Thinkpads Forum

Hi there, I am thinking of upgrading the 5400rpm drive to a 7200rpm, 'cause my T60 sometimes feels slower than my p4 3.0 desktop with a 7200rpm HD.
I believe 7k100 and momentus 7200.1 are the only options we have, so which one do you think is better?? Can I just put the seagate in without making any firmware hack?

Thank you.

I would go with the Hitachi because you can use the AAM tool on it to lower the noise level of the drive without noticeably affecting performance. Seagates do not work with AAM and if you get a loud one you might regret it. I've also read that some Seagates, I can't vouch for the 7200.1 model in particular, but some of the Seagate drives constantly seek and click as they runs self-diagnostic tests.

I have a Hitachi 7k100 as my main drive and a 7k60 as my second drive and i can't hear any noise. I haven't used AAM as there is no need for it now.
It's noticably faster than the 5k80 stock i replaced.

did you guys find a suitable enclosure for the old HD?

On your T43, beware of the famous "2010" non-OEM HDD error that might prevent you from using any off the shelf HDD's (I have no actual experience in this):
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=13113



The Seagate Momentus 7200.1 comes with a 5 year warranty, which IMHO is better--as many notebook HDD's fail around 3 yrs after being moved around so much.

And besides, even after your 7200.1 retires from being a main HDD, you can still use it in an external USB enclosure, still under warranty!
(data backup, for storing your R&R Disk Images, etc.)


The performance difference between the 2 HDD's are so minute that most people won't notice the difference without benchmark tests--both are very fast due to high data density.

(Just wait till they come out with 160 GB 7200 RPM notebook HDD's with even higher data density due to perpendicular recording...)

this review seems to favor the 7200.1 for real-world apps:
http://www.storagereview.com/articles/2 ... 1AS_1.html

Tom's also has a review which includes the SATA version of the 7200.1 but only the ATA version of the 7K100:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/11/11/ ... rk_results

Seagate Momentus 7200 is better

nxman wrote:Seagate Momentus 7200 is better

what is the basis of your opinion? I have the Momentus 7200.1 and it doesn't seem as fast as I had anticipated, though it is definitely quieter than the PATA 7K100 I had in my T42.

My vote goes for the Hitachi 7K100.

hoya wrote:

nxman wrote:Seagate Momentus 7200 is better

what is the basis of your opinion? I have the Momentus 7200.1 and it doesn't seem as fast as I had anticipated, though it is definitely quieter than the PATA 7K100 I had in my T42.

Because I'm using one right now and my brother is using 7k100 on his
T60P the Seagate is faster and generates less heat and quieter!

I've posted a long description of my upgrade elsewhere on this forum. In brief, here are a few details:

- The Hitachi is quiet, more so than a Seagate (my friend bought one for his T60 and regrets it now).

- The speed increase is worth the $50 difference to me. It may not be to others. You can get more space or more speed for that $50 (a 120MB drive costs about the same as the 80MB 7200 drive).

- The "external enclosure" I bought was the Lenovo SATA HDD drive adapter for the Ultrabay. It works in my Advanced Dock, too. I suppose any SATA-compatible external drive bay would work if you don't want to take the old drive along for the ride in the Ultrabay (removing the DVD drive) or if you don't have an Advanced Dock.

I hope this info helps.

wallybear wrote:...The speed increase is worth the $50 difference to me. It may not be to others. You can get more space or more speed for that $50 (a 120MB drive costs about the same as the 80MB 7200 drive)...

Can you clarify here? Which one is faster?

Thanks,
NeoMatrix

NeoMatrix wrote:

wallybear wrote:...The speed increase is worth the $50 difference to me. It may not be to others. You can get more space or more speed for that $50 (a 120MB drive costs about the same as the 80MB 7200 drive)...

Can you clarify here? Which one is faster?

Thanks,
NeoMatrix

The Seagate is faster

http://www.laptoplogic.com/reviews/deta ... 628bf58100

I was comparing one Hitachi drive to another, not to a Seagate. The only experience I have with the Seagate is that I have heard it running in my friend's T60 and it's definitely louder than the Hitachi.

The new 7200rpm Hitachi I bought is only "slightly" louder than the 5400rpm drive that shipped in my T60. In my opinion, they are both within the realm of "nearly silent" (while the Seagate is in the realm of "noticable noise").

As for the price comparison I gave, I was comparing these drives (all Hitachi) purchased from Newegg about a month ago (some of these drives are not available from Newegg today or have dropped in price):

5400rpm 80GB (like shipped in my machine) cost $75 to replace.
5400rpm 100GB cost $100.
5400rpm 120GB cost $130.
5400rpm 160GB (new head technology) cost $170.
7200rpm 80GB cost $125.
7200rpm 100GB cost $175.

I chose the 7200rpm 80GB to "replace" my original 5400rpm 80GB drive because the extra $50 for the speed increase was worth the cost to me. I didn't choose the faster 100GB drive because it wasn't worth $50 more for the extra 18 or so GB. I put the original 80GB in a SATA HDD adapter that can fit either in the Ultrabay or the Advanced Dock's bay. I just installed Vista using Virtual PC 2007 (beta) with the Virtual HD on the slower 80GB drive. All in all, very impressive. I'm going to install Vista for real (not using the emulating software) tonight on the 5400rpm drive. But that's another story....

In terms of speed increase, the 7200rpm drive makes the machine "noticably" faster which means I can tell the difference. But, on the other hand, the 5400 is no slouch. I suppose an investment in a defragmenter like PerfectDisk8 (which I use) is wise no matter what speed, or size, your hard drive is.

By the way, I keep most of my data (docs, music, jpegs, etc.) on my outboard Maxtor 300GB (7200rpm) connected either by USB2 or Firewire. The Firewire interface (using a Cardbus PC card) is, again, noticably faster than than the USB2 interface. But in comparison to another outboard drive I use (a 45GB Western Digital that runs at 5400rpm) the Maxtor drive is very fast.

I hope this information helps somebody. If so, please let me know.

wallybear - thanks, i found it helpful.