Hard Drive Reccomendations

[moltenrock]

So I was gonna buy a laptop, and there's different hard drive types, can you guys give me like pro's and con's and if I really need to spend money on the more expensive types?

Here they are:
160GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive Normal Price
250GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive + $25 (I want this one.)
160GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive Free Fall Sensor + $75
250GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive Free Fall Sensor + $200

I would prefer to get a 250 GB drive, I don't need more than that, and 160 worries me since I have to make it last all through college and my desktop has 160 and is almost full.


Leave your thoughts. =)

[Troll King]

Have you considered an external hard drive? You'll sacrifice portability for storage capacity.

[Money]

go with like a 500 gb external if its for your laptop, then later on u can use it on your desktop too..

heres the cheapest one on newegg, dont know how good it is http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822101031

[PUNK rock]

Have you considered an external hard drive? You'll sacrifice portability for storage capacity.

If you get a 2.5" external drive, they're very easy to throw in a laptop bag and don't require an outlet for power. You can get a 250GB or 320GB for ~$100.

[moltenrock]

These are like, the options for a Dell though.

So out of the two speeds, any big differences? The RPMs

[Money]

more rpms = faster? not hard

[Troll King]

Faster also means warmer, which is why laptops usually come with lower rpm drives. There's probably a difference in power usage as well, but I don't think it's enough to be significant.

[Lemmin]

Go with the one you want - the 250gb one. Its certainly worth the extra few bucks to get a bigger one now.

Faster RPM does equal more speed, but it also uses quite a bit more power, which is an issue if you are going to be running on a battery, not much of an issue if you are going to be using on a desk. 5400rpm isn't actually slow - in a 2.5 inch laptop drive, a 5400 is equivalent to a 7200 in a 3.5 inch desktop drive (at least in terms of seek times, which is what matters most in most cases) because the heads have less distance to travel.

Put off buying an external drive as long as you can. Partly because they are a bit of a pain to carry around, but mainly because the price keeps coming down for the same size.

LEM

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