do I need the 60 GB 7200 RPM drive?

[superiorlobe]

I'll be using my T-series thinkpad for word processing, surfing the web, email, quicken, and possibly some programming using Sun ONE Studio every once in a blue moon.

I would like a faster HD just because it is faster, of course, but I'm not sure I'll even be able to notice the difference for the tasks I'll be doing.

Also, there might be a down side: does the 7200 drive eat up the battery faster? And I also hear that it has "issues" more often that the standard 5400 drives.

[dclee012]

i'd say you probably dont need it
go with 5400 and you wont have to deal with the possibility of heat/power issues
imo, the jump from 4200 to 5400 is a no brainer, but 5400 to 7200 isn't as crazy. for what you are doing on a daily basis, it might only shave some nanoseconds off

[superiorlobe]

I'm also thinking of an X40. Do they come with 4200 drives or 5400 drives?

[jdhurst]

I had a T30 with a 5400-rpm drive that I upgraded to a 7200-rpm drive. The difference was absolutely noticeable to me. So much so, that as far as I can see into the future, I would never use anything slower than 7200-rpm. I expect that battery life is a bit less, but not so it bothers me. And my drives (three of them) are absolutely cool (with the exception that they get very slightly warm during a complete defrag). I have a T41 with the 7200-rpm drive in it. ... jdhurst

[cynic]

I'm also thinking of an X40. Do they come with 4200 drives or 5400 drives?

They use a 1.8" 4200rpm drive. It is a speciality drive (not a standard laptop size drive of 2.5") At the moment, IBM has put in the best made--there aren't any faster rpm or larger drives than the 1.8" 4200rpm 40GB in the X40. The smaller form-factor drive is necessary to fit the small size of that laptop.

[Daniel]

The battery life issue is moot. The 7200 drive uses about the same amount as the 5400.

[ahts]

what about reliability "issues"? Can anyone comment on them. I'm in the process of buying a T42, and I'm not sure if I should get the faster hard drive or not. The "issues" are bothering me... Anyone? Thanks!!!

[darrenf]

The 7200RPM drive is great and I believe that I read here on the forum that it doesn't use any more power than the 5400RPM because of a design change Hitachi/IBM made in the 7200RPM drive.

There is a reason for concern, though. Many (myself included) found that the 7200RPM drives had an unreasonable amount of vibration. Others found it to be noisy. Many had no problems. In my case, I returned the drive to Hitachi and was sent a replacement that doesn't have the vibration issue at all, but if I was doing it all again, I would probably get the 5400RPM because I haven't read of any complaints of vibration in those drives.

-darren

[eduardo]

Just to weigh in with my $0.02...

I just received a new T42 2378-DXU with the 60GB 7,200 rpm Hitachi drive. So far, my experience with it has been overwhelmingly positive. The drive is seriously fast compared with the 4,200rpm 60GB that was in my Sony Z1SP. By rough estimates, the initial boot screen for Windows XP goes away after only 5 seconds or so (the quickest i've ever seen Windows XP boot). No vibration either, in fact if I put my ear to the case I can barely hear it.

Only one word of warning. I notice that the Access IBM message center notes a firmware upgrade for this (and some other) drives that is supposed to fix an issue that can cause the drive to fail. My drive appeared to come pre-installed with this upgrade, and it's nice to know that there is a fix available for it.

I can't compare it to the 5,400rpm 80GB personally, but it seems as though this drive offers fantastic performance for virtually no trade-off (apart from 20GB of space). If you want the quickest drive you can get for a laptop, i'd certainly recommend it.

Ed