[NA] HDD confusion [NA]

[Let'sgoflying!]

I am getting conflicting and sometimes useless info on what harddrive I can/should purchase for the Dell laptop.
The off label HD retailers of course say, 'they will all work'. And their prices are almost 1/3 the price of:
Dell says only THEIRS work, and the maximum I should buy is 60gB for this 8200 Inspiron. BUT I look at the original-from-Dell-HD itself and what does it say but; "TOSHIBA, made in Philippines". (HDD2171 MK4019GAX 40gB)
Also some replacements say 5400rpm and others mmm 42?00rpm, is this consequential?
What about it? Will any 44pin HD fit and work in this HD case?
Thank you as always.

 

[Brian Austin]

If it's no longer under warranty, buy what you want. I'd probably stay at or below the 60Gb range, though. I'm not sure if there is a BIOS limitation in the motherboards on laptops. If so, you wouldn't be able to see anything over 60Gb.

Given the speeds involved, it's not that much of an impact from 4200 to 5400. If the current HDD is 4200, you won't see any change. If it's 5400, you might see a very slight performance decrease but most people won't notice.

 

[mikea]

You can buy any hard drive with the same size (form factor) and interface, meaning you want 2.5" IDE or EIDE or ATA. Check out http://www.newegg.com

There are new Hitachi and Seagate 7200 RPM 2.5" drives in the 60-100GB range that I would get. The disavantage of the 7200RPM is higher current draw, meaning lower battery life, and more heat. The reports I've seen say the performance gain by the higher speed is remarkable.

If you dont' like the drawbacks get a 5400RPM drive. I like Seagate best.