Need to upgrade my notebook's hard drive...should I get a 7200 RPM drive?

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I'm running out of space pretty quickly on my 80GB drive and I need to upgrade it pretty soon, so I figure might as well get something faster while I'm at it.

I've never used a 7200RPM hard drive in a notebook and I'm concerned about heat. I currently have a 5400RPM drive in my HP Compaq nc8430, which runs between 32 and 37 degress Celsius pretty consistently, even under heavy load.

Will a 7200RPM drive run a whole lot hotter? Is the risk worth the performance gain?
 
It will run probably slightly hotter and will more than likely reduce your battery life
 
Heat is always a concern, but loss of battery life seems to be a much bigger issue. I think right now a 5200rpm drive is a good trade-off. Just my 2 cents though.
 
Get an external?
 
It will take more battery life, but considering that IO is the slowest part of a modern computer...

I went with a 7.2krpm drive on my laptop.
 
Get an external?
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Oh, yeah, those are fun to lug around.

It will take more battery life, but considering that IO is the slowest part of a modern computer...
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I'm not too terribly concerned with battery life. I get a solid 3 hours as it is, and I'm on external power most of the time.
 
epp_b said:
Oh, yeah, those are fun to lug around.
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You're carrying around a heavy laptop but can't also carry a hard drive that's 3x5" and weighs 0.3 lbs?
 
You're carrying around a heavy laptop but can't also carry a hard drive that's 3x5" and weighs 0.3 lbs?
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It's just one more thing to carry around, one more thing to connect, one more thing to lose, one more thing to...you get the idea. The more components that are internal, the better.
 
epp_b said:
It's just one more thing to carry around, one more thing to connect, one more thing to lose, one more thing to...you get the idea. The more components that are internal, the better.
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If you're on power most of the time, then odds are you are at your desk or workspace most of the time, making an external drive a viable option.

Drives are so cheap that you'll get more for your buck going this route. However, a bigger internal drive would be nice (though you still should have a solid backup solution).

When I purchased my current computer, I avoided the 200gig option because it was on a slower drive, but also wasn't sad to be missing the 7200rpm drive. I'm on power most of the time, but this computer is hot enough as is, and battery life is quite excellent.

The space limitation of notebook drives does suck when you are using a notebook for your primary computer, but I've realized that I don't need all my data with me at all times, so a good external drive to put all my "sometimes used" data on makes a good amount of sense to me.

Now, if you wanna go geeky, get a solid state drive. No major power issues and should be much cooler. :lol:
 
If you're on power most of the time, then odds are you are at your desk or workspace most of the time, making an external drive a viable option.
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Indeed. I have plenty of external drives lying around, I'd rather have everything with me on my internal drive.

However, a bigger internal drive would be nice (though you still should have a solid backup solution).
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I have plenty of backups, plus I'll be able to use my current drive as another backup by buying a different drive to use internally.

Now, if you wanna go geeky, get a solid state drive. No major power issues and should be much cooler
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Well, I'll just go pluck a few Ben Franks of the tree in the front yard and pick one up :p
 
i am regretting getting a 7200rpm HDD my laptop gets really hot and sucks my battery life
 
epp_b said:
Well, I'll just go pluck a few Ben Franks of the tree in the front yard and pick one up :p
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Let me know how that goes for you. I want a new car and maybe I can plant some in time for the fall harvest :lol:

Seriously, just take your budget, and buy the biggest drive you can. Or if you want a 7200rpm drive, get the biggest you can in that speed and budget. Based on the information given, you won't suffer by having a faster drive.
 
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Do not get an external drive...unless you like losing all your data. I had one of those slim WD Passport drives, put all my music on it. One day it slipped from a coffee table a foot of the ground and fell on hard surface. Dead.

I'm currently using the 5400 in my Dell and it sucks. Compared to the 7200 in my desktop it is a lot slower, especially when I try to copy files. How much do you care about battery life anyways? Just get a bigger battery. I'm going to change my POS 6 cell very soon.
 
_HighVoltage_ said:
Do not get an external drive...unless you like losing all your data. I had one of those slim WD Passport drives, put all my music on it. One day it slipped from a coffee table a foot of the ground and fell on hard surface. Dead.
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Well it's rather stupid to not back up any important data, external drive or not. ;)
 
I do have the originals somewhere around. But that's a whole lotta ripping :(
I knew hard drives are delicate machinery, but that was hardly a big drop. They are supposed to have drop sensors and some cushoning inside.
 
_HighVoltage_ said:
I do have the originals somewhere around. But that's a whole lotta ripping :(
I knew hard drives are delicate machinery, but that was hardly a big drop. They are supposed to have drop sensors and some cushoning inside.
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The Sudden Motion Sensor you speak of is not built into the drive, from my understanding, but built elsewhere in the computer and then parks the HD head when it detects a drop. At least, that's how it's listed on my Mac's system properties.
 
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