Fastest CPU for X31? + more RAM + 7200rpm HDD?

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domi · #31 Post by **domi** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 5:40 am

bhtooefr wrote:That said, I've heard the stories about loud vibrations with 7200RPM drives in X31s and 32s. The secret, from what I've heard, is making sure it's mounted correctly.

Hmm, how can you *not* mount a drive correctly in a ThinkPad X? What I know is that using the same X, the same tray and the same screws, the Hitachi 7200 rpm vibrated (when on a hard surface) where as none of the several Toshiba's 5400 rpm I have did. Maybe I just had back luck with the one Hitachi 7200 rpm I had.

-Dominique

nolifer · #32 Post by **nolifer** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 5:43 am

Now vibrations worries me

More opinions from X31 /w 7K60 owners? And what about Hitachi 7K100 or Seagate 7200.1? Do they vibrate?!?

nolifer · #33 Post by **nolifer** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 6:49 am

http://koti.mbnet.fi/nolifer/Temp/80gb- ... -bench.gif

Here is my Seagate Momentus 80GB 5400rpm result.

Test program is http://www.geocities.com/andreigaceff/B ... hmark.html and it is freeware. You don't even have to install it, just unzip it.

If someone with X31 + 7200rpm HDD would post result.

bhtooefr · #34 Post by **bhtooefr** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 6:52 am

As I understand, it's an issue with a plastic piece not being mounted properly when the drive is reinstalled. It's not nearly as noticeable when it's a 4200 or 5400RPM drive, but a 7200RPM drive accentuates it a LOT.

stgreek · #35 Post by **stgreek** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 8:20 am

nolifer wrote:http://koti.mbnet.fi/nolifer/Temp/80gb- ... -bench.gif

Here is my Seagate Momentus 80GB 5400rpm result.

Test program is http://www.geocities.com/andreigaceff/B ... hmark.html and it is freeware. You don't even have to install it, just unzip it.

If someone with X31 + 7200rpm HDD would post result.

I get 36MB/sec on my X31 + 7200 HDD, but yours seems quite slow for a 5400 drive to be honest, I would expect a little over 30 MB/sec.

nolifer · #36 Post by **nolifer** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 8:52 am

stgreek wrote: I get 36MB/sec on my X31 + 7200 HDD, but yours seems quite slow for a 5400 drive to be honest, I would expect a little over 30 MB/sec.

Here is three runs in a row.

stgreek · #37 Post by **stgreek** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 8:55 am

This shows something is running in the background, as your values vary quite alot. In any case, a bit over 30MB/s is reasonable for 5400 and a bit over 35 for 7200 Travelstars.

nolifer · #38 Post by **nolifer** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 10:53 am

stgreek wrote:This shows something is running in the background, as your values vary quite alot. In any case, a bit over 30MB/s is reasonable for 5400 and a bit over 35 for 7200 Travelstars.

Here is after reboot.

mamamia · #39 Post by **mamamia** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 10:26 pm

nolifer wrote::D

Seagate Momentus 7200.1 (80 Gt, 7200 RPM) - 220 EUR
Hitachi TravelStar 7K100 (80 Gt, 7200 RPM) - 190 EUR

Which one you would buy?

travelstar is now 2nd gen. AND cheaper. (first gen was 7k60)

kadf88 · #40 Post by **kadf88** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 12:15 pm

I have 1.5 gig of RAM with a 1.5 ghz and a 7k60, the thing flies. I love it.

nolifer · #41 Post by **nolifer** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 12:29 pm

kadf88 wrote:I have 1.5 gig of RAM with a 1.5 ghz and a 7k60, the thing flies. I love it.

Sounds good

I sent e-mail to you.

verktyg · #42 Post by **verktyg** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 3:03 am

domi wrote:
nolifer wrote: I had a 60GB/7200rpm drive (Hitachi) in my X31 for a brief period of time. I found that it caused vibrations when the X31 was put on a hard surface (wooden desk). Nothing extreme, but definitely noticeable. I switched to a 60GB/5400 rpm drive (Toshiba) and the vibrations stopped. I find it fast enough for my needs. I have 2GB of RAM in my X31. If I were you, I'd stick with the 5400 rpm drive and invest in more RAM.

-Dominique

I had the exact opposite experience. I took a 7K60 out of my T20 and installed it in my X31. The X31 performance increase over the original IBM 40G HDD was amazing; boot time went from 60 seconds to 30 seconds and programs load faster.

The 7K60 works/worked smooth and quiet in both TPs. I have a Toshiba 5400 RPM HDD that I had in my X31 and put it in my T20. It's noisy and puts out a lot of vibration. Performance is about the same because the Toshiba has 16MB of cache.

HDD cache size affects performance more than RPM in the newer drives.

There is some sound deadening material in the HDD tray that needs to be in tight contact with the HDD in order to function. There is enough slop in the screw hole in the tray to allow a space under the HDD.

nolifer · #43 Post by **nolifer** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 8:43 am

[censored]... your opinions sounds very good

Maybe I should order more RAM and faster HDD.

Where should I order the HDD (in EU)?

nolifer · #44 Post by **nolifer** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 2:27 am

I've been monitoring my free ram couple days.

