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Notebook SATA HDD upgrade - compatibility issues?

Last response: in Storage
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Hello everyone,

I've been reading THG for years, but never actually visited the forums before. Thanks in advance for any help!

I'm buying a Dell Inspiron 9400, and want to replace the included SATA hard drive with a third party 120GB 5400rpm drive or 100GB 7200rpm drive.

Here's my question: Can I just stick any 2.5" SATA drive in there, or are there other compatibiity issues?

Dell doesn't indicate whether it's SATA I or II, if that matters. Also, does anyone know what drives Dell uses (Seagate Momentus? Hitachi Travelstar? Something else?)


Slightly OT:

For some reason, I can buy 3rd party drives for less than Dell will upgrade drives in the config for my new notebook:

for example, Dell wants $410 to change the config from a 60GB 5400rpm to a 100GB 7200rpm. I can buy a new 100GB 7200rpm Travelstar 7K100 for $245.

More about : notebook sata hdd upgrade compatibility issues

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You should <not> encounter any problems upgrading the hard drive. However, Dell is known to screw with their BIOS and make certain things incompatible. (for example, I replaced the motherboard in my mom's laptop once and the CPU was no longer compatible... i had to purchase a new CPU that was identical to the old one, but had a different model number.)

Quote:
for example, Dell wants $410 to change the config from a 60GB 5400rpm to a 100GB 7200rpm. I can buy a new 100GB 7200rpm Travelstar 7K100 for $245.


/me nods. Ever heard of profit margins?

-mpjesse
 
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