Upgrading 40gb hard drive to 500gb drive

[Patsfan37]

I am curious if either of these 2 hard drives will be ok to upgrade my computer with. On the overview sheet of what my computer can take it shows the following hard drives listed below. My question is will my computer will be able to handle these 2 Western Digital Cavier Blue drives? If so which one is the better drive? Thanks.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136769

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073



Hard drives

One or two of the following
80-GB SATA 3.0-Gb/s Hard Drive (8MB Cache,7200 rpm).
160-GB SATA 3.0-Gb/s Hard Drive (8MB Cache,7200 rpm).
RAID 80-GB SATA 3.0-Gb/s Hard Drive (7200 rpm)
RAID 160-GB SATA 3.0-Gb/s Hard Drive (7200 rpm)
250-GB SATA 3.0-Gb/s Hard Drive (7200 rpm).
2nd hard drive, 80-GB SATA 3.0-Gb/s Hard Drive (8MB Cache7200 rpm).
2nd hard drive, 160-GB SATA 3.0-Gb/s Hard Drive (8MB Cache,7200 rpm).
2nd hard drive, 250-GB SATA 3.0-Gb/s Hard Drive (8MB Cache,7200 rpm)

 

[Ubrales]

Welcome to Tom's Hardware Forums!

I'd go with the first Newegg product just because it has the capability of SATA 6.0Gb/s.

As far as the drives in the list that follows, yes your computer will be able to accept any of them provided it has the drive bays and open SATA connectors on the motherboard.

 

[Patsfan37]

I was just wondering if it would accept a 500gb hard drive on Windows XP Pro?

 

[jonnycatz1990]

Yes, XP can accept up to about 2 TB as a boot drive. I like both of those drives and use them frequently. It seems that for some reason the AAKS which is a SATA 2 drive benches a tad better always than the AAKX drives on SATA 2 ports. If you can afford a "Black Edition" WD drive, I highly recommend those as the access times are wayyy better and a 5 yr warranty versus 3 yr for the blues. The SATA 3 capability is a moot point because those drives are nowhere near capable of saturating SATA 2 anyways..

 

[4745454b]

What computer do you have? 40GB drives haven't been shipped in computers for a long time. I've seen some pentium M laptops from years ago get 40GB drives, so I'm worried you have one of them. If so, those drives won't work in your computer.

 

[Paperdoc]

What computer do you have? 40GB drives haven't been shipped in computers for a long time. I've seen some pentium M laptops from years ago get 40GB drives, so I'm worried you have one of them. If so, those drives won't work in your computer.

This is not likely to be a problem. The problem this post refers to, I expect, is lack of 48-bit LBA Support, which is necessary for any drive over 137 GB. That was a problem with older computers and IDE drive controllers. I note that the specs you list say it can handle a 160 GB drive. But, an over-riding point: ALL SATA drives and ALL SATA controllers and the BIOS that runs them include 48-bit LBA Support. It is part of the SATA spec, and has been from the beginning. If you are installing a SATA HDD, do NOT worry about the 137 GB limit.

Let me echo johnnycatz1990's comment: SATA 6.0 Gb/s capability is meaningless for spinning-disk hard drives. NONE can even reach the SATA 3.0 Gb/s spec of the so-called "SATA II" spec.

 

[4745454b]

That's part of it. The other issue is it might be a laptop as I already mentioned. Or, its so old it won't handle a SATA drive period. 40GB standard drives are in ANCIENT computers. I doubt very much he can put a modern drive in there.

 

[Patsfan37]

The computer is an HP DC7700 Small Form Factor. The 40 gb drive was something I picked up from a computer guy I know. He sold me that computer for $40. The specs on it are: Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Processor (1.86-GHz, 2 MB L2 cache, 1066-MHz FSB). That list of Hard drives were hard drives tested and known to be compatible with that system. All I am wondering is if I will run into a problem trying to install a 500gb hard drive on it. I will be installing Windows XP Pro onto it. Also I think I wanna go with the Western Digital Blue because I have read where they run cooler and quieter than the Black.

