Laptop HDD question

**bassybill** · #1 10-13-2009, 09:33 AM

I'd like to upgrade my Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop HDD for more space and speed (7200rpm rather than 5400), mainly for recording purposes.

Q - will any laptop 2.5" SATA HDD fit in the machine? Or do I have to take care over compatibility?

Thanks!

Bill

**Eric Perry** · #2 10-13-2009, 09:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassybill

Q - will any laptop 2.5" SATA HDD fit in the machine?

Yep. As long as you are sure it's a 2.5 and the interface is SATA you are good. The new drive will replace the old in the Dell's drive caddy, then you just pop it in.

**bassybill** · #3 10-13-2009, 09:52 AM

Thanks Eric. Done this before on an older machine, but just checking I didn't drop lucky that time and that they really are interchangeable.

James Hart · #4 10-13-2009, 09:57 AM

Just did that to my Dell D630! Popped out a 60gb 5400rpm drive and put in a 320gb 7200rpm drive. Got mine at newegg for $70

[edit]
this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148446
[/edit]

RWP · #5 10-13-2009, 10:00 AM

+1 Just did my Dell laptop, noticeable speed improvement too.

Get these two things and you can
image the new drive on your desk top prior to install. That way it will boot right up just like the old drive. Casper is
great for backup too.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...key=ez-connect

http://www.fssdev.com/products/casper/

**bassybill** · #6 10-13-2009, 01:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by James Hart

Just did that to my Dell D630! Popped out a 60gb 5400rpm drive and put in a 320gb 7200rpm drive. Got mine at newegg for $70

[edit]
this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148446
[/edit]

I just ordered that exact same one from a UK supplier - pretty much similar price for £/$ rate, as it happens.

I'll get a bit more storage, but the main reason for the upgrade was to get the 7200 spindle speed (which most sites seem to recommend for home studio stuff). The seek time is quoted at 1.554ms, compared to 12ms for the original drive.

I already have a drive caddy and software to do the swap from upgrading my older machine a while ago.

Aren't HDD capacities getting massive, really quickly? If I fill up the machine with projects I can always back up stuff to my 1TB (!!!) external drive that I got last week for less than I paid for a 120GB drive not that very long ago (like, 2 years or so). Amazing.

James Hart · #7 10-13-2009, 01:51 PM

HA! I still have a 10gb ide drive I bought in the mid 90s for $350! It was a HUGE upgrade from the 800mb stock drive

It does seem that the 500gb+ sized drives have really dropped this past year.

As for laptop recording... I picked up a D/Dock off eBay for $35 that allows me to install another drive AND a half-length, full-height PCI card. So though I'm not mobile with it, while at home I can record via my M-Audio Delta 44 set up.

**Eric Perry** · #8 10-13-2009, 02:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassybill

...I'll get a bit more storage, but the main reason for the upgrade was to get the 7200 spindle speed (which most sites seem to recommend for home studio stuff). The seek time is quoted at 1.554ms, compared to 12ms for the original drive.

...

I've got your steenkin' seek times right here! 15.0ms for the mechanical drive, and 0.1 for the solid state drive. More importantly, look at the transfer rate differences. Quite the seat-of-the pants difference between the two!

Here's my HDTune results for the two drives in my Gateway P-7811FX (it has two bays). The first is my data drive, which is a 200GB Seagate Momentus mechanical drive @ 7200rpm, and the second is my OS/apps drive is a 64GB OCZ Vertex solid state drive...

**bassybill** · #9 10-13-2009, 03:17 PM

What's a solid state drive? Is that sort of like a virtual RAM drive that I used to play around with ages ago? ie, non-mechanical

**Eric Perry** · #10 10-13-2009, 03:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassybill

What's a solid state drive? Is that sort of like a virtual RAM drive that I used to play around with ages ago? ie, non-mechanical

It's essentially flash media in a HD enclosure.

When you look at those graphs, don't look at the graph itself, but look at the corresponding numbers, as the graph points are adjusted for speed on each one. 53.8MB/sec average transfer rate for the mechanical drive to 203.4MB/sec for the solid state drive. Substantial differences. My drive is an OCZ Vertex. They are really good ones in an affordable range right now. Intel still seems to lead all others in performance, but it comes at a much steeper price point. You can get a 64GB Vertex for a few hundred bucks now.

