Update 3: DEAD-NOW $179!
Update 2: I have personally confirmed with Dell in writing that this hard drive IS covered by a 1 year warranty. Additionally if you buy it with your Starwood AMEX credit card you will have 90 days to return it and you will have a full 2 year warranty!
Update: NOW EVEN HOTTER!
Price Drop-Now Just $116 from either Dell Home or Dell Small Business!
For those who have already ordered-call Dell up to receive a price adjustment!
Originally posted on 07/15
Last year I upgraded the supplied 40 GB 4,200 RPM(Rotations per minute) hard drive on my Dell 700m notebook to a 100 GB 7200 RPM hard drive.
Being the early adopter that I am I paid dearly for it at the time ($220 or so) but it was the best upgrade that I made on my laptop.
The performance boost from the 7,200 RPM hard drive was much more noticeable than from more RAM or a faster processor.
After the upgrade windows booted up in literally half the time, and programs opened up without any delays (e.g. before the upgrade firefox used to take a fair amount of time to open up, afterwards it didn’t take any time at all!)
At any rate Dell is now selling the 160GB 7,200 RPM drive for just $129, which is an unbeatable price.
The drive is manufactured by Seagate. (You can tell that it’s a Seagate by clicking on the picture of the hard drive to enlarge the image!)
Even though the links say that it’s for a “Latitude D820″ this will work fine in any notebook that takes standard 2.5″ SATA notebook hard drives.
This drive is available from Dell Home Outlet or Dell Small Business.
I would recommend buying from Dell Small Business, just in case Dell Home Outlet might send you a refurbished drive!
July 15, 2007 at 9:56 am
Dan, do you know if upgrades (like this HD) are covered by the laptop’s warantee?
July 15, 2007 at 12:14 pm
howdo i know what kind of hard drive i already have?
(Speed wise)
July 15, 2007 at 4:16 pm
Dan, for $20 more you can get a Seagate which you will be much happier with that uses the perpendicular technology. Much better stuff.
July 15, 2007 at 4:26 pm
Asher-Upgrades are not covered by the laptop’s warranty-you would have to ask Dell what is the warranty on this.
Anon 1-You might be able to figure it out by going to “Device Manager” in the My computer properties.
Otherwise the speed is written on the hard drive itself.
Anon 2-Do you have a link?
Can you explain the difference between this Seagate and the one that you refer to?
July 15, 2007 at 4:43 pm
Dan, here is the link about Perpendicular hard drive technology:
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/laptops/momentus/momentus_7200.2/
The thing about the hard drive that Dell is selling is that you have no clue what is actually is. No part number, no model number. Just a generic hard drive from Seagate. Not an informed purchase if you ask me.
July 15, 2007 at 4:56 pm
Anon, that’s where the power of deduction comes in handy.
We know that this is a Seagate 160GB 2.5″ SATA hard drive.
Seagate does not make a Momentus 7200.1 in the 160GB capacity.
AFAIK, the only hard drive that this can possibly be is the Momentus 7200.2 (Perpendicular hard drive)
If you can prove me wrong, or find a better price, please do so!
July 15, 2007 at 6:20 pm
Another thing, Dan, is you won’t get Seagate’s 5 year warranty when you buy the drive from Dell. Don’t know about you, but if it died 3 months after purchase and you don’t have a crappy Dell computer (I only use Macs…I have discriminating taste) then you’re out all the money and you now have a dead drive.
The extra $20 is much worth it.
July 15, 2007 at 7:11 pm
if i have a inspiron 6400 with samsung hm080hi ata device this is what samsung says on their website about my drive 80GB Formatted Capacity per disk
GMR head technology with wireless suspension design
Serial ATA II (1.5Gbps)
SATA Native Command Queuing Feature Set
Device initiated SATA power management
Fluid Dynamic Bearing Spindle Motor Technology
ATA Security Mode Feature Set
ATA SMART Feature Set
ATA Automatic Acoustic Management Feature Set
ATA Device configuration overlay Feature Set
Multi-Burst On-The-Fly Error Correction
Silent Seek™
Hybrid Latch System for Reliability and Quietness
would you upgrade it or leave it as is
July 15, 2007 at 8:03 pm
Where does it say that if you dont have a Dell computer that you dont get a warranty?
