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Laptop 7200 RPM Limitation??? - Ultra-ATA/100

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Hey, i have a Compaq R4125CA notebook

I am thinking of upgrading my harddrive to a 2.5" Seagate Ultra ATA/100 7200rpm harddisk.

However, from some reason, i was told that my computer can only handle UltraATA/100 at 5400rpm.

Reason:
HP/Compaq guy: "The Motherboard and hard drive controller on the notebook would only support the hard drive with 5400RPM. The total hard drive upgrade you can install on the notebook with 5400RPM is 80GB."

However, I am under the impression that the harddrive controller is built onto the hardisk? Is this wrong.

And I thought Ultra-ATA interface was suppose to mean, ...Ultra-ATA interface, not Ultra-ATA equal at and sub 5400rpm.

Can anyone confirm or give insight as to why 7200rpm cannot be handled?

Its not a heat issue, at both drives only differ by 3 degrees celcius

Thanks in advance for any help :D 

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Anonymous

I think it's BS, but I am not an expert, it is their product and they should know better then me.

The IDE Controller is indeed on the motherboard, usually in the south bridge of the chipset.

Only thing I could see is that he meant that you won't be able to take advantage of the extra performance. And also 7200 RPM will take more battery.

That being said, we are talking about laptop and their design is sometime proprietary/weird so I really can't give you a definitive answer.
Only thing I see is trying to borrow one from someone and see if it's detected by the BIOS....

Thanks, good idea, just is it possible to fry your motherboard by putting in an rpm speed above what should be handled?

For some reason, i get the impression that they simple don't have the proper data for 7200rpm on thier system.

Thats probably a bias on my part, cause i would like to believe i can fit a 7200rpm HD since i'v been using a raid 0 configuration with dual 7200rpms on my windows desktop for some time now. The speed difference is significant, even with the desktop computer having a slower CPU(AMD 64 3500+ vs AMD Athlon XP 2200+).
Anonymous

Well I don't think the 7200HD use different voltage or anything so I would HIGHLY doubt it could fry a board.

I have never heard of RPM limitation on board but I am far from a notebook specialist...

I think testing with a 7200 is really safe. If it's not detected in Bios then it's not supported.
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Quote:
...i'v been using a raid 0 configuration with dual 7200rpms on my windows desktop for some time now. The speed difference is significant


Bullshit. Pure and simple. You are dreaming.

??? I guess I structured what i said wrongly...

Raid 0 - if i remember thats using both drives merged as 1, i did this years ago

So thats 2, 7200rpm HD working together on a desktop system, pretty common i suppose....

did you know Seagate's 160GB Momentus 5400.3 is FASTER than its 100GB 7200.1? Read some reviews, the 7200 starts out slightly faster but ends up slower.

Your notebook CANNOT TELL how fast the drive spins, so there's no truth to what he said.

The capacity limit for your notebook is probably either 128GB or several terabytes, depending on BIOS. That's another limit you can throw out the window.

You are right!!!

If i make an effort to keep my hard disk space around 90gb, I can acheive read speeds as fast as an empty Seagate 4200 rpm harddrive. Thanks



However, how can i know if my laptop can handle the 160gb, is there some specifications i can look at?

An upgrade from my current Seagate 100gb 4200rpm to the 160gb 5400rpm, should in theory give me a 75% increase in read speeds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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