes, it'll be the best bang for your buck. Those under 10gb 4200rpm drives are painfully slow. With a 7200rpm drive you'll at least be on equal footing with a desktop. Since you have limited memory, the drive speed is even more important of an issue.
Click to expand...
Roger that.
 
Since people seem to have opinions on 7.2K rpm drives for laptops here... though I understand that power consumption on the these faster 2.5-inch drives is comparable with 5,400 rpm drives, does anyone know about the thermal output? I'm going to buy a Dell laptop with a 7.2k drive option, and I tend to leave my notebook on 24/7 (a desktop replacement). Would the faster drive increase the chance of problems, since these laptop drives aren't really speced for full time operation anyway?
 
For that laptop if it will support a 7200rpm HDD I'd upgrade esp since you are limited to 160meg of ram, it's going to make a large usablility improvment, the 7k60 series HDD's have very similar power requirments to the latest model 5400 rpm drives and actualy have better power saving features that most older drives, it wouldn't supprise me if the 40GB 7k60 used less juice than one of those old <10GB drives, the thermal output of the 7.2k rpm drive is somewhat higher that most other notebook drives but not by enough to really make a difference, also leaving your laptop on 24/7 w/ a 7.2k rpm HDD shouldn't be an issue, the only thing I might worry about in that case is your battery's lifespan.
 
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