WD Scorpio Black or Blue??

allosunshine

allosunshine

allosunshine

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My HP laptop currently has a Samsung 5400rpm HDD but has space for another HDD and have noticed these Scorpios.
I know that the Blue drives are 5400rpm drives with 8mb cache but would I notice much difference by adding a Black drive or replacing the Samsung with 2 of the Black drives??

Thanks.
 
I would replace the toshiba with the scorpio black 320GB (this week only special), it will be quite a bit faster I am sure and the 16MB cache always comes in handy ;)
 
A 7,200RPM will increase disk performance, meaning you should see lower boot times and less delay in applications and files opening. That said, the side-effect is more heat and power consumption, so battery life is going to be reduced.
 
Just spoke to HP and they say that my notebook doesn't support 7200rpm spindle speed HDD's so I'm stuck with the 5400rpm as choice.
Whats the best way to run 2 of them, should I run them as RAID 0 or as 2 independant drives?? I'm not worried about RAID 1 as I back everything up to external drives anyway.
 
Doesn't support 7200rpm speed drives, wtf. What laptop do you have? Is it an old one, that uses PATA hard drives (as there are not any 2.5" 7200 PATA drives IIRC).
 
Manu prob claims that as disclaimer as they can can hotter. ;)

Go for it, its the fastest single change you can make that will make a big difference (OK Memory can do same) but a HDD is the bottleneck.
 
fobose said:
Doesn't support 7200rpm speed drives
Click to expand...
Heat dissipation. 7200rpm drives run hotter than their 5400rpm counterparts, so it may be a genuine problem.

My laptop (Dell, 7200rpm drive) runs OK but put the drive under stress and it does warm up noticeably. The performance gain is certainly worth it if the laptop can handle the heat. If you have an nVidia graphics card in there, you might want to think carefully.
 
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I have a HP DV1000EA. Manual can be found here (page 3) if anyone is interested. I must admit, weird thing is that it does mention a 7200rpm drive but only using a 160GB drive on its own or with another.
 
Right I've been speaking to HP some more and this was they're last reply:

Question:
So my notebook may well be able to work with higher capacity 7200rpm drives,
it's just that HP hasn't tested with a higher capacity 7200rpm drive?? I was
told adding my own drives wouldn't invalidate the warranty but adding a
drive not on the list on Page 56, would that invalidate the warranty??

Answer:
I would like to inform you that you may upgrade the Notebook with either a 160 GB or a 320 GB hard disk drive with 5400rpm specifications. It is recommended that the upgrading or the additional hard drive meets the same specifications of the one which is already installed on your Notebook.
Thus, upgrading a Notebook with the one which has 7200rpm in its specifications may result in a major hardware issues. Also, the warranty will not be void, if the Notebook is upgraded according to the recommended specifications.

So do I go ahead and get the Scorpio Black and risk invalidating my warrantyor play it safe and just RAID 2 Scorpio Blues??
 
How are they going to know the HDD broke it if it breaks? Just swap them back!

Also, please post the results to enlighten the rest of us.

Don't tell HP though. ;)
 
Monkeynut said:
How are they going to know the HDD broke it if it breaks? Just swap them back!

Also, please post the results to enlighten the rest of us.

Don't tell HP though. ;)
Click to expand...

True.

Before I do has anyone else put a 7200rpm drive or two into their laptop??
How badly does it affect battery life and how much more heat does it produce??
 
Like I hinted at, the issue isn't necessarily with the drive itself, but with thermal effects that may result. If the laptop is pretty close to the thermal limits already then the extra heat might push it over the edge.

This has happened before with generic brands that couldn't even cope with running the CPU at 100%. I certainly wouldn't expect this from HP though, but then I wouldn't have expected nVidia to foul up to the point that their laptop chips are prone to dying from heatstroke.

You should be able to tell if you're likely to have a problem. If the laptop is hot to the touch, think carefully. If not, you're probably OK.
 
allosunshine said:
Will give that a go.

By the way is there any good guides on moving/cloning from a single drive to a RAID 0??
Click to expand...

Shouldn't need a guide, simply use the correct version of Acronis True Image and it handles single HDD to RAID 0 Imaging.

Remember Raid is done at a hardware level before Windows is even installed so to any APP's inc Windows the HDD is 1 not 2. :)
 
You cant do that, RAID has to be set up 1st.

I guess you have a old HDD now called HDD0 and 2 new HDD's called HDD1 and HDD2.


1) Grab and install right now the Raid Drivers needed for your Mobo even though this OLD HDD0 is not running RAID (or you WILL NOT be able to boot PC later).

2) You will need unplug the HDD0 from Sata Port 1 and MOVE it to Sata Port 3 and put the HDD1 and HDD2 on SATA Ports 1 and 2 and set those Sata Ports in your Bios to RAID MODE.

3) Boot PC till you see SATA Bios and ENTER IT (it tells you on screen what keys to press), set up RAID0 and pick a Stripe size (I would use 32KB for allround use), Save and Exit all the way out of Menu's.

4) Then as PC reboots to Bios screen once again, press F8 and choose which HDD to boot from and choose your OLD HDD on Sata Port 3 (it should have a Name or Model you will recognize).

5) When PC is up and running, run Acronis True Image and Image the OLD HDD to the NEW HDD (it will appear as 1 HDD only), once done follow instructions and hopefully once you remove old HDD the Raid Drivers will allow you new Raid set up to Boot.
 
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