Anon-I believe it’s a worthwhile upgrade.
July 15, 2007 at 10:57 pm
He has “discriminating” taste.
Haha.
July 16, 2007 at 1:15 am
If the hard drive dies then the warranty on your Dell will cover the hard drive. Unless you don’t have a Dell. So, if you don’t have a Dell then don’t get this hard drive as if it dies then you’re out of luck. For $20 more you’re covered for 5 years. That’s worth it.
Anyhow, Macs last for years and years longer than Dell.
July 16, 2007 at 1:43 am
To all those considering moving to 160GB: In order to properly address these large drives, the BIOS must be able to support 48 bit logical block addresses. Most older (PATA) computers cannot do this! (they use 32 bit addressing) You must check that your computer will support this drive or else you will only be able to format the drive until 137GB.
July 16, 2007 at 2:28 am
Macs have no such limit. Another reason to use one.
July 16, 2007 at 3:12 pm
According to Wikipedia, with mac (HFS+ FileSystem) you DO have such a limitation. To be fair however, its up there in the TeraBytes.
At that note, Anonymous, you have yet to show links supporting any of your statements.
July 16, 2007 at 5:30 pm
Macs can run both Windows and Mac OS on them now, so I would they are good to use, but unless you are doing heavy design or publishing work and you just need a computer to H4X0R the government or something, you can just get any cheap PC.
So yeah, while they are *sort of* worth it, Macs are like 4 times the price of the standard PC and not necessary for the average Joe. Plus, anything that can be done on a Mac, AFAIK can be done on PC with the exception, of course, of Final Cut.
July 16, 2007 at 6:36 pm
So if you want a poorly built computer with an Operating System (Windows) that will sit on the internet and download spyware and viruses all day, then by all means get a Windows PC.
Macs are not 4x more expensive. That is simply untrue. They are perhaps $200-300 more expensive and you get what you pay for. A GREAT computer that can run both Mac and Windows (even at the same time!).
There is a reason why Walter Mossberg says if you have simple computing needs get a Mac and if you have complicated needs get a Mac.
Reasonable and intelligent people get Macs.
July 16, 2007 at 10:15 pm
other Anon:
not sure if you get a great deal on macs or if your math is just off but a 15 inch MBP starts at $2000 while a 15 inch Inspiron starts around $600. (I know a $600 Inspiron doesn’t even come close to a MBP, just doing the price comparison on 15 inch laptops.)
July 16, 2007 at 10:44 pm
“reasonable and intelligent people”…
Fanbois?
July 17, 2007 at 12:14 am
So you just compared two things which are completely incomparable. And you admitted it. But did it anyways.
Like the other guy said…reasonable and intelligent.
July 17, 2007 at 4:24 am
I have a HP pavilion… would this upgrade work?
July 19, 2007 at 9:20 pm
If you do not have a Dell then THERE IS NO WARRANTY ON THIS PRODUCT!!! Be warned!!!!
Spend the extra few bucks and buy the retail drive. You get a 5 year warranty.
July 20, 2007 at 1:30 am
i also have a HP pavilion, does anyone know if it will work?
July 20, 2007 at 1:35 am
I am quite bored of Apple v MS wars.
Each person has what they like. No need to call names…
Back to the topic at hand…is there a big diff betwwen 5400 and 7200? (RPMS) I got the 5400 is it worth the money to upgrade?
July 20, 2007 at 2:04 am
7200rpm is simply faster. The faster the seek time, the faster your computer. You choose.
July 20, 2007 at 2:34 am
annon at 615 hold it up yup made a big mistake if you look a mac book pro you need to cmpare to a dell xps but a basic mac book 13 in you sompare to the other dellls
July 20, 2007 at 8:01 pm
dead. now $179.