7200rpm HD's gone for e1505/6400?

I was looking to buy an Inspiron e1505/6400, and when I looked yesterday the 7200rpm Hard Drives were available. However, when I looked today, there were only 5200rpm max HD's available. Is this some temporary shortage on Dell's part or are they not offering the 7200rpm HD's anymore? The faster HD is quite important to me... Any info would be much appreciated.

 

It's likely a shortage. And the ones that are there now are 5400 RPM, just a little correction

 

Like brian said most likely a shortage... Or It could have been problems that they had with overheating? But If you want a 7200RMP HD why not buy one aftermarket? From newegg or zipzoomfly? It will save you money also

 

How hard is it to install a hard drive on a laptop? I've never had a laptop before so I don't know. Is it as easy as installing memory? Thanks.

 

Yes, it's as easy as changing a memory module.

 

it's very easy to change the hard drive, it's totally something else to reload the OS, especially if you want the Dell Media Direct to work. There are some great posts around the board which detail how to do this. It just depends on your comfort level.

Overall, reloading the os and progames is very easy, then again, i do it everyday. Like Jason indicated, you can get a 7200 rpm drive (larger in size even ex. 100Mb) for the cost Dell charges for an 80Gb drive.

Then you will have a 100mb drive and you can take the drive that came with the laptop, get a 2.5 harddrive enclouser, and convert that drive into an external USB/firewire drive Two for the price of one - BAM!!!!....hee hee

 

do the aftermarket drives all come in one size? I was just wondering if there will be a problem buying a drive and then find out that it wont fit in the dell notebook. And I bet E1505 only take SATA drive, right?

another slightly off topic question,
I ordered E1505 with a 40GB drive. Would this be enough for everything including office software, maybe photoshop for image editing and some other software? Im planning to have external drives for all the music/videos/pictures. At first I was going for the 60 or 80 from dell but many ppl said it's cheaper just to buy it somewhere else and upgrade it myself.

any tips, opinions please.. thanks

 

The 40gb should give you enough space. For XP, you need around 5gbs for just the basic system. Then things like MS Office, photoshop, etc would probably take up another 5 to 10gb depending on how much you install.

SG

 

Dell has been shifting their parts on the Core Duo lately. One day available next day gone. Confusing Huh! I want to replace my notebook which is out dated (Inspirion 8200 still working just can't play today's game such as Call of Duty 2) but I will wait till all the Core duo dust settle down (Video Card is more important for me).

 

Hey man you and I have the same old model! Yeah I've noticed the changin (been looking at new models) they've been doing some things.

You could save money buying from newegg or other dealers instead of buying from Dell and that way you can choose the brand and exact drive as well. I plan to do this next time I buy.

40gigs isn't much these days but I still get by with it (huge when I bought it) I've always had at least 5-10 extra gigs to use

 

otaku, you are right.
Seagate Momentus 7200.1 ST910021AS 100GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache Serial ATA150 Notebook Hard Drive - OEM
Model #: ST910021AS
Item #: N82E16822146226
Newegg $190.00

I think I am going to get the E1705 since I will be doing a lot video editing and the E1705 is only 1 lb heavier than our old 8200. I will wait till they put back better graphic card then I will order one. I need the WUXGA display.

 

For video editing you might wanna look for a better color reproducing screen.

 

Does replacing the hard drive void the warranty?

 

If you do it wrong and mess up the pins it will. But replacing the HD is very easy, and you shouldn't have any problem. With dell, you can add RAM or replace the HD. The rest of the laptop is still covered under the warranty except your new parts. But they are covered by the warranty from the manufacturer that you purchased it from. And that is usually longer then dell. RAM typically has a lifetime warranty. And HD's usually have a 3 year warranty.

 

looking at the price on the 7200rpm mentioned by JoyRider, I probably just gonna stick with the 5400 speed. so what you guys think is better:
upgrade the internal to 80 or maybe 100 (5400rpm) OR
get external 2.5 drive to accompany my E1505?

And I saw on this week's Best Buy ads, they have external WD 60G for $99.99 is this good price?

 

I just noticed the change in hard drive speed today and I’m dam happy I was able to cash in on the speedier 7200.
Don’t sweat the smaller 40 gig hd. Hard drives on notebooks have the constitution of a Chinese yo-yo. Your information will be much safer if you back it up to a more stable (grounded) external HD. You probably don’t need to have over 40 gigs of info available to you when you’re mobile.