Best HD for T60

What is the best value hard drive (ie most GB for least $) with decent performance?

Also, if I were to get a SATA II drive would it work? I know it would not work at SATA II speed but would it be slowed down to SATA I or would it not work at all?

Finally, is there much difference between 5400 vs 7200 RPM in performance and battery?

Thanks in advance,
Cypress

 

Not sure which models you should go for, but i would re omment a 7200 rpm harddrive with 16 mb cache, this will make the system noticably quciker, plus the added cache means that there is less harddrive activity which can help cut down on power usage, and modern 7200 rpm harddrives use comparable power to 5400 rpm harddrives, and in some cases run cooler.

 

The battery life difference is small if any. A 7200RPM drive does give a performance increase. I personally prefer it, but to some degree it will depend on what you are doing.

You are correct a SATA II drive will work, but in SATA I mode.

I have been very happy with my Seagate 7200.2 drive. Perhaps in the lab other drives score a bit better, but in real world performance they all seem the same to me. If you're looking for the most space for $$$ with decent performance, that's probably a 5400RPM drive.

 

Is there a limitation on how big of a HD would work with a T60? This one looks pretty good and well worth the money, imho.

 

I have the 7200.2 in my T60 right now. I got it right as the .2's were coming out, and about a month before the Hitachi 7k200's were out. I dont think you could go wrong with either selection, and the price is quite nice on them right now.

Performance bump with 7.2k is pretty nice and the battery hit was minimal on the T60 I have. It was an interesting mix because some idle power draw increased, but with other activities happening with less lag, some unneeded crunch time was reduced which helped battery life.