T43 2669, any point upgrading the HDD?

[superboss]

Currently have a TOSHIBA MK4026GAX RoHS (ATA) 40GB installed. Would I benefit anything substantial noise-/performance wise by upgrading to an HITACHI 7K100 100GB drive? Got 1GB RAM and 1.86GHz Dothan running XP Pro SP2.

[Johan]

If you replace a "relatively slow" 5400 rpm (and hence low-noise!) single-platter HDD (which I guess the 40 GB you refer to would be) by a fast, multi-platter HDD like the 7200 rpm, 100 GB Hitachi, you will experience some amout of increase in the noise level, and possibly also some increase in the vibration level. You will however experience an improvement in speed, which may be more or less pronounced depending upon your actual usage! Your battery time will decrease to some extent, owing to (typically) slightly the higher power consumption of the 7200 rpm HDD over the 5400 rpm drive.

To get an impession of the noise level of various 2.5” drives, I suggest you serach the Silent PC Review site (see the Storage section); they have the best reviews of laptop drives with special emphasis on noise performance. Check e.g. the following threads: Hitachi TravelStar E7K100 7.2k-rpm notebook drive (note that is the E-type reviewed here!) and 160 GB Notebook Drive Roundup and 2.5" Hard Drive Charts .

Best regards,

Johan