I got a Hard drive & Other Questions for new X61s

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red bioroid · #1 Post by **red bioroid** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 3:41 pm

Hi Everyone:

I'm thinking of seriously upgrading to a new X61s from my x40 for the big reason that I need a SATA hard drive with massive capacity to run my growing applications and multimedia files. x61s specification I'm getting is L7700 cpu, 2GB RAM, Windows XP Pro, 4cell slim battery, Ultralight XGA, fingerprint. Centrino pro NIc, basic 1 year warranty...

Questions?

1. I currently have a Hitachi 60GB in my X40(2 years running like at day 1) and it makes moderate amount of clicking noise that is noticeable. For my SATA hard drive, I'm thinking of going again with Hitachi brand(due to reliability) and will get the 5400rpm Travelstar 5K250 250GB size myself to install. I don't want this to be a hit our missed with the clicking noise so let me know if there is another decent brand(i.e. Toshiba or Seagate) that will due the trick and probably provide more hard drive capacity. I'm concern about noise here most of all.

2. Based on my current configuration and your experience with the x61s, does it eat up a lot of battery power? How much battery time are you getting?

3. Any dead pixel will not be acceptable .

4. Any thing else I need to watch out for when buying this model; warranty, dead pixels, support, reliability etc...
_________________
Dec 2005=Thinkpad X40; perfect, but bigger than 240x.
Jan 2005=Thinkpad 240x; used; fast but dead pixels doomed it.
2003=Thinkpad 240; used,
1998=new Toshiba Tecra 740CDT. Pricey, heavy & last 5 year.
1993=Avery 2 inch notebook

j-dawg · #2 Post by **j-dawg** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 12:26 am

Seagate has a reputation for quiet hard drives in desktops. I do not know if this also applies to their smaller offerings, but I'm sure there's some correlation.

If you sacrifice some capacity, you can go for a quieter, cheaper, cooler, and less power-hungry hard drive with one platter. This will not be good for your media storage problems, as capacity is diminished, but seeing as how such media is mostly used at home and not on the road, 500GB external hard drives are easily had for ~$100 and will store more than will any 2.5" internal drive. 250GB portable drives are also available for similar prices, in case you want to take your stuff on the road with you.

Of course, all that is assuming you want to go single-platter drive, which won't let you have all your media with you at all times. But you might find it worth it.

gunston · #3 Post by **gunston** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 5:02 am

To answer your question:

2. X61s can last for around ~6hrs with 8cells battery with moderate usage.

3. Dead pixel is rarely appear in XGA screen, unless you are going to get SXGA+ option offered by X61t

4. It is always recommended to extend your warranty to 3yrs under full parts and labour coverage by Lenovo.

Brad · #4 Post by **Brad** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 5:22 am

If it were my configuration I would get the smallest hard drive and memory and then upgrade once you get your X61s. You are paying a premium for the processor so once you get your ThinkPad upgrade to a fast 200gb 7K200 Hitachi drive and 4gb's of memory.
You probably won't be paying that much more considering current memory and hard drive prices.

Brad

red bioroid · #5 Post by **red bioroid** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 2:34 pm

Hi Brad\All:

If I get the 1GB RAM one piece , then are you saying I can upgrade the memory separately. Since I'm staying with Windows XP Pro, and it can only address up to 3 or 4GB of RAM. To get an additional 2GB RAM, What reliable brand, how much?

What is the difference between warranty service upgradw vs protection service? I just need it to cover the hardware. My thinkpad x40 has been running trouble free for 26 months now.

And yes, I'm doing the hard drive upgrade myself.

Also is there a power saving diference between getting the L7500 vs the L7700??. When I'm in battery mode which is 20% of the time, I use the lowest CPU power setting and other device low settings anyways...

EOMtp · #6 Post by **EOMtp** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 4:38 pm

red bioroid wrote:1) To get an additional 2GB RAM, What reliable brand ... ? ...
2) Also is there a power saving diference between getting the L7500 vs the L7700??

Short version:
1) Buy the least expensive memory that fits.
2) No.

Long version:
Please see Short Version.

