Low power/heat laptop HD?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Neil Maxwell
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Neil Maxwell

I've got an old Dell 5000e that I'm trying to squeeze another year of
life out of. I replaced the old 4200 rpm HD with a Seagate Momentus
40G 5400 rpm a year ago, which failed and was replace with a Toshiba
40G 5400 rpm drive a few months back, which then failed and was
replaced with the warranty Seagate replacement.

It looks like the Dell is having trouble handling the extra heat from
these HDs (I keep the cooling fan and vents clean), so I'm looking for
a lower-power HD to stick in there and see if it helps.

I imagine any 4200 rpm drive would help, but is there a particularly
low-power and reliable laptop HD?
 
Neil Maxwell said:
I've got an old Dell 5000e that I'm trying to squeeze another year of
life out of. I replaced the old 4200 rpm HD with a Seagate Momentus
40G 5400 rpm a year ago, which failed and was replace with a Toshiba
40G 5400 rpm drive a few months back, which then failed and was
replaced with the warranty Seagate replacement.
Click to expand...
It looks like the Dell is having trouble handling the extra heat from these
HDs
Click to expand...

Yeah, lousy design, they run the hard drives right on
the edge of what the hard drive manufacturer allows
with the low end Dell craptops, and that kills drives.
(I keep the cooling fan and vents clean), so I'm looking
for a lower-power HD to stick in there and see if it helps.
Click to expand...

It doesnt really, the problem is that they still get very hot.
I imagine any 4200 rpm drive would help, but is there
a particularly low-power and reliable laptop HD?
Click to expand...

They all get much too hot.
 
Previously Neil Maxwell said:
I've got an old Dell 5000e that I'm trying to squeeze another year of
life out of. I replaced the old 4200 rpm HD with a Seagate Momentus
40G 5400 rpm a year ago, which failed and was replace with a Toshiba
40G 5400 rpm drive a few months back, which then failed and was
replaced with the warranty Seagate replacement.
Click to expand...
It looks like the Dell is having trouble handling the extra heat from
these HDs (I keep the cooling fan and vents clean), so I'm looking for
a lower-power HD to stick in there and see if it helps.
Click to expand...
I imagine any 4200 rpm drive would help, but is there a particularly
low-power and reliable laptop HD?
Click to expand...

When looking the last timne I noticed that Seagate had paricular
high power consumption, both active and idle. I use a Fujitsu
5400rpm disk whixh is much better, both from the specs as in
practice. The relevant numbers in the disk manual/data sheet
are power consumption idle and active (or r/w or the like).

Arno
 
When looking the last timne I noticed that Seagate had paricular
high power consumption, both active and idle. I use a Fujitsu
5400rpm disk whixh is much better, both from the specs as in
practice. The relevant numbers in the disk manual/data sheet
are power consumption idle and active (or r/w or the like).
Click to expand...

Here is a recoent comparison also including power figures.
Seems Fujitsu is not that good today:

http://storagereview.com/articles/200511/notebook_1.html

Arno
 
Yeah, lousy design, they run the hard drives right on
the edge of what the hard drive manufacturer allows
with the low end Dell craptops, and that kills drives.
Click to expand...

This was actually a mid-end laptop in its day (ran about $2500 back in
2000). The original 12G 4200 rpm drive held up very well for 4 years,
and is still in the good parts drawer - it just wasn't big enough.

Everything's been running a good bit hotter and a bit more unstable,
including the PCMCIA cards, since moving up to the bigger 5400 rpm
drives. It looks like the extra power pushed it over the edge.
 
This was actually a mid-end laptop in
its day (ran about $2500 back in 2000).
Click to expand...

Pretty sure those ran the hard drive much too hot too.

Trivial to test, use everest.
The original 12G 4200 rpm drive held up very well for 4 years,
and is still in the good parts drawer - it just wasn't big enough.
Click to expand...
Everything's been running a good bit hotter and a bit more unstable,
including the PCMCIA cards, since moving up to the bigger 5400
rpm drives. It looks like the extra power pushed it over the edge.
Click to expand...

Or it was always a very marginal design heat wise.
 
Neil Maxwell said:
I've got an old Dell 5000e that I'm trying to squeeze another year of
life out of. I replaced the old 4200 rpm HD with a Seagate Momentus
40G 5400 rpm a year ago, which failed and was replace with a Toshiba
40G 5400 rpm drive a few months back, which then failed and was
replaced with the warranty Seagate replacement.

It looks like the Dell is having trouble handling the extra heat from
these HDs (I keep the cooling fan and vents clean), so I'm looking for
a lower-power HD to stick in there and see if it helps.

I imagine any 4200 rpm drive would help, but is there a particularly
low-power and reliable laptop HD?
Click to expand...

Try a 4200rpm Hitachi Travelstar. PriceGrabber still lists several in
the 30GB to 60GB range for less than $70.
 
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