Need advice on laptop HDD

[JunkBear]

Hi fellowship of the TPU.

I have an older laptop Dell Inspiron N5030 that I just want to upgrade on a budget to save money instead of buying a newer one.

I will order a cpu from ebay to max it out but I want to order on newegg a sata mechanical hard disk. I wont necessary go for the performance but i want to go for the storage. I dont have the budget to go for a SSd since they are expensive as soon asyou go for more storage.


Should I go for WD, Seagate, Samsung, HGST (WD brand), any other brand ????


First look I could go with this one but its a 5200rpm but got lot of cache and its a 1gig....sale also.

https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16822179108


Thank you !

 

[FreedomEclipse]

have a look at TPU's classifieds for an SSD. With that said. Its not really worth upgrading...

Its terrible as a gaming machine and for word processing and internets, more ram and an SSD would benefit greatly.

Any cheap SSD will do as the laptop will probably only support Sata II speeds.

Forget about that CPU upgrade

 

[JunkBear]

have a look at TPU's classifieds for an SSD. With that said. Its not really worth upgrading...

Its terrible as a gaming machine and for word processing and internets, more ram and an SSD would benefit greatly.

Any cheap SSD will do as the laptop will probably only support Sata II speeds.
Forget about that CPU upgrade

I did not intend to do gaming at all. Its a laptop to contain lot of data. CPU upgrade is 10$ shipping included. I want to buy new the hdd and not from someone. As I said its not about the speed, neither gaming, neither performances. I have 100$ for total upgrade so its an hdd and a cpu at 10$. Now what HDD brand should I go with for reliability?

Thank you

 

[FreedomEclipse]

any toshiba or WD drive then that fits within your budget. Samsung dont make Hard drives anymore, they sold off that division to Seagate. Just slap a WD Caviar blue in there or Black if your budget allows for 7200rpm vs 5400

 

[jboydgolfer]

I read through your first post and what I'm gonna do is make a suggestion based on my past experience with "breathing new life" into older laptop's.

The best and most noticeable changes in my experience that will show up most in day-to-day use are...

SSD
RAM
CPU

I see that you've mentioned that solid-state drives are not an option because you're looking to acquire a sizable quantity of storage. If that's the case I would recommend something with 7200 RPM's, I'm sure you can get a terabyte for less than $50 if you look for used or sales . But back to the subject of solid-state drive. Even if you could only get 120 GB drive they go for as low as $40-$50 you would get a huge jump in responsiveness and and a shot of new life for that older laptop. I don't know if you have expansion for ram but that's also another avenue for increased performance.

Last year I upgraded an old HP laptop for a friend. I installed a 250 GB solid-state drive and reused his original hard drive he almost thought it was a new laptop. I also added an additional 8 GB of RAM. One thing that I recommend if you're trying to get more life out of an older laptop, on Newegg you can get an adapter for an additional drive if you only have room for one by default, it takes the place of your DVD drive it looks just like a DVD drive but instead you install a 2.5 inch drive inside it and install it just like your traditional DVD drive.

By replacing the hard drive with a newer one you're certainly going to get a small jump and performance as long as it's a faster drive , but if you can hold off and save up a little more cash you could get the adapter and a 250 GB solid-state drive and continue to reuse the original hard drive that's in the laptop currently. In my opinion that would be the route to go, it's what I would do if I was in your position .

Heres a decent 2.5" tb hdd

 

[JunkBear]

The HGST former Hitachi is now made by Western Digital so is it the same quality or its the poor brother of WD ?

 

[JunkBear]

I read through your first post and what I'm gonna do is make a suggestion based on my past experience with "breathing new life" into older laptop's.

The best and most noticeable changes in my experience that will show up most in day-to-day use are...

SSD
RAM
CPU

I see that you've mentioned that solid-state drives are not an option because you're looking to acquire a sizable quantity of storage. If that's the case I would recommend something with 7200 RPM's, I'm sure you can get a terabyte for less than $50 if you look for used or sales . But back to the subject of solid-state drive. Even if you could only get 120 GB drive they go for as low as $40-$50 you would get a huge jump in responsiveness and and a shot of new life for that older laptop. I don't know if you have expansion for ram but that's also another avenue for increased performance.