**bassybill** · #11 10-13-2009, 03:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eric Perry

It's essentially flash media in a HD enclosure.

When you look at those graphs, don't look at the graph itself, but look at the corresponding numbers, as the graph points are adjusted for speed on each one. 53.8MB/sec average transfer rate for the mechanical drive to 203.4MB/sec for the solid state drive. Substantial differences. My drive is an OCZ Vertex. They are really good ones in an affordable range right now. Intel still seems to lead all others in performance, but it comes at a much steeper price point.

Okay - so why are people still building ordinary HDDs? Is it a catch-up thing, capacity wise? Are conventional HDDs heading for the dustbin? Just curious.

I remember reading a while back about extremely high capacity non-volatile RAM that would effectively kill the distinction between memory and storage as the two would become the same thing.

**Eric Perry** · #12 10-13-2009, 04:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassybill

Okay - so why are people still building ordinary HDDs? Is it a catch-up thing, capacity wise? Are conventional HDDs heading for the dustbin? Just curious.

I rememebr reading a while back about extremely high capacity non-volatile RAM that would effectively kill the distinction between memory and storage as the two would become the same thing.

There's still a pretty big price differential between mechanical and solid state. And yeah, in the future mechanical drives will certainly be obsolete.

**bassybill** · #13 10-13-2009, 04:10 PM

That sounds like you get the point about the eventual breakdown of the distinction between memory and storage? The two will become the same.

Whatever is in memory, is in memory. Terabytes and terabytes of it, going back years....

**Eric Perry** · #14 10-13-2009, 04:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassybill

That sounds like you get the point about the eventual breakdown of the distinction between memory and storage? The two will become the same.

Whatever is in memory, is in memory. Terabytes and terabytes of it, going back years....

Definitely. Mind boggling when you really think about it!

L-A · #15 10-13-2009, 04:17 PM

One day, SSD will be the standard, and life will be easier.

No, really.

**bassybill** · #16 10-13-2009, 04:20 PM

About 5 years ago, it was taking about ten-to-the four (10000) electrons to store one bit (0 or 1) of info in a chip. The minimum limit is obviously one electron per bit. Some of the newest semiconductor materials are approaching that limit, with non-volatility too ( no power needed for memory retention).

**bassybill** · #17 10-13-2009, 04:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eric Perry

Definitely. Mind boggling when you really think about it!

In the future, everybody will retire at the age of 85, and then sit back in their retirement to watch an HD video replay of their entire life up until that point for reflection/relaxation/reminiscence, before being quietly allowed to pass away at the age of 170.

**Eric Perry** · #18 10-13-2009, 04:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassybill

About 5 years ago, it was taking about ten-to-the four (10000) electrons to store one bit (0 or 1) of info in a chip. The minimum limit is obviously one electron per bit. Some of the newest semiconductor materials are approaching that limit, with non-volatility too ( no power needed for memory retention).

Again, it's almost frightening. When I bought my first desktop, the HDD was 6GB. Now, you can easily get over double that on microSD, which is the size of a thumbnail! Incredible!

**bassybill** · #19 10-13-2009, 04:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eric Perry

Again, it's almost frightening. When I bought my first desktop, the HDD was 6GB. Now, you can easily get over double that on microSD, which is the size of a thumbnail! Incredible!

My first desktop had no HDD at all! You had to load the OS from a floppy, then start the application you wanted from another.

The first PC I bought with a HD had a massive 40MB capacity (that was pretty huge at the time). I guess I'm a little older than you. But I'm still talking only 20 years ago for the first machine, and about 16 years ago for the 2nd one.

I bought a 64MB card for my first digital camera in 2000, it cost me £120 = about £2 a megabyte. I bought a 2Gb stick recently for £5 (about £0.01/MB). Storage now costs less than 1/200 of what it did 8 years ago.

**Eric Perry** · #20 10-13-2009, 04:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassybill

My first desktop had no HDD at all! You had to load the OS from a floppy, then start the application you wanted from another.

The first PC I bought with a HD had a massive 40MB capacity (that was pretty huge at the time). I guess I'm a little older than you. But I'm still talking only 20 years ago for the first machine, and about 16 years ago for the 2nd one.

Just shows the progression... Again, almost frightening.