Is it worth upgrading my HDD???

dazzday

Currently the owner of an Acer 5920G for the last two years. Must admit, despite reservations of the acer brand, it has exceeded all expectations to such a degree that I am currently spending a little hard earned cash on it!
Currently I have upgraded to 4gb ram, in the process of adding bluetooth, looking into undervolting and I am preparing for a fresh install of Win 7 64bit.

- Is it worth upgrading my 250gb 5400rpm HDD to a 7200rpm 320gb WD scorpio black / or 7200rpm seagate momentus 500gb for an additional €80/120 respectively???
- will i get any noticable performance boosts? And will i get a noticable noise and heat boost in an already hot machine???

Space isnt too much of an issue as im quite happy with my external HDD, but as im upgrading and fresh installing an OS it would be the bst time to change if i was to.

On a seperate note Im still looking into upgrading the CPU (from T7300 to T9300 - 2.0ghz to 2.5ghz) and upgrading my GPU from Nvidia 8600M GS (should have held out for the GT i know) to a Radeon HD 4650 after seeing some successful changes on the interweb. However the difficulties and cost of these (~€400+) is a little daunting and im not sure if it would be worth the time and effort or to just buy something new in the future possibly with SSD and a better screen.

Any thoughts appreciated guys!

Voodu Child

The hard-drive is a bottleneck in most laptops, putting in a faster one will definitely see minor improvements in terms of startup time, general 'system response', opening apps etc.

From 250GB 5400 to 320GB 7200 isn't a massive performance, but if you want to do it, go for it. The WD Scorpio Black is one of the fastest at the moment. There have been a few 500GB 7200rpm drives, but from the tests ive seen they have all been fairly disappointing.

There's got to be a WD 500GB Scorpio Black due out soon (considering the 320GB one is over a year old) so maybe wait for that?

kikel

Since your happy with the laptop and are prepare to do it yourself it would be worth spending the money on the upgrade.

dazzday

Yeah the WD scorpio is definately the most appealing at the moment. I suppose awaiting for the 500Gb may be the best idea. My biggest concerns really are additional heat.
The 5920G is notoriously a hot laptop, although im thinking undervolting and a bios update (only have the stock at the moment) may significantly bring down temperatures.
Any thoughts on if its worthwile upgrading the CPU and the GPU??
I suppose im not really a heavy gamer so the GPU wouldnt be priority, plus it requires ALOT of work upgrading to a Radeon HD 4650...including copper mods, vBios and possibly clocking....somethings I havent a great experience on atm. Ill be leaving that til last if i do.

Voodu Child

Nah, I wouldn't worry about the heat of a new HDD. It will be negligible.

I wouldn't bother upgrading the GPU. With that amount of cost and effort, and fairly minimal returns, it doesnt seem like something worthwhile. Save that €400 and put it towards a newer machine in a year or two.

As for the CPU, i'd only upgrade it if you had a strong reason to, or if you got a very good deal on one. 2GHz dual core is still plenty fast for normal use.

dazzday

valid points indeed. Think ill lay off the the cpu/gpu upgrades for now.

Still in two minds with the HDD upgrade. Is it worth ~€100 to go from a 250gb 5400rpm wd2500bevs to a 320gb 7200rpm WD scorpio black. Will i notice the performance boost especially with a new win 7 OS?