Thinkpad R40 - what is the Biggerst/Fastest HD I can use?

[vk60402]

Right now I have 20GB, which, after hidden partition is really close to 15GB, after all windows and drives and other IBM programs (not including Anti-Virus) are loaded, it leaves me with 10GB. After I load my Anti-virus, Adobe, MS Office, etc.. I'm at 7GB free.

One of the options (cheaper ones) is to get a USB harddrive. Btw, anyone knows of pretty cheap/fast/small external harddrive that may be used with a notebook (i.e. don't require 120V power supply?).

Another option, is to purchase internal, 80GB-100GB hardrive. But the tech support told me that they don't recommend 5400RPM or faster drives on R40 (2681-CU1 is my model), as they tend to be hotter/not designed for my system, so I'll have to use one at my own risk, possibly voiding the warranty.

Anyone uses fast hardrives with their R40's? What is the max size YOU know will work with R40?

Thanks,
Vlad

[daeojkim]

At this moment there is no biggest and fastest at the same time. THe fastest is the Hitachi 7k60. THe biggest is one of the 100GB HD at 5400 rpm. I just bought the seagate 5400.2 100GB and it works wonderful on A31p. It is a definitely a increase in performance.

If you wait few months, seagate is going to release 7200 rpm 100GB HD. That will be the fastest with larger storage. The biggest will be a 120GB 5400 rpm HD that wil be released at the same time.

i am surprised that they will not recommend you to use 5400 rpm drives. I think it is bogus. It will be perfectly fine to use a 5400 rpm drive on your laptop. If you are still using 4200 rpm HD you should definitely go with a faster HD. a 5400 rpm HD will be night and day from 4200 rpm and it is not hot at all. A 7200 rpm does get hotter and it should not void your warranty.

[wolfman]

I have an R40 and I've been using a Hitachi 40 gig E7K60 drive with 8 meg of cache for almost a year now with no issues whatsoever. Drive is very fast and I highly recommend it. Made a tremendous difference in boot up time and overall system "feel".

[jet]

i have a r40e and am using a hitachi 60gb 7200rpm drive in here. this is my second hitachi, the first one died 2 weeks ago after 3 months of usage.
it does overheat quite often, when you are taxing the hd with a lot tasks. but it runs fine when only doing 1 thing at a time.

i like how ibm have put the ram right underneath the hd... when both things generate so much heat. i have 1gb of ram in here aswell, which seems to get pretty hot.

i think i will downgrade to a slower hd soon.

[wolfman]

Hmm...I am not encountering any problems with overheating. Do you have a 14.1 inch model? if so I might have better air flow in my case with the 15 inch display...