Thinkpad T400 stock Travelstar -> WD Scorpio Black = Ok?

[MartinBrice]

I was nuking the hdd that came with my laptop so that I can install Win 7 Ultimate instead of Vista Home which came with it - and I noticed that it's 160gb. While that's HUGE by my standards of the past, considering that I'm getting ready to deal with 36MP RAW format digital photos, it's not quite so huge.

I pulled out the hdd in another system of mine and saw it's a WD Scorpio Blue 500gb, thought about using it instead and swapping the data onto the smaller hdd, but then I looked online and found that WD Scorpio Black drives aren't that expensive, and are pretty fast.

I just was curious if they're compatible with a 3 year old T400.

I also looked at solid state, but I couldn't justify the expense.

[MartinBrice]

From what I've found via searching this forum - the answer seems to be yes. I'm unclear about the SATA v. SATA II and my T400 though, and also about the max size my system will handle. The online specs say that it will accept up to 320GB drives, but I'm not sure if that's just because this was the max size at the time that was written, or if there is an actual limit on how large of a hdd my system will accept.

[ajkula66]

Your T400 is SATA II all the way, no issues there.

There is no known HD size limits on these machines either - so if 500GB is what you need, go for it.

[AIX]

Martin, why not a WD Scorpio Black instead? It's not that expensive and it is faster.

later edit: I thought you're gonna buy it, my mistake; but if you don't have to pay for it, Blue it's better.

[MartinBrice]

The Scorpio Blue is the hdd for another system of mine. I decided against using it as I still use the system it goes to.

I'm going to get a Scorpio Black, I'm just trying to figure out which.

I'm looking at:
WD5000BPKT (Advanced Format 500GB)
WD5000BEKT (500GB)
WD7500BPKT (Advanced Format 750GB)

So, I presume that the advanced format is only an issue with OS's and not hardware.

On that issue, I'm debating whether I should go with the no-AF drive because I will probably also run Linux on the system and I have no idea how Linux does with AF. I've never installed Linux on a AF drive before.

Anybody know a bit more about this?

[MartinBrice]

So, I couldn't find a Scorpio Black above 250gb that could be bought locally or bought online and be delivered before next week. So, I got a 250gb drive on Amazon.com, which will be here tomorrow. Ended up costing a trivial amount in the scheme of things.

250gb is marginally better than the 160gb drive as far as capacity (looking at it in terms of the intended purpose), but it looks like it will be significantly faster than the current 160gb Travelstar.

So, I guess if my photography goes beyond the drive's capacity, I'll install a second drive via the "ultra-bay." I was hoping to put a battery there, but we'll see.

[jayton4]

but it looks like it will be significantly faster than the current 160gb Travelstar.

I would have to disagree with the use of the word significantly in that sentence. It will probably not even be noticeably faster. You may have to clock it with a stopwatch before and after to even tell a difference, and it will be a very small percentage increase.

You could always get one of those little STAA1000102 external drives for your raw photos.