 

[4745454b]

Gotcha. Anything that runs a C2D should handle modern drives just fine. If its a small form factor case you might have issues mounting both drives. If you need to just plug in the larger drive and leave it outside your case. Image your current drive over, and then pull it. Then put the new drive in. If you have enough room for two drives then just ignore what I said.

 

[Ubrales]

What computer do you have? 40GB drives haven't been shipped in computers for a long time. I've seen some pentium M laptops from years ago get 40GB drives, so I'm worried you have one of them. If so, those drives won't work in your computer.

On my ancient Dell Inspiron 5150 Win XP laptop that shipped with a 40 GB IDE hard drive, I cloned the drive onto a 250 GB hard disk and installed that. Upgraded the RAM from 512 MB to 2 GB. Works fine.

 

[Patsfan37]

So which one of those 2 Newegg.com hard drives would you choose? Would I need a SATA3 cable if I go with the SATA 6.0Gb/s one? Will my computer even work at the 6.0Gb/s speed? I am guessing it only works at the 3.0Gb/s speed.

 

[Ubrales]

So which one of those 2 Newegg.com hard drives would you choose? Would I need a SATA3 cable if I go with the SATA 6.0Gb/s one? Will my computer even work at the 6.0Gb/s speed? I am guessing it only works at the 3.0Gb/s speed.

I'd go with the first Newegg product you listed. It will run at 3Gb/s, and the SATA cables are the same - get the least expensive SATA cable.

 

[Patsfan37]

Well the first one listed is the Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive. Are you sure it is not the second link you meant? The Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive.

 

[Ubrales]

Well the first one listed is the Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive. Are you sure it is not the second link you meant? The Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive.

Either will work fine - the first one listed is 6Gb/s and is downwards compatible, and cheaper too.

 

[Patsfan37]

What about this drive.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185

If you had a choice between the 2 Western Digital Blue and this Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB drive, which one would you lean towards? Thanks.

 

[Ubrales]

What about this drive.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185

If you had a choice between the 2 Western Digital Blue and this Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB drive, which one would you lean towards? Thanks.

The Spinpoint desktop drives (3.5") are excellent! This would be my preference over the other two you picked.

 

[Patsfan37]

Do you have any experience with the Spinpoint drives? Are they cool and quiet? I hate noise so a quiet drive is always nice lol.

 

[Ubrales]

Do you have any experience with the Spinpoint drives? Are they cool and quiet? I hate noise so a quiet drive is always nice lol.

I don't have Spinpoint drives! I read a lot of recommendations in favor of Spinpoint. And, drives do not create a lot of noise. The noise comes from fans mainly. Heat from drives is generally not a problem.

 

[Paperdoc]

An obscure note but important: The first version of Win XP in all forms did NOT include 48-bit LBA Support in it. That was added in SP1 and maintained thereafter. And you can't really install that first version to a HDD over 128 GB without a lot of fiddling. So, make sure the version of Win XP Pro you install has at least SP1 included. (It's actually hard to find an old original version, anyway.) And update to SP3 immediately, if it's not already in the Install disk you have.

 

[Patsfan37]

An obscure note but important: The first version of Win XP in all forms did NOT include 48-bit LBA Support in it. That was added in SP1 and maintained thereafter. And you can't really install that first version to a HDD over 128 GB without a lot of fiddling. So, make sure the version of Win XP Pro you install has at least SP1 included. (It's actually hard to find an old original version, anyway.) And update to SP3 immediately, if it's not already in the Install disk you have.

Yeah the install disk has Windows XP Pro SP2. Which one of those 3 hard drives would you go with? Either of the 2 WD drives or the Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ. Hard decision to make lol.

 

[Ubrales]

Yeah the install disk has Windows XP Pro SP2. Which one of those 3 hard drives would you go with? Either of the 2 WD drives or the Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ. Hard decision to make lol.

Hard decision because all three drives are good! Toss a coin and pick one. You will not go wrong with any one of these three! Go with the best price and availability.