Laptop Hard Drives
The hard drive is the place on the computer where all of your programs and data are stored. Hard drives are categorized by speed, and capacity.
Speed
Hard drive speed determines how fast a computer can access the data stored on the drive. For laptops, in the Spring of 2008, the most common speed is 5400RPM (rotations per minute). 5400RPM is more than enough for the average user. Small form-factor laptops commonly have 4200RPM drives, as they use less power and increase the battery life of the system. Other laptops may have 7200RPM drives, which are faster but drain the batter faster than the more common 5400RPM drives.
Capacity
Hard drive capacity is measured in Gigabytes (GB) and is the amount of data that can be stored on the drive. Current laptop hard drives range in capacity from as little as 40GB to as much as 500 GB. When buying a hard drive, keep in mind what your computer will be used for. If you will just be word processing and surfing the web, not much space will be needed, so 80-150GB will be sufficient. For storing games, movies, and music, more space will be needed, so you may want to consider 250GB-500GB of space. When it comes to hard drives, the more you have, the better, as you will not have to upgrade as often.
Return to Computer Buying Guide
Last Updated: 07/02/2008