[PLUG] 2.5-inch drive (for laptop) recommendations?

[AthlonRob]

Kurt Sussman wrote:
> I just got the LCD on this Dell replaced (under warrantee!), so it
> should last past version 1.0 of thte x86 Macs...

I wonder how many others are trying to squeak a little bit more life out
of their current laptops in hopes of decent x86 Macs?  :-)

> My Orinoco Gold cards heat up like crazy, but they did that in my old
> Toshiba notebook also. 

It wasn't the wifi card that caused the fryage - it was the CPU vent
being blocked for a few minutes while the CPU itself was pegged at 100%.
 The CPU temperature was reported to be 85C.  In reality, it was
probably a bit cooler... but when I caught it at that high temperature,
my wifi card froze, the laptop froze, and the wifi card never worked
fully again.  Drivers recognized it, but it was otherwise worthless.  I
replaced it with a $30 PrismII from Fry's.

> According to my research, the 5400 RPM drives use power more efficiently
> than the 4200 RPM drives. The technology in the older drives hasn't
> changed significantly since they switched from 12.5mm to 9.5mm. The 5400
> RPM drives, on the other hand, have smarter firmware, bigger caches (so
> the heads don't have to move around as much), better bearings (less
> power required to maintain rotation), and more efficient electronics.

Ahhh... very nice.  I suppose that would make a ton of sense as laptop
manufacturers have begun to realize such things are important.
Efficiency over raw speed and all that.

Guess I'll log on to newegg and pick up a new laptop drive.

> I haven't noticed any difference in the battery life or heat, and I have
> the drive in a more aggressive mode (longer delay before spindown) than
> the old drive was using.

What kind of hdparm settings are you using?  It's been a long time (a
year and a half?) since I even looked at tweaking the settings here.

> What kind of memory do you need? I have a couple of 256M PC2100 cards
> here...

256MB PC2100 sticks.  Actually I just need one (two slots, each a max of
256MB, one filled with a 256MB stick, the other with a 128MB stick).
I'll contact you off-list.  :-)

Rob