Recommend-o 2.5" IDE HD

sceptre

Hi folks, little bit of advice needed please.

Buying a HD for an Inspiron 7500. I've got it down to three:

IBM Harddisk ATA-100 40GB Travelstar (€169)

Hitachi Harddisk ATA-100 40GB (€162)

Hitachi Harddisk ATA-100 30GB (€123)

(all prices include VAT but exclude delivery, I'd guess another 12 for that)

Komplett have no IBM 30gigger listed, I've looked at elara but they're a good bit more expensive for this. If anyone knows where I'll get one cheaper, I'd appreciate that too.

On to questions then:
1. Price gap between Hitachi and IBM 40GB drive is €7 (not a great deal). Are those rumours I hear about Hitachi drives being unreliable warranted? (I do realise that they've combined recently or summat)

2. Will the 40GB drive use any more (or if so, much more) power compared with the 30GB drive? If the Hitachi drives are unreliable, the question is moot and I'll go for the IBM anyway but if the Hitachis are OK, I'd like to get an answer to this one. I don't need the extra 10GB (I need 98, XP and Linux, tight enough squeeze on my current 12GB drive) so I'm tempted to just save the 40 euros and go for the 30GB drive instead.

Any help/comments/experience greatly appreciated as always.

RicardoSmith

Just had to buy one of these myself to fix a friends laptop.

Both IBM and Hitachi have had their problems with their 3.5 drives but I haven't heard the same problems with the 2.5 drives. Also once you have a warranty and do regular backups, its really not an issue, or at least theres no difference between them. I haven't checked the specs but its unlikely the larger drives use more power.

Personally I bought the cheapest one as the person I was buying it for only used office and surfed the web with one OS.

However if I was using multiple OS like you are I'd go for the cheapest largest disk. In fact I'd consider a 60gb one if I could find it.

XDA

Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM

XDA

sutty

We use the IBM Travelstar in work and I use them on my own laptop. The resion they cost a bit more is the parts used. They are of a higher grade I think. also the IBMs can have a power on password set that will lock out the drive if its gotten wrong a number of times. (as well as the system board)

sceptre

Thanks folks - looks like the IBM then