Last year I upgraded an old HP laptop for a friend. I installed a 250 GB solid-state drive and reused his original hard drive he almost thought it was a new laptop. I also added an additional 8 GB of RAM. One thing that I recommend if you're trying to get more life out of an older laptop, on Newegg you can get an adapter for an additional drive if you only have room for one by default, it takes the place of your DVD drive it looks just like a DVD drive but instead you install a 2.5 inch drive inside it and install it just like your traditional DVD drive.

By replacing the hard drive with a newer one you're certainly going to get a small jump and performance as long as it's a faster drive , but if you can hold off and save up a little more cash you could get the adapter and a 250 GB solid-state drive and continue to reuse the original hard drive that's in the laptop currently. In my opinion that would be the route to go, it's what I would do if I was in your position .

Heres a decent 2tb hdd

it's 1 TB the one you sent

 

[jboydgolfer]

it's 1 TB the one you sent

Yeah you're correct I intended to write "heres a decent 2.5" tb drive" & not a 2tb drive sorry

My vision is pretty bad since an infection I had in my face last year and the operation that followed ,so I use iPhone dictate very often, it leads to very odd results sometimes

EDIT*

for $54 usd after promo Code EMCRFBC26 on newegg you can get a 1Tb Travelstar 7200RPM 32MB cache

& you can get this 240Gb SSD for $80

120Gb's are in the area of $40-$50+

 

[JunkBear]

Yeah you're correct I intended to write "heres a decent 2.5" tb drive" & not a 2tb drive sorry

My vision is pretty bad since an infection I had in my face last year and the operation that followed ,so I use iPhone dictate very often, it leads to very odd results sometimes

EDIT*

for $54 usd after promo Code EMCRFBC26 on newegg you can get a 1Tb Travelstar 7200RPM 32MB cache

& you can get this 240Gb SSD for $80

120Gb's are in the area of $40-$50+

I often wondered what is better. Higher RPM or Higher cache.

 

[The Data Master]

Can I recommend using Readyboost? I put an 8GB SD card in my netbook's card slot and dedicated it with Readyboost. It is an atom 1.6ghz with only 2gb of RAM and a 5400rpm. It sped up boot time and load times for Chrome and other applications. As far as file transfer speed, I cannot comment, but when you mention budget, an old flash drive that is collecting dust is well worth the test.

For the drive, I always go WD. More of a fanboy thing, but as mentioned above, Seagate and WD bought a lot of competitors anyway so the choices are becoming fewer in the common brand name market.

Also remember, if you go for a higher end drive, but the N5030 Optiplex cannot cool it properly, you are going to see performance drops. I saw this in an old gateway slimtower. We threw a WD Green drive in it which dropped the write speed a bit, but caused less crashing and transfer rate drops. If the drive overheats, it will slow down to reduce the temperatures. This is something you definitely want to watch out for if this hard disk is going to be your boot drive with the OS on it.

 

[SnakeDoctor]

If your harddrive is not failing then not worth upgrading Hdd to Hdd rather SSD .
Either Wd or Seagate

Seagate® Barracuda HDD 2.5" - 1.0TB Serial ATA III - 6Gbps With 128MB Cache

Or

Seagate® Firecuda SHHD 2.5" - 1.0TB Serial ATA III - 6Gbps - 32gb Nano flash Up to 140MB/s Transfer rate (ST2000LX001)

 

[JunkBear]

If your harddrive is not failing then not worth upgrading Hdd to Hdd rather SSD .
Either Wd or Seagate

Seagate® Barracuda HDD 2.5" - 1.0TB Serial ATA III - 6Gbps With 128MB Cache

Or

Seagate® Firecuda SHHD 2.5" - 1.0TB Serial ATA III - 6Gbps - 32gb Nano flash Up to 140MB/s Transfer rate (ST2000LX001)

Yeah thé first Choice is exactly the one I put the link on my op.

 

[SnakeDoctor]

Yeah thé first Choice is exactly the one I put the link on my op.

