dell 640 m hard drive

Hi..

I've got a dell 640m notebook..

I have 1 gb of memory..

I think that it's a bit slow when I'm starting 3 or 4 programs at the
same time.. (using windows xp)

I've been told that it possible is the hard drive that is to slow -
the hard drive I've got now is fujitsu 60 gb 5400 rpm (http://
http://www.fel.fujitsu.com/home/v3__...&inf=fsp&wg=15) ..

The people I talked to told me to buy a 7200 rpm hard drive... do you
think that they are right?

And can anyone tell me if my hard drive is sata 1 or 2, and what I
should buy (what does the notebook support?)

I've found this hard drive which I eventually will buy:

Hitachi TravelStar 7K100 80 GB

Is that a good choice?

Or is it better to buy seagate where I get 5 years warranty?: Seagate
Momentus 7200.1 ST980825AS 80 GB

I hope someone can help me..

/peter

On 22 Mar 2007 07:10:27 -0700, "(-Peter-)"
wrote:

Hi..

I've got a dell 640m notebook..

I have 1 gb of memory..
clipped
The people I talked to told me to buy a 7200 rpm hard drive... do you
think that they are right?
clipped
/peter

I have a 640m. I made sure to get it with 2G of RAM and a 7200 rpm
hard drive. In addition, I have a Core 2 Duo with 4M cache.

All of the above in XP runs very fast.

If I had your setup, I would:

- First add RAM. Hopefully you have one 1G DIMM, but I doubt it, so
going to 2G would be expensive.

- Get a 100G 7200 rpm hard drive from Dell, or an 80G one. I bought
an 80G one which I use for XP. The 100G one is if I want to run the
laptop in Vista.

Are you running Vista or XP?

If Vista, I think adding RAM would improve things significantly.

(P.S. -- the 640m is great, esp with the 1440 x 900 resolution. It
hit my sweet spot perfectly)

On Thu, 22 Mar 2007 10:35:42 -0500, Journey wrote:

- Get a 100G 7200 rpm hard drive from Dell, or an 80G one. I bought
an 80G one which I use for XP. The 100G one is if I want to run the
laptop in Vista.

Note: the 80G 7200rpm hard drive cost about $105 including tax and
shipping (list is around $95 I think).

Hi - and thank you for the answer..
On 22 Mar., 16:35, Journey wrote:


I have a 640m. I made sure to get it with 2G of RAM and a 7200 rpm
hard drive. In addition, I have a Core 2 Duo with 4M cache.

All of the above in XP runs very fast.

If I had your setup, I would:

- First add RAM. Hopefully you have one 1G DIMM, but I doubt it, so
going to 2G would be expensive.

when I'm looking in windows normally only about half of my memory is
used (right clicking in task bar).. so I do not think that will help..

- Get a 100G 7200 rpm hard drive from Dell, or an 80G one. I bought
an 80G one which I use for XP. The 100G one is if I want to run the
laptop in Vista.

Are you running Vista or XP?

I'm running xp..

so I think it would help to upgrade the hard drive - do you agree?

Journey wrote:

I have a 640m. I made sure to get it with 2G of RAM and a 7200 rpm
hard drive. In addition, I have a Core 2 Duo with 4M cache.

hey journey

I see where dell has the 640m now with 2g ram and fast
7200 rpm sata drive but NOT core d duo chop for $699

see second 'smart choice' config in link

http://www.dell.com/content/products...=04&l=en&s=bsd

How much performance hit do you think a person would
take with this model having everything you cite in
yours but NOT the core 2 duo chip?

On Thu, 22 Mar 2007 12:27:57 -0600, wrote:

How much performance hit do you think a person would
take with this model having everything you cite in
yours but NOT the core 2 duo chip?

I think Core 2 Duo w 4M Cache would make a _lot_ of difference, but
others here are more qualified to answer that (I only have my laptop,
nothing to compare to).

I saw discussion on the Internet along those lines -- that the Core 2
Duo was a big step up.

Regardless, the deal you mention sounds pretty good -- 2M RAM is what
enticed me to buy (after giving up on the $750 off coupons).

Of course, it depends too on what the laptop is going to be used for,
the budget of the person, etc. I wanted a setup that will last a
while (OK, no jokes... lol).

Journey wrote:

Regardless, the deal you mention sounds pretty good -- 2M RAM is what
enticed me to buy (after giving up on the $750 off coupons).

yep it even has a sata hard drive at that price!

Um, why get one from Dell when prices are so much better elsewhere? All the OP
has to do is avoid Toshiba notebook drives. The rest are pretty good, with
Seagate and Fujitsu being the best right now... Ben Myers

On Thu, 22 Mar 2007 10:35:42 -0500, Journey wrote:

On 22 Mar 2007 07:10:27 -0700, "(-Peter-)"
wrote:

Hi..

I've got a dell 640m notebook..

I have 1 gb of memory..
clipped
The people I talked to told me to buy a 7200 rpm hard drive... do you
think that they are right?
clipped
/peter

I have a 640m. I made sure to get it with 2G of RAM and a 7200 rpm
hard drive. In addition, I have a Core 2 Duo with 4M cache.

All of the above in XP runs very fast.

If I had your setup, I would:

- First add RAM. Hopefully you have one 1G DIMM, but I doubt it, so
going to 2G would be expensive.

- Get a 100G 7200 rpm hard drive from Dell, or an 80G one. I bought
an 80G one which I use for XP. The 100G one is if I want to run the
laptop in Vista.

Are you running Vista or XP?

If Vista, I think adding RAM would improve things significantly.

(P.S. -- the 640m is great, esp with the 1440 x 900 resolution. It
hit my sweet spot perfectly)

On Thu, 22 Mar 2007 20:12:47 -0400, Ben Myers
wrote:

Um, why get one from Dell when prices are so much better elsewhere? All the OP
has to do is avoid Toshiba notebook drives. The rest are pretty good, with
Seagate and Fujitsu being the best right now... Ben Myers

I got it from Dell because I didn't know what was out there, but I'm
glad you posted this so that the OP can get a better buy.

I'd like to get a few extra drive doors, in case I strip the screws
when I eventually get around to playing with Vista but switching back
and forth with XP. I don't know how to find them or how much they
cost. Any suggestions?

On 22 Mar 2007 09:04:19 -0700, "(-Peter-)"
wrote:

- First add RAM. Hopefully you have one 1G DIMM, but I doubt it, so
going to 2G would be expensive.

when I'm looking in windows normally only about half of my memory is
used (right clicking in task bar).. so I do not think that will help..

- Get a 100G 7200 rpm hard drive from Dell, or an 80G one. I bought
an 80G one which I use for XP. The 100G one is if I want to run the
laptop in Vista.

Are you running Vista or XP?

I'm running xp..

so I think it would help to upgrade the hard drive - do you agree?

I really don't know. From reading other posts here, I have seen many
people say that RAM is the best way to increase performance.

As far as upgrading the hard drive, you would need to determine the
marginal value vs. cost, and whether performance is worth that much to
you. If you are asking if I would do it the answer is yes, if I
wanted to use the other hard drive for another OS like in your case
Vista, or Linux, or a a "test XP" for installing trial software
without worrying about bogging it down with installs / uninstalls.

You can get 5400 rpm's in 160G for about the same price as a 7200 rpm
in 100G. In my case I never use even half the hard drive space of a
laptop so it doesn't matter.