New Hard Drive

I'm hoping someone might be able to point me in the right direction here!

I have an (old!) Celeron 400 laptop which is getting slower and noisier as the days go by. I can't afford a new PC yet, so was looking at ways to upgrade/improve performance.

At the weekend, I wiped the hard drive and re-installed only the essential software. That has been a big improvement, but I want more

I'm now thinking, would I see a big improvement if I bought a new (more modern!) hard drive to replace the 6gig drive that I have now (which is very noisy) ? I don't need a lot of space, so a cheap 10/20gig drive would suit me fine, but would it be faster ?

Also, I have a slot free for extra RAM. In the past, I've added extra RAM to desktop PCs and only noticed a marginal difference, so would an increase from 64Mb to 128Mb give me a big improvement (I'm now running Windows 98SE again after I decided Windows ME was slowing things down even further!

Cheers.

 

first get as many servis packs and updates for the windows as possible.

in your situation upping it to 128 would be good but there is no point in going higher as win98 only uses 128mb properly.

if the hd is getting old you may see some improvment from upgrading.

on other this is there are many OS tweek guides on teh internet for improving the speed of systems and windows does a lot of things that are not required.

here is a good site to get you started on that:
http://www.techspot.com/guides-os.shtml

 

I dont know where you heard that, but thats not true. Windows 98 can and does take advantage of up to 1Gb of RAM iirc, although its pointless to go that high with it, you would still see a benefit from using anywhere up to 512Mb IMO. Windows 98 like other 9x operating systems still use "base" memory of 640K, this is reserved for special processes and is rarely used, but when that memory falls to low levels, you will encounter performance drops and / or instability, regardless of how much RAM is present in the machine.

This is why NT based operating systems are much better, as they do away with this ancient way of working, and can take advantage of up to 4Gb of memory.

 

if its a laptop you may have a problem getting add ons especially cheaply,desktop hard drives are 3.5" were as lappys are genraly 2.5" or even some strange size/shape that olny one manufacter uses,they may use a combined ide and power lead(adaptors are avaliable)Also the memory maybe model specific

 

To upgrade a laptop hard drive any standard 2.5" one with an EDIE interface will work provided you have the existing cradle that comes with the laptop. I've changed laptop hard drives before, it is easy to do but can be fidely depending on the make and model.

 

Mine is a crappy generic Advent laptop. I know it takes 2.5" drives and is currently using an IBM drive IIRC. I had a look on Ebuyer though and prices don't seem too bad (I would probably get Seagate or something since AFAIK they are fairly decent and reliable). Will have a check tonight about the cables.

It's still under warranty - if that makes any difference, although I very much doubt those cretins at PC world would "allow" me a new hard drive.

 

Yaay SEAGATE!!!

You know it makes sense

Momentus 20Gb - 5400rpm SPEED PERFORMANCE with 4200rpm BATTERY PERFORMANCE.

Fluid dynamic bearing.

Quiet ramp load technology.

lovely.

cheers //lamboy

 

You dont work for Seagate by any chance do ya?

 

I've been looking for a new HDD too (see the computer dying thread), and someone in work mentioned www.overclockers.co.uk to me. Their prices seem very good! I compared a few drives to PC World, and where PCW were charging £100, OC were charging about £50!!!

Looks like about £50 gets an 80GB drive

 

80 GB IBM/Hitachi 180GXP 7200rpm 2MB cache IDE ATA100 £37.50 + vat
and for the laptop:
20 GB Hitachi 2.5 inch 4200rpm ATA100 £59.00 + vat

oh, sorry, not seagate:
20 GB Seagate 2.5 inch 5400rpm ATA100 £61.00 + vat
80 GB Seagate 7200rpm 2MB cache IDE ATA100 £40.00 + vat

 

That's the one I was looking at. Much bigger cache too (which I'm assuming would help performance). I only have 640k at the moment

Are Hitachi drives any good ? If not, I'd rather go for the Seagate which is a similar price.

 

I wont diss any competitors drives, but for your choice the Seagate would give the best speed bump.

cheers //craig

 

And can you get a discount Craig?

The prices on thie www.overclockers.co.uk seem reasonable. Well, compared to what I was expecting anyhow. Any other suggestions on where to look?

Also, I'm not really sure what the difference between IDE and SATA drives are? Is it just a different method of connection? I think I've only got IDE but will eventualy be replacing everything bit by bit, so would imagine a new MOtherboard will take either. I think I noticed some convertors too. Is there benefits in getting a SATA drive (using a convertor for now)?

