Notebookdeluxe Laptop Guides - the Notebook HDD

The Hard Drive, as known as HD or HDD, is one of the most popular parts of the computers, of course, in the notebook world, this is not an exception.

The Hard Drive is where we store all the data, from the Operative System to the applications, games, videos, movies, etc. No need to mention that it’s of vital importance to have enough space in order to be able to add programs and have a good storage capability.

There are two fundamental factors that we might consider when choosing what kind of HDD adapts better to our needs.

The Capacity (or Size)

The capacity of these devices is measured in Megabytes (Mb), but in the actual times is far more common to see them catalogued on Gigabytes (GB), since we cannot find anymore Hard Drives with less than 1024 Mb (=1GB). In the HDD world when we talk about the term SIZE, it means that its DENSITY is higher, and in consequence, more data can be stored on them.

At this time a minimum to have in consideration is 80Gb, with this we can afford a general use without running out of space. We can find a wide variety of storage capability such as 100, 120, 160, 180, 200, 240… The NotebookDeluxe recommendation would be a middle term, like 160Gb. At the time this article is written, the maximum capacity of the HDDs is 1Tb (1 Terabyte = 1024 Gigabytes).

The Speed (or RPM)

Another especially important feature of the Hard Drives is the speed, will determine how fast the information can be accessed by our systems. The reader can be thinking now “Well then it’s easy, the faster the better!”, but is not always like that.

The speed of the HDDs is calculated in Revolutions Per Minute (RPM) and the common rates are 4200rpm, 5400rpm and 7200rpm. The technology is advancing at an incredible rate and really soon we will see faster drives on the market. Anyway and back to our decision… What speed is the perfect for my needs?

If we are going to give a simple administrative usage to the notebook, e-mail reading/writing or web surfing, a 4200rpm is more than enough. For a higher performance and faster data access, we should go for the 5400rpm one, and if we are fans of the high end gaming, video compression, visual design or other top demanding activities, we could go for the 7200rpm, but there is a negative side.

Usually the faster HDDs are as well the most feverish ones, this means that the overall temperature of the notebook is going to be high, not recommendable if you live in an already hot weathered place or work environment. Also some models produce a noticeable amount of noise.

For the laptop health and stability, we in NotebookDeluxe recommend the 5400rpm choice for most of the users.