Hard Drive Suggestions

[tymac94]

What is a good Ultra ATA laptop Hard drive with more than 80GB and 7200 RPM. Also would be great if 16MB cache. I currently have the stock hard drive with 80GB and 4200 RPM. IT is a Hitachi Travel Star. Any Suggestions would be great.

[davmoo]

The one "gotcha" you're going to have is if you need a Ultra ATA drive, I'm not aware of one that is larger than 160GB or has more than an 8MB cache. I'm hoping someone will come in to this thread and tell me I'm wrong, because I could use a larger than 160 myself.

I've had good luck with the Seagate Momentous 7200.1 series. But last time I bought one (about 3 months ago) the biggest one I could find is 100GB. There just aren't as many choices in Ultra ATA/IDE/PATA (pick your favorite interface buzzword) as there are for SATA.

I'm also big on Toshiba drives, and I have several that I use in external enclosures. But again, they top out at 160GB and an 8MB cache. And Toshiba's line also tops out at 5400 rpm.

[md2389]

You really don't want a 7200rpm drive in a laptop. For starters, they can generate a fair amount of heat (particularly anything from Hitachi as they tend to get hot enough to literally fry an egg). Stick to 5400 RPM at the most since the aerial density more than makes up for the rotation speed of the platter. What you'll be wanting to watch for is perpendicular recording.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148073

That should suit your needs just fine.