WD Black Scorpio 320Gb - with or without free fall sensor?

[steyoung]

I just bought a T60 2623-D6U, with 2.5Gb ram, 1400x1050, plus windows 7 with disk and key for $266 which I think is a good deal. I have a T40p which is dying a slow death with a variety of things starting to fail and I like the form factor so much I replaced it with the T60 which brings me up to date a little...

The T60 still has the stock 80Gb 5400rpm hard drive in it so I'm looking to put a 320Gb @7200rpm to give it some extra space and pep. I looked through the forum for advice and the WD Black Scorpio seems to come out with good mentions. I was looking for speed, quiet, low heat, and size (in that order).

My question is should I get the version with the free fall sensor or not? Newegg has them both. The one without for $74.99 and the one with the sensor for $84.99.

Any thoughts?

Thanks, Steve

[craigmontHunter]

Welcome to the forum.

Active protection should protect it just as well as the free fall sensor, so I personally would not bother, I don't know the specifics on reaction times.

Jack

[steyoung]

Thanks. My T40 doesn't have active protection but I checked and the T60 does. IBM/Lenovo has drivers for windows 7 so I think I'll save myself $10 and get the regular drive.

[RealBlackStuff]

There have been a few negative remarks about the WD Scorpio black, specifically that it literally has bad vibrations.
My advice: get the Scorpio Blue (5400rpm) instead, the performance difference with 7200rpm is only minimal.
Plus you save $15.- and there is less drain on your battery!

[steyoung]

I tend not to use my laptop with only battery - I have a desktop system I use in my home office most of the day and I have my T40p sitting next to my living room chair always plugged in which I use in the evening and first thing in the morning during coffee when I catch up on email, news, etc. I've done it this way for years and, even if it isn't the best strategy for long term battery life, that's kinda what I'm now used to doing... lol

I would be worried about vibration and noise. I have my heart set on a 7200rpm drive to try to squeeze maximum performance out of the system. Any other thoughts on a replacement drive if the Black isn't suitable?

Thanks, Steve

[ThinkPadophile]

I have a 320GB WD Scorpio Black on my T60p and have not experienced any problems with it whatsoever. Others, however, have complained about vibration, etc.

I don't think you need the model with the free fall sensor since your T60 comes equipped with its own sensor on the motherboard.

[mpcook]

I have one and it vibrates so much, I had to remove it from an X60T and I only use it as en external drive now. YMMV.

Mike

[steyoung]

It sounds like WD has quality control issue with these Scorpio Black drives.

Now where did I put that coin...

[steyoung]

ok, given the even split between folks who are happy with the wd black and those that had problems, I flipped the coin (literally) and bought the Scorpio Black 320gb. I went with Amazon instead of Egg as I they had it for the same price but I have Amazon Prime and get free 2 day shipping.

I installed it yesterday after cloning it with Acronis. It span up great, is not noisy, doesn't vibrate and really does add a lot of pep to the system - phew!

fwiw - My windows performance score for disk data transfer rate went from 4.6 to 5.9.

So I've now had the T60 for 5 days. Before that, I had a T40p for 7 years. I really enjoyed the old machine but this new one (for me) is so much better. It's faster, quieter, tighter (hinges) and W7 is supported. I had W7 on the T40p but I had issues with the video driver which caused it to crash on occasion.

So I'm happy. Thanks for the thoughts and advice... This forum is great. Maybe in the future I'll upgrade the processor from a T2400 to a T7200.