If I were to replace client hdd that is what i would replace with if not with an SSD
Copied off my pricelist
SHHD could help your bootup/loading times and has 1tb hdd and 32/8gb nano flash imbedded
Gaming wont see any affect

 

[OneMoar]

there is nothing you are going todo to that pos thats going to matter
throw any old drive in it and call it a day

 

[P4-630]

I'd say HGST.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B4QESVQ/?tag=tec06d-20

 

[silentbogo]

dont have the budget to go for a SSd since they are expensive as soon asyou go for more storage.

I don't think it will even benefit from one. It's an old bad platform. Also 800MHz FSB won't get you too far with upgrades.
You will benefit more, if you sell it and add the profit to your $100 budget. It should be enough to buy a used Lenovo T520 (retails in $150-200 range and it is an absolutely best 15" workhorse), or one of the similar HP Elitebook machines.
If you get lucky, you may get a unit with a backlit keyboard, which is the best. Some even come with what used to be an optional 1TB HDD installed (base model came w/ 320GB).

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Lenovo-Think...308789?hash=item3f7cb704f5:g:~0AAAOSwBt5ZHHeQ

 

[JunkBear]

As I said I wanted help with HDD. I ordered now so thank you all and this tbread can be Closed. Have nice day.

 

[JunkBear]

Can I recommend using Readyboost? I put an 8GB SD card in my netbook's card slot and dedicated it with Readyboost. It is an atom 1.6ghz with only 2gb of RAM and a 5400rpm. It sped up boot time and load times for Chrome and other applications. As far as file transfer speed, I cannot comment, but when you mention budget, an old flash drive that is collecting dust is well worth the test.

For the drive, I always go WD. More of a fanboy thing, but as mentioned above, Seagate and WD bought a lot of competitors anyway so the choices are becoming fewer in the common brand name market.

Also remember, if you go for a higher end drive, but the N5030 Optiplex cannot cool it properly, you are going to see performance drops. I saw this in an old gateway slimtower. We threw a WD Green drive in it which dropped the write speed a bit, but caused less crashing and transfer rate drops. If the drive overheats, it will slow down to reduce the temperatures. This is something you definitely want to watch out for if this hard disk is going to be your boot drive with the OS on it.

Will absolutely try that. Thank you. But its Dell Inspiron but not an Optiplex

 

[cat1092]

Yes, ReadyBoost has been a feature since the early Windows 7 days, back when the 'sweet spot' for RAM was 4GB DDR3 (many were still on DDR2 equipped computers).

All you need is an inexpensive USB Flash drive, although not all are ReadyBoost compatible, be sure to check specs & if unsure, ask questions before purchase.

Seems like many of the ones of those days were more so than the ones of today, being that ReadyBoost was sort of a fad that disappeared once 8GB RAM became the new 'sweet spot' & now leaning towards 16GB on newer DDR4 systems. Wished I'd not had dove head first into 'Devil's Canyon' (have both of these Haswell CPU's), looks like it'll be at least 5 more years before any major platform upgrades.

Good Luck with your setup, I hope that you'll achieve what you desire.

Cat

 

[The Data Master]

Will absolutely try that. Thank you. But its Dell Inspiron but not an Optiplex

Ah right, I was thinking about the Gateway so much I forgot you were talking laptop. Cooling an HDD in a laptop shouldn't be as much of a problem as a desktop as long as your fan is clear of dust and still has some life left in it. A typical program like aida or HWinfo can tell you the temps of your hardware and the current RPMS of your fan. Might be worth a look before buying anything since Hwinfo is freeware and Aida gives you a 30 day trial. Last thing you want is to upgrade the CPU and find out the baring in your fan is shot and it cannot keep up with the new TDP. You can also use HDTune to do a speed test on your current HDD and find out how much of an increase or decrease you will see when comparing your current HDD to one that you are willing to buy. You posted a link to Newegg and I love them, but I found that asking a question on Amazon usually brings a 24-48 hour response. You could always ask heat output, data speed rates, and other inquiries on amazon and then purchase the same product on Newegg.

Yes, ReadyBoost has been a feature since the early Windows 7 days, back when the 'sweet spot' for RAM was 4GB DDR3 (many were still on DDR2 equipped computers).

All you need is an inexpensive USB Flash drive, although not all are ReadyBoost compatible, be sure to check specs & if unsure, ask questions before purchase.

