Best 40GB drive for PowerBook Wallstreet?

[David Anderson]

Hi,

I'm moving to OS X on my 300 mHz Wallstreet, but before I do that, I
want to move to a larger, and more importantly, faster and quieter hard
drive than the 8 gig original.

A 40GB drive is more than enough, perhaps more than I'll ever need.

I'm looking at the Toshiba MK4019GAX and the IBM/Hitachi Travelstar 40
GNX. I've seen conflicting reviews on which is the fastest drive. One
review said the Toshiba was slightly noisier. The Toshiba has a 16MB
buffer, while the Travelstar has 8MB. I don't know how big a difference
hard drive buffers make in OS X.

One question--I know that the ATA bus on my computer is only ATA-2 with
a maximum transfer rate of 16.6MB/s. Will getting the fastest hard drive
really help me, or could I go instead with something like IBM/Hitachi's
40 GN 4200 RPM drive with no perceptible reduction in speed?

In other words, I don't want to waste money, but I want the fastest,
quietest drive my computer can take advantage of.

Thanks,
David

P.S. I am aware of the Travelstar's sleep/magnet issue and how to work
around it.

[Howard S Shubs]

In article <davida-B0081F.14374719082003@news.ucla.edu>,
David Anderson <davida@nospam.com> wrote:

> P.S. I am aware of the Travelstar's sleep/magnet issue and how to work
> around it.

I found the 40GN Travelstar to work just fine, with no shielding
necessary. It's been said that the Wallstreet won't really benefit from
the faster 40GNX drive, so you might as well save the money.

--
Today, on Paper-view: Pulp Fiction!

[Thomas Reed]

In article <davida-B0081F.14374719082003@news.ucla.edu>, David Anderson
<davida@nospam.com> wrote:

> I'm moving to OS X on my 300 mHz Wallstreet [...]
>
> A 40GB drive is more than enough, perhaps more than I'll ever need.

A word of warning to head of possible problems when you install OS X --
on a Wallstreet, OS X must reside on a partition that lies entirely
within the first 8 GB on the drive. So be sure to partition your new
drive appropriately.

--
-Thomas

<http://www.bitjuggler.com/>

[David Anderson]

>
> A word of warning to head of possible problems when you install OS X --
> on a Wallstreet, OS X must reside on a partition that lies entirely
> within the first 8 GB on the drive. So be sure to partition your new
> drive appropriately.

Thanks--that was already part of the plan. :)