Take Brad's advice and get a 200gb 7K200 Hitachi. After a short and long version of that discussion (see several threads on this forum), the answer will still be the 7K200.

rckrchrdsn · #7 Post by **rckrchrdsn** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 5:17 pm

I use Samsung drives when I want a quiet drive. I have eight of then in my two desktops in raids. I have to look at the lights to see if they are active. I live in a Insulated Concrete Forms house which is 60% quieter than the quietest stick-built house so I could hear my old desktops. I followed the Quiet Desktop Project and they had selected Samsungs. The project actually selected laptop drives as the ultimately quiet drives, and those turned out to be Samsungs, too. The quietest were the laptop Samsungs with the Hitachi's not too far behind. Both are reliable in their group.

As far as prioritization, getting the largest drives, to me, are not as important as a quiet drive on a laptop. If the drive puts out too much noise, you will spend FAR more time wishing it would shut up, than you will sit there wishing for more space. Besides the bigger drive is just around the corner and getting cheaper. That comes from a person who has to run VM's to do development, so I know space crunches.

red bioroid · #8 Post by **red bioroid** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 5:42 pm

(got the point on the RAM and CPU issues, and I might be going to Windows Vista Ultimate 64)
It's seems the 200GB Hitachi is quieter than the 250GB version. Yes, quietness is a big point for me however space is critical as well.

What do you guys think about the Western Digital Scorpio 320GB hard drive? From the reviews I'm reading online, a majority of users have said it to be very quiet, and the clicking sounds is not there? But I'm not sure about WD reliability, heat dissipation and safety features as I've never used their laptop brands compared to the Hitachi .? If the quietness and heat dissipation are on par with the 200GB WD, I'm tempted to get this instead.

Inputs...

EOMtp · #9 Post by **EOMtp** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 6:07 pm

red bioroid wrote:It's seems the 200GB Hitachi is quieter than the 250GB version. Yes, quietness is a big point for me however space is critical as well.

Well, in that case, let me give you a "heads up" so that you are not disappointed later. The quietness issue you will have is not with any of the hard drives -- not in the face of the fan on the X61s running virtually all the time.

If you want quiet, then find an X60s. The fan hardly turns on, and is extremely quiet the little it runs. Quiet matters a lot to me also, and that's the reason I never pick up and use an X61s if I have the option of picking up and using and X60s.

Sorry to be the bearer of "bad news", but I have not found any way to compensate for the annoying fan on the X61s compared to the total quiet of the X60s. Others may suggest that you mitigate the fan's activity with software, but that does not change the reality that the fan is running for a good reason, i.e., the X61s runs hotter than the X60s even when the machine is idle, and consequently needs to have the fan running all the time.

rckrchrdsn · #10 Post by **rckrchrdsn** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 7:13 pm

Thanks, EOMtp. I was looking for a machine for my wife. She likes quiet, so I guess I go looking for an X60s.

awolfe63 · #11 Post by **awolfe63** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 7:14 pm

What he said.

The fan is by far the dominant noise for the X61s.

immaculate · #12 Post by **immaculate** » Sun Feb 10, 2008 1:43 am

i upgraded from an X40 to an X61s. i still use both regularly. here are some thoughts.

my X61s is a CTO model - i got the Hitachi 7200rpm 100gig drive, bluetooth, 802n, Ultralight screen, fingerprint reader, turbo memory,3 3yr warranty, etc. i purchased the system with 1gb of RAM and upgraded to 3gb myself.

using the slim 4cell with moderate usage (and my Verizon EVDO card), i can get almost 2 hours runtime. i hear that battery life with the 8cell is significantly longer.

my machine runs very hot at the palmrests. the fan also runs quite a bit louder than the X40's. however, the Hitachi is very quiet on mine.

hope this helps a bit

aaron

ducky2802 · #13 Post by **ducky2802** » Sun Feb 10, 2008 4:22 am

I have a factory hitachi drive, brand new 5400 (I forget the model), and it is by far the loudest hdd I have used...I couldnt use it in quiet areas at all. I swapped it out with my t60 oem fujistu drive and that thing is very quiet. I highly recommend seagate drives, which are fairly quiet and fast.

red bioroid · #14 Post by **red bioroid** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 4:34 pm

The issue of the x61s being not quiet is a surprise for me. Also, I still don't have any input on the WD Scorpio hd, maybe that is a separate post.

More feedback on the x61s noise level from the cpu fanwould be appreciated.

I got a Hard drive & Other Questions for new X61s

I got a Hard drive & Other Questions for new X61s

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