| Aaron Mulder on 5 Aug 2006 18:47:52 -0000 |
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Seagate and Hitachi are pretty much the only game in town, if you want a high-performance drive. The best speed is 7200 RPM; the highest capacity is 160GB @ 5400 RPM or 100 GB @ 7200 RPM (they've announced a 160GB 7200 RPM drive but it won't be available until 2007). I would stay away from 4200 RPM drives at all costs. There are both ATA and SATA drives available; the I8100 takes an ATA drive. Personally, I'd get a 7200 RPM drive unless you urgently need the 160GB storage (but I tend to do software development on my laptop, so the speed makes a difference to me). At that speed the Seagate line is the Momentus 7200.1, and the Hitachi line is the 7K100 (there's also the E7K100 which is rated for 24x7 operation and more intended for blade servers). We used the previous-generation Hitachi 60GB/7200 RPM drives in I8100s with no problems. Note when you replace the drive -- your laptop has a drive caddy (the frame that the drive is screwed into) and an ATA-to-Dell adapter stuck on the end. You'll have to transfer both onto the new drive. It's often difficult to get the ATA adapter off straight (without bending the pins on the drive to the side), so take care with it unless you plan to junk the 30GB drive anyway (even so, if anything goes wrong with the new drive, you'll likely want to transfer the adapter back to the old one). Putting it on the new drive is straightforward, though. Thanks,
AaronP.S. I think dropping your laptop is the real hard drive killer. On 8/3/06, gyoza@comcast.net <gyoza@comcast.net> wrote: OT: I know enough about PC drives, but it isn't that often that I replace a notebook drive. What should I look for when upgrading a notebook hard drive? I have a Dell Inspiron 8100 currently with a 30GB drive. What brands and specs are desirable? ___________________________________________________________________________ Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
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