Laptop Hard Drive Upgrade

[KdLaneJr]

Just upgraded the 320 GB 5400 rpm Hitachi hard drive in my laptop to a Seagate Momentus XT 500 GB Hybrid drive.

The difference in performance is quite noticable. The cost was surprisingly inexpensive compared to moving straight to an SSD.

[KenJulio]

Speed and buffer of the drive will add to the performance, if you're going from a 5400 rpm drive to 5400 rpm, you wont see a difference, going from 5400 to 7200 with a 16mb buffer def increases your performance

[KdLaneJr]

I'm sure the 4gb SSD portion of the hard drive factors in also.., just not sure how or when.

[dbaldock]

I recently swapped out the stock 320GB 5400RPM drive in my ASUS 1215B Netbook. I originally ordered the highest capacity 9.5mm, 7200RPM drive I could find, a 750GB model from either WD or Seagate. Then I found that Samsung has a 9.5mm 1TB drive available, so I ordered and installed it even though it's a 5400RPM model (decided on capacity over peak speed). The 750GB, and several other 2.5" drives that I had accumulated, were installed in $20 external USB 3.0 enclosures.

The 1TB Samsung was only $90 at Newegg.

Take Care,
David Baldock

[Todd Lambert]

I didn't find much of a difference going between the 5400 to 7200...

I now have a 750gb 7200rpm platter drive in addition to a 256gb SSD drive in my MBP. It's freakin' awesome and I'd totally recommend an SSD - the performance increase is SO worth it. The hybrid drive should definitely help, but I think you'll want to move to SSD eventually.

[KdLaneJr]

That's good info to know.

I took a look at SSD's after seeing the performance gains from this hybrid drive. It seems that a 256GB drive would meet my storage needs without any issues, so I'll be keeping an eye on the prices.

Now that I have a "spare" laptop drive, I could pick up an SSD and transfer it to any future laptop I purchase.

Cloning takes a little time, but is quite simple.

[Tom]

Originally Posted by Todd Lambert

I didn't find much of a difference going between the 5400 to 7200...

I now have a 750gb 7200rpm platter drive in addition to a 256gb SSD drive in my MBP. It's freakin' awesome and I'd totally recommend an SSD - the performance increase is SO worth it. The hybrid drive should definitely help, but I think you'll want to move to SSD eventually.

I was thinking about taking the disc drive out of my MBP and doing this. Glad to know it is awesome.

[Todd Lambert]

Originally Posted by Tom

I was thinking about taking the disc drive out of my MBP and doing this. Glad to know it is awesome.

It's like night and day... and with a large platter drive, I still have the space I need as well as the speed. It's a surprisingly easy modification too, a few screws, that's about it.

[MT Stringer]

I know y'all are talking abotu laptops, but I put a SSD in my desktop with Win 7 Pro 64 bit OS and 8 gb ram. Lightroom loads in 3 seconds! Other stuff runs (or responds) a lot faster also.

[Tom]

Originally Posted by Todd Lambert

It's like night and day... and with a large platter drive, I still have the space I need as well as the speed. It's a surprisingly easy modification too, a few screws, that's about it.

Good to know. You think a 256GB SSD is enough? Not sure I want to drop more than $500 on that mod.

[dbaldock]

When I get around to rebuilding my main "desktop" PC this Fall (AM3+ Motherboard to support the AMD Bulldozer chips that are soon to be released, 16GB Memory, GTX 580 Video Card), I've already got sitting under my desk a Vertex-3 120GB SATA-3 SSD and a 600GB SATA-3 10,000RPM Raptor to go in the system.

Since my system is Dual-boot, and I normally run Linux, the SSD will probably be the Linux boot disk, and Windows will remain on one of the 74GB 10,000RPM Raptor drives. I've also got a couple of 1TB and 2TB drives to use for internal bulk storage, as well as various 2.5" & 3.5" drives in external cases.

What I really need to do is consolidate my bulk storage drives into something like a QNAP Network Attached Storage device, so my main system doesn't have to be so big and heavy when it's time to evacuate from Houston ahead of Hurricanes.

Take Care,
David Baldock

[Todd Lambert]

Originally Posted by Tom

Good to know. You think a 256GB SSD is enough? Not sure I want to drop more than $500 on that mod.

Yes definitely. I mean, it's just the OS, apps and a "working space". All other files, music, archived files, etc.. go on the spinning platters.

I think you could comfortably live on a 128GB SSD actually. I'd say absolute minimum would be an 80GB, that would still cover the OS, Apps including the entire creative suite, etc.. with room still left over for things like cache, scratch, etc.

If you re-use your existing internal drive, you could do the whole thing (drive swap kit, etc.. which includes an external case for your optical drive) for about $300.

[Tom]

OWC OWCDDMBS6X40 DIY Kit: Data Doubler + 240GB... in stock at OWC

I think I am going this route. A wedding can often be 100GIGs for me before I start culling, so I want to use at least 240GIG. I have a 750GIG 7200RPM drive I haven't gotten around to installing yet, so I will put that in the optical drive bay. Should be a workhorse.

[Todd Lambert]

Originally Posted by Tom

OWC OWCDDMBS6X40 DIY Kit: Data Doubler + 240GB... in stock at OWC

I think I am going this route. A wedding can often be 100GIGs for me before I start culling, so I want to use at least 240GIG. I have a 750GIG 7200RPM drive I haven't gotten around to installing yet, so I will put that in the optical drive bay. Should be a workhorse.

That should work nicely.