Laptop HD Question

I have been shopping for a laptop the last two weeks. I have looked at a lot of them. Even the expensive ones only have a 5400 rpm HD. Why don't laptops come with a faster HD?

bigmck said:

I have been shopping for a laptop the last two weeks. I have looked at a lot of them. Even the expensive ones only have a 5400 rpm HD. Why don't laptops come with a faster HD?

If you look around, there is 7200RPM and SSD upgrades available on certain laptops. Mostly they are through the manufacturer's websites though that way, but I do know Sam's Club right now has a few 7200 RPM laptops available.

tlarseth said:

bigmck said:

I have been shopping for a laptop the last two weeks. I have looked at a lot of them. Even the expensive ones only have a 5400 rpm HD. Why don't laptops come with a faster HD?

If you look around, there is 7200RPM and SSD upgrades available on certain laptops. Mostly they are through the manufacturer's websites though that way, but I do know Sam's Club right now has a few 7200 RPM laptops available.

Yep thats right mate if the warranty lets you I personally would stick in the SSD and keep the old drive in an enclosure for an external device.

Win win cs the external doesn't have to be that fast eh?

If possible, I would recommend getting a laptop that allows two drives, use the SSD for windows, and the ATA drive for programs and games.

tlarseth said:

If possible, I would recommend getting a laptop that allows two drives, use the SSD for windows, and the ATA drive for programs and games.

Yep mate that is just what I would do as my post above:)

Actually I think you will find a fair few of the Toshiba's although I don't like them have that ability.

DeaconFrost said:

Adding two drives will have an impact in battery life, and also force you to have a larger laptop.

That being said, the 5400 drives are common for laptops for two reasons, less heat and less power draw than a 7200 rpm. The trade off is, the performance dips a little, but not much. However, with an SSD, you have a low power draw, no additional heat, and performance that no spinner drive can touch.

True Deacon I suppose the power settings could lowered a tad though but like you said the SSD is going to knock seven bales of err something off the HDD's.


I still think it would be better just jamming in an SSD and keeping the original for data (external). Though thinking about it would there be enough power from a USB connection to drive the original HDD? Suppose there must be unless the prebuilt externals have a low power HDD in them?