Does the rest of the system spec effect what drive I can put in?

Cheers

MO

 

Sorry MO, no discounts

IDE v SATA

simply IDE is the very old parallel interface (25ish years old IIRC) - SATA is the all singing all dancing new technology with slim wires and a more robust protocol.

Do you need SATA?
The jury is out on this. You will need a new motherboard (Intel ICH5 or better).

Forget about bridged solutions, they are a bunch of toss.

IMO - If you are getting a new motherboard, then upgrade the drive to sata, just make sure your mtherboard supports true 150 speeds (first gen of sata m/bs were still 133).

hth //lamboy

 

batfink - get the seagate - its in another league compared to that hitachi. In fact they should be offering you a higher spec hitachi model than that against the seagate.

Take advantage and go Seagate.

hth //lamboy

 

Hi again.

When you refer to "bridged solutions" is that meaning what I said about using some sort of adaptor?

The hard drive is a deffo and will be bought on pay day I imagine. The rest of it will be further down the line though. SO i'm confused what to do as you say to go for SATA, (which would mean an adaptor for now until a new MB which supports it), but if "bridged solutions" refers to adaptor like I assume it does, then you say they're pants.

 

To be pedantic lamboy, SATA is IDE so it's not IDE vs. SATA but ATA vs SATA

SATA being Serial ATA....although I can't remember what the ATA bit stands for :shame:

I just bought a new ATA drive as my motherboard doesn't support SATA. Personally I can't really see what the fuss is about. It's not like it's a quantum leap in performance and with today's "round" ribbon cables even the parallel cables aren't as much of a pain as they used to be.

One question I've always had: all the new interfaces (USB, SATA etc) are all serial, but surely a parallel interface (lots more wires, many bits at a time instead of one at a time of serial) has the capability to be much faster than any serial interface?

Michael.

 

I sucumb to said pedantic point - one which was well made btw.

For ATA read 'Advanced Technology Attachment' - this is the industry standard term, IDE (coined by Western Digital many moons ago IIRC) 'Integrated Drive Electronics' is used by many.

OK, on to the SATA masterclass......Why SATA? I hear you scream. We already have bunched up PATA cables (parallel ata).
And PATA has lots more wires so should be quicker.

Here are a few pointers - any questions, please ask

~~ SATA has speed advances over PATA, current speed spec is 150MB/s, next speed bump will be 300MB/s (this will be when SATA2 is realised), The plan is to follow this with a 600MB/s version. This may support 10 years of advancement! - PATA is struggling at todays speeds.

~~ Parallel interfaces have to deal with issues of crosstalk and noise - these have to be dealt with by the communications protocol - this requires extra overhead which takes up valuable space for data. Parallel also needs more complex processing to 'order the bits' so to speak. Serial comms is much simpler and with todays processing speeds it is possible to be quicker than PATA, have better data integrity and implement more advanced options.

~~ SATA cables are much simpler and can be longer than todays pata cables. They allow for better shielding and better airflow through the system.

~~ Currently, drives operate at 5v and 12v - in the future this could change for lower voltages - the sata power connector will support these if and when it happens.

~~ Serial ATA supports all ATA and ATAPI devices, including CDs, DVDs, tapes devices, high capacity removeable devices, zip drives, and CDRW's. - Thats right, you heard it here first - Your CD, SACD, DVDV, DVDA transports will eventaully be SATA!!!!

The motherboard architecture is changed for true sata support (allowing for faster bus speeds for the drive to hang off) - so using an old board with an adaptor restricts you to a 133MHz bus. IMO the intel ICH5 chipset boards are good. - So, I would save your money until you could afford the board and the drive - by this time you will get more capacity for your money. And dont forget, sata is still fairly new - it can pay for the technology to mature a little before you dive into it

HTH //lamboy

 

If anyone is still after a new hard drive, PC world are selling 200 Gigabyte Western Digital drives for £110, seems like a decent enough deal to me.

 

Note. If you are dishonest, which you are not You might do this.

Extract the hard drive from the machine, which is quite easy to do.

Wrap it in a thin towel, a tea towel or something. Find a nice solid paving flag.

Bang repeatedly until it rattles badly when shaken.

Replace in laptop. Return to pc world for warranty repair.

Of course hard disks being mechanical can suffer failure at any time.