Cat

Thank you for expanding on the Readyboost suggestion. I have brought a lot of older and slower pcs back to life after upgrading to 7 and 10 with this feature. I forgot some sticks won't use it. I mostly use it with SD cards since they do not stick out of the pc, but I figured @JunkBear might have a flash drive already lying around which would keep on budget without an extra cost. If he notices a performance increase, he could always grab a larger one down the line. I believe Microsoft said that the limit of Readyboost is 256GB and up to 8 different drives, but I usually am content with 4-8GB.

 

[JunkBear]

I dont know where you got your drug guys but I just asked for à replacement hdd. Not cooling, not boost or whatever. Hehehe

 

[eidairaman1]

Hitachi, Toshiba, Seagate, HDD or SSHDD.

 

[JunkBear]

Hitachi, Toshiba, Seagate, HDD or SSHDD.

OMG !!! I just put a hand on a super deal!! 50$ for an Hitachi with à huge 80 megs!!! But Do they sell ide to Sata adapters for laptop?

 

[The Data Master]

I dont know where you got your drug guys but I just asked for à replacement hdd. Not cooling, not boost or whatever. Hehehe

Yeah sorry about that, I saw something up there about SSD and got carried away with performance.

As mentioned I am more of a Western Digital type of guy. What I learned from that: WD Green drives are very low in wattage and have terrible write speeds, but are low wattage and produce much less heat. They are mostly going to be if you want to squeeze the last drop out of the battery on your laptop. Blue edition is one step up from green. To my knowledge it doesn't have that annoying intellipark which is why the transfer rates are so poor and the wattage is so good on Green. Blue is going to be your typical laptop hard drive. No bells or whistles, but no real purpose other than being a boot drive for everyday use. Good enough for everyone, but for special applications, look at the other colors. Red edition might be what you are looking for because you said Data and no gaming. Red drives are specifically used in NAS servers which means they are built to be constantly running, have decent transfer rates, and are reliable. Downside is that they are mostly used in RAID setups so I believe that the faster transfer rates wouldn't be as great with a solo drive. Black drives are maximum performance and are mostly used with gaming. It would blow up your budget for no reason to go Black here unless you get a really good deal. Purple I do not know much about. I am currently running a 3.5" purple for my media storage drive and it keeps wattage and heat down, but transfer speeds could be better. I think it is trying to be a better performing Green, but not as good as blue.

If you decide to go Seagate, someone else would better steer you.

From my googlefu, the N3050's SATA controller is only 3gb/s. If this is correct, your speeds might not be equal to what the drive listings and reviews promise.

Hitachi, Toshiba, Seagate, HDD or SSHDD.

I have had great luck with Toshiba drives in the past. They are rock solid and do not die. Owned 2 and one is still sitting in a drawer because 2.5 IDE is rare these days and the laptop it came from went obsolete. Other one was used in a family build, no idea if it is still ticking or not.

Hitachi is owned by Western Digital now and has been for around 4 years or so. Before they were acquired, i had a few drives fail after a year or 2 of use. Both 2.5" drives. Since WD bought them, I purchased 1 3.5" drive from them and am using it now. So far no errors and a happy S.M.A.R.T. readout on it. I am using it as a secondary game drive, so my use is irrelevant to JunkBear's.

 

[cat1092]

I dont know where you got your drug guys but I just asked for à replacement hdd. Not cooling, not boost or whatever. Hehehe

OK, hope that you find what's needed!

Sign up for Newegg promos & you'll always get great deals, recently there was a 1TB Seagate SSHD for notebooks at a killer price of $49.99 w/free shipping. Had I needed one, would had jumped all over it, but all of my notebooks, except an IBM T42 ThinkPad, runs SSD's, in both the stock & optical drive bay via a $10 adapter. If I need an optical drive, have a couple of USB to SATA (optical drive type) cable, works perfectly when needed. Speaking of Newegg, I cannot possibly begin to total the amount of cash that's been saved over the last 7 years, yet would bet that it'll make a huge down payment on a new truck.

https://www.newegg.com/

So if you really want to expand your storage, that's an added option, just find the proper size for your notebook, most of mine takes the 12.5mm, another with a slot load takes a slimmer model.

Good Luck with your project, I feel confident you'll find a suitable HDD to meet your needs.

Cat