Thinkpads Forum

I am planing of replacing my old 120GB HDD for a 250GB Samsung Spinpoint M5S HM250JI (250GB 8MB 5400rpm for 150 euro). And I was wondering if this is going to work properly.

Or should I buy the Hitachi Travelstar 7K200 (200GB 16MB 7200rpm for 200 euro)

obviously the 7200RPM is better drive but what do you want it for, more performance or just most storage. Eitherway, the 7200RPM Hitachi is the king of laptop HDs now.

The 7k200 is faster but also runs hotter and draws more power than the Samsung. I am personally having a hitachi 5k250 250GB 5400rpm HDD installed in my T60 and I think it is faster enough for me. When I need raw HDD performance, I will plugin my 3.5inch eSATA external HDD which is much faster than any of the 2.5inch HDDs.
btw, here are some benchmarks:
Hitachi 7k200: http://www.makols.com/HDTune_Benchmark_ ... 020K9S.png

Hitachi 5k250: http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/8724/5k250ig6.jpg

Seagate 7200.9 3.5" HDD connected to a eSATA PCMCIA card: http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/3117 ... 0gboa4.jpg

I believe the Samsung will have similar performance as the Hitachi 5k250. Although the first batch of HM250JI had some firmware problem and you need download a patch from Samsung's website otherwise the first 50GB has a very low transfer rate (around 10MB/sec).

Mod edit: Your input is appreciated. Please don't pics unless there is a warning in the subject line, per forum rules.

HM250JI actually has a similar internal max read/write as the 7k200, and a much faster (35MB/sec) minimum transfer rate, with absolutely minimal heat and virtual inaudibilty. I researched heavily before being totally set on the HM250JI, and no regrets whatsoever.

technics_speak, I too have got a T60 1951 with an 80 Gig hard drive, do you lose the active protection system when you change the hard drive to the Samsung ? Also is it simply a case of putting the Samsung in a sata caddy and cloning the old drive using Acronis True image ?

technics_speak wrote:HM250JI actually has a similar internal max read/write as the 7k200, and a much faster (35MB/sec) minimum transfer rate, with absolutely minimal heat and virtual inaudibilty. I researched heavily before being totally set on the HM250JI, and no regrets whatsoever.

mazman wrote:snip.....I too have got a T60 1951 with an 80 Gig hard drive, do you lose the active protection system when you change the hard drive to the Samsung....snip

APS is independent of hard disk drive, it's the integrated motion sensor (a gyro to be specific) that does the job in conjunction with the ThinkVantage Active Protection System software.