Several questions about my T21

[clayton.bigsby]

I have a 800MHz T21 (2647-4BU) with the latest BIOS 1.16. I would like to know,

1- would a Hitachi 7K100, say 100GB, be recognized automatically?

2- does it make sense to get a 7K100 or any other 7200rpm drive? Should I instead get a slower 5400rpm, but higher capacity drive?

3- for those who have upgraded their CPU to a 1GHz, were there any heat related issues? Was there any noticable difference in performance? Is this a worthy upgrade?

4- the concensus is to stay away from non-oem batteries, but has anyone have any luck with them at all?

Thanks in advance!

[tfflivemb2]

1. Yes, the 100gb drive should be recognized automatically, as long as the BIOS is the latest version, which yours is.

2. Many users here have 7200rpm drives, it is just a matter of cost.

3. If you upgrade to 1GHz, you might want to track down the T22 fan, which some say is more powerful and will help prevent any heat issues.

4. I have used Non-OEM and haven't had any problems, on a 600E....I have not done so on my T21.

[clayton.bigsby]

Thanks, tfflivemb2, for the response.

About the 7200rpm drives, I read that the 440bx chipset supports a slower ATA standard so I was wondering whether the T21 would take advantage of the faster drives. If it doesn't then I'm thinking I should spend the same amount of money on a slower but higher capacity drive. Ofcourse, it wouldn't hurt to the get the faster drive if cost wasn't an issue. I hope I'm not being too confusing. Thanks again.

[rkawakami]

2- does it make sense to get a 7K100 or any other 7200rpm drive? Should I instead get a slower 5400rpm, but higher capacity drive?

I think it all depends on how you use your system. If you are processing a large database or doing video editing then I would say, "yes" get a 7200RPM drive.

If you are not using any disk-intensive application, then I would opt for a large capacity drive. There's a computer law that says "Data always expands to fill any void".

From Intel's site: "In addition, the 440BX AGPset can interface with ATA/66 HDD in UDMA mode 2." So any drive that supports a higher transfer rate is going to be overkill. Additional info on the 440BX can be found here:

http://developer.intel.com/design/chipsets/440bx/

[dsvochak]

You might want to read this thread:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=21044

carbon_unit made an interesting comment:

One thing to consider is that when you do upgrade your laptop you can take a fast hard drive with you, but not the memory.

That's something worth considering even though I stand by my comments in the same thread.

I was wondering whether the T21 would take advantage of the faster drives.

Yes, a faster drive will produce somewhat faster performance but not to the extent that might be found in a machine with a faster BUS speed.