Which hard drives will work in a Vostro 1700?

Hi guys
I have two seperate questions to ask, so will post them seperately.
I have a Vostro 1700 with a 250gb drive in it. When I bought it I had a problem with the laptop and managed to get a hard drive caddy free from Dell, so just need the drive. I know it needs to be a SATA 2.5 drive, but will any drive fit, or do I need to go for any specific ones? Is the Vostro SataII?
Thanks

 

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/149432

I recommend this WD 320GB 2.5" SATA II 7200rpm Scorpio Black drive
I recently changed my main OS drive to it from my older 160GB 2.5" SATA II 5400rpm drive. The WD drive is faster and doesn't make any annoying clicky noises when it loads things .
Also its got a free-fall sensor, so if it detects that the laptop is falling, the reader head gets pulled into the head holder so it wont damage the internal spinning disc.

 

Just for the record, you can use any 2.5" SATA (1 or 2) HDD.

 

Thanks for the reply Tony. I forgor to mention about noise actually, that's quiet important to me. Did you find the Vostro makes anymore noise with the WD added, or does is not make any more noise?

Thanks as well Commander Wolf.... is there any benefit to going for a SATAII drive with the Vostro?

 

If you're using a conventional HDD, chances are it won't matter if it's SATA or SATAII, as the HDD will be your bottleneck, not the SATA interface. If you're hardcore and step up to some fancy new SSD, you will hit the limits of the SATAI interface...

Which is why they obviously don't make fancy new SSDs with the original SATA interface...

Anyways, in short it won't matter. Besides, unless you're getting a used drive, chances are you won't be able to find an HDD with a SATAI interface.

 

I also recommend the WD320 Scorpio Black but there's another drive that's just as fast, the WD Scorpio Blue 500GB.
One difference is that you can get the Scorpio Black with a free fall sensor otherwise they are quite comparable. Have a look at the charts at tomshardware http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2-5-hard-drive-charts/compare,687.html?prod%5B2040%5D=on&prod%5B2251%5D=on

Both are silent.
The Scorpio Blue would be the better one for battery life.

 

Are you installing this to replace HDD1 or adding HDD2?
Be aware that the caddy must be for HDD2 if adding a second one - the caddy for HDD2 is a mirror image of HDD1 in terms of the screw tabs and they are not interchangable.

 

I'm adding. The engineer knew I wanted to add a second so I presume it's the correct one he's sent me. Which number would be the part number?

 

If you have it there it should have "HDD 2" engraved on it.

 

Thanks Steve, yes it does say HDD2 on it