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I'm looking to keep my old Sony Vaio, but add more RAM and a new HD. I've got the RAM taken care of, but I was wondering if anyone knew the limitations for the HD. The machine is a VGN-SZ1HP/B.

I'm pretty sure it's a 2.5" SATA, but I'm not sure if there are any more limitations besides that (capacity, speed, etc.).

Would a 250GB 3GB/s like this one be ok?

Thanks a lot for any advice.

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2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

your link is showing a Scorpio Blue, i recommend a Scorpio Black with 7200 RPM instead (if it doesn't exceed your budget).

and yes, they're backwards compatible and work with a SATA 1 (1.5 Gb/s) controller.

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+1 for Scorpio Black Very reasonable price usually. At least here in Canada 160GB for under CAN$75 – Dave M Jan 26 '10 at 18:57
That's great to know. Thanks a lot. – Johnny W Jan 26 '10 at 19:11
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up vote 2 down vote

It looks like it is a standard SATA drive, so that one you linked to will work.

However, as your laptop most likely only has SATA1, the drive will not run at its top speed, however, it will be backwards compatible.

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I've had issues with SATA 3GB/s on controllers that only support 1.5GB/s in the past, so there are definitely potentially worse problems than it being a little slower. (Some drives don't support limiting their throughput to 1.5GB/s.) – Johnny W Jan 26 '10 at 19:11
Hi Wil, I'm surprised that someone with 27,700+ score would care about 10 points, but yes, your answer was confusing, and possibly problem causing. I wasn't asking about that drive specifically, and based on previous experience, not taking into account backwards compatibility can cause all kinds of weird and wonderful problems. If you want to improve your answer, then I'll revise my rating. As it stands, SU won't let me change it. – Johnny W Jan 27 '10 at 9:47
I'm sorry you've decided to take it personally, but really my vote was a rating of your answer and how it might help others, not as you as a person or how helpful you are. As I said, I found your answer to be unclear and potentially troublesome. For some reason you seem to want to attack Molly, too, for "not answering" my question. Molly actually had specific knowledge of that exact model of drive, recommended a better one, and then confirmed it was backwards compatible. That's a great answer in my book. – Johnny W Jan 28 '10 at 14:53
I see you've edited your answer to try and make it a little clearer. +1 – Johnny W Jan 28 '10 at 14:57
@Johnny W, for once it wasn't a me v molly thing - I understand that the answer advising a different drive is good - but I just didn't like the fact I got voted down when trying to help and answer the question... No problem and sorry... il delete my other comments and then this one after you have read it. – William Hilsum Jan 28 '10 at 15:12
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