At the moment over 50% of my ram is free. So I think I'm going to order that 512MB stick and Hitachi 7K100 when it is available somewhere.

domi · #45 Post by **domi** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 2:43 am

nolifer wrote:So I think I'm going to order that 512MB stick and Hitachi 7K100 when it is available somewhere.

http://www.mbnet.fi/hintaseuranta/tuote.aspx/28280

nolifer · #46 Post by **nolifer** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 5:16 am

domi wrote:
nolifer wrote:So I think I'm going to order that 512MB stick and Hitachi 7K100 when it is available somewhere.
http://www.mbnet.fi/hintaseuranta/tuote.aspx/28280

Kyllä kyllä

Mut katoitko varastotilanteita

^ Some finnish

domi · #47 Post by **domi** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 5:40 am

nolifer wrote:Kyllä kyllä Mut katoitko varastotilanteita

Yes, and one of them (http://www.itwebbuy.net/i/97369/1.htm) claims the importer has 37 in stock and it takes them two week day to get the item. have you asked them if the info is correct?
-Dominique

nolifer · #48 Post by **nolifer** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 9:18 am

domi wrote: Yes, and one of them (http://www.itwebbuy.net/i/97369/1.htm) claims the importer has 37 in stock and it takes them two week day to get the item. have you asked them if the info is correct?
-Dominique

Sent mail to them...

domi · #49 Post by **domi** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 9:30 am

nolifer wrote:Sent mail to them...

Good luck! Anyway, methinks your money would be better spent increasing RAM from 512+256=768 to 512+1024=1536 rather than to 512+512=1024. I think the extra RAM (1536 vs. 1024) would have a stronger impact on perceived, real-life performance than the HDD speed increase from 5400 to 7200 rpm. But as always, YMMV, and it depends on the kind of things you're doing with your X31.
Terkkuja, Dominique

nolifer · #50 Post by **nolifer** » Sat Oct 01, 2005 2:35 pm

Ordered used 512MB stick, so next week I'm going to have 1024MB of RAM. And maybe I'll order that 7K100 if someone has it on stock..

beaker · #51 Post by **beaker** » Sat Oct 01, 2005 4:55 pm

If the data transfer rate is the same (ATA-100) for the both the Thinkpad HDD you have now and the 7K100, what is the benefit of buying it?

What is the benefit of a greater spindle speed (7200 RPM vs. 5400 RPM) when the data transfer rate is the same? Does it have something to do with the 7K100 supporting Ultra DMA mode 5 vs. the Thinkpad's Ultra DMA mode 2?

nolifer · #52 Post by **nolifer** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 2:07 am

beaker wrote:If the data transfer rate is the same (ATA-100) for the both the Thinkpad HDD you have now and the 7K100, what is the benefit of buying it?

What is the benefit of a greater spindle speed (7200 RPM vs. 5400 RPM) when the data transfer rate is the same? Does it have something to do with the 7K100 supporting Ultra DMA mode 5 vs. the Thinkpad's Ultra DMA mode 2?

Quite many of here says that when changing to 7200rpm HDD, the thinkpad is really faster...?!

stgreek · #53 Post by **stgreek** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 5:15 am

beaker wrote:If the data transfer rate is the same (ATA-100) for the both the Thinkpad HDD you have now and the 7K100, what is the benefit of buying it?

What is the benefit of a greater spindle speed (7200 RPM vs. 5400 RPM) when the data transfer rate is the same? Does it have something to do with the 7K100 supporting Ultra DMA mode 5 vs. the Thinkpad's Ultra DMA mode 2?

ATA-100 refers to the maximum data transfer rate. The real transfer rate is around 5MB/s faster for the 7200 drive. Also, the 7200 drive has a much faster seek time which helps alot in start-up of apps and in multimedia.

verktyg · #54 Post by **verktyg** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 6:18 am

stgreek wrote: ATA-100 refers to the maximum data transfer rate. The real transfer rate is around 5MB/s faster for the 7200 drive. Also, the 7200 drive has a much faster seek time which helps alot in start-up of apps and in multimedia.

Agreed. The seek time on these drives is a lot faster plus drives with a lot of on board cache (memory/buffer) respond better. Drives with 8MB of cache are a lot faster than those with only 2MB.

beaker · #55 Post by **beaker** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 7:35 am

I did some research and found that the biggest bottleneck in disk operations is the seek and latency times of the disk, i.e., the mechanical part of disk operations.

The ATA-100 interface is a constant in terms of time (100 MB/s). The time it takes to find something on the disk is reduced by how quick the disk spins to find the item being searched for, as well as the buffer cache. It is reducing this latency factor is what improves the Thinkpad's performance. This stuff is so interesting!

nolifer · #56 Post by **nolifer** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 7:39 am

So 7200rpm drives make thinkpads faster

nolifer · #57 Post by **nolifer** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 2:29 pm

Whats the difference between Hitachi 7K100 and E7K100??? The price is identical.

100GB model is E7K100 while 60GB and 80GB can be found as 7K100 and E7K100. At least from where I looked from.

nolifer · #58 Post by **nolifer** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 1:07 am

stgreek wrote: First of all, the E7K100 and E7K60 are destined for servers where you have continuous operation and as little spin-on and offs as possible, therefore you should avoid them. The 7K60 is the first generation 7200 drive from Hitachi, it is well-tested, reliable and fast. The 7k100 is the 2nd generation, and comes in 60GB, 80GB and 100GB models. It is supposed to be faster than 7k60 while using less power, which is a good thing.

nolifer · #59 Post by **nolifer** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 3:06 pm

Tomorrow it is time for 2nd 512MB stick.

Does anyone know what is the 7K100 drives' situation in alternate.de webstore? Is it in stock? They haven't answered my e-mail yet...

nolifer · #60 Post by **nolifer** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 1:26 pm

Both of those 7200rpm drives are very hard to get...

Alternate.de says that they need 2 tweeks to ship it to Finland.

Fastest CPU for X31? + more RAM + 7200rpm HDD?

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