Dell Inspiron 640m - 1.5G or 3.0G SATA?

[renv]

I've got a Dell Inspiron 640m notebook which I bought in early 2007. Does anyone know whether this notebook has a SATA 1.5G or 3.0G connector?

I'm considering replacing my current HDD with the Seagate Momentus XT which has a 3.0G interface. From reading other threads on this forum, it sounds like I may need to force the new HDD to slow down to the 1.5G interface if the connector on the 640m is only 1.5G.

 

[1haplo]

Download CPUz and look at the mainboard tab and it will tell you the southbridge, If it is the Intel ICH6 then it is a 1.5, and if it is ICH7 and higher then its 3.0, IIRC you have the ICH7 so it is SATA 3.0.

Even if it is 1.5 that drive will work.

 

[John_VanKirk]

Hi there,

A 3G HDD will run at 1.5G speed, so it doesn't make any difference.

Here is the URL for the specs on your laptop.

http://www.dell.com/us/en/dfb/notebooks/inspn_640m/pd.aspx?refid=inspn_640m&s=dfb&cs=28&~section=specs#tabtop

Interresting that the spec sheet says it will take up to 100 GB HDD. I have never seen a limitation of 100GB for a HDD. on a Vista machine, but I might be worth an online chat with Dell to confirm you would get full use of a larger 320-500GB drive. Other comments might help answer this question.

 

[renv]

I've bought and installed the Seagate Momentus XT 500GB drive and it's working fine - didn't need to play around with any settings / jumpers to get it working. I'm getting full use of the 500GB as well.

(I ran CPUz before buying the drive and it is ICH7)

 

[John_VanKirk]

I've bought and installed the Seagate Momentus XT 500GB drive and it's working fine - didn't need to play around with any settings / jumpers to get it working. I'm getting full use of the 500GB as well.

(I ran CPUz before buying the drive and it is ICH7)

Wondeful! Glad it all worked out and now you have a fast large HDD for your laptop. Always a good feeling.

 

[renv]

a big HDD is good, any size over 500GB I'd look for the best of all three things; speed, price, size.
ever think of going SSD.?

I was about to get an SSD before a friend put me onto these hybrid hard drives. I ended up getting this 500GB Seagate Momentus XT for $AU177 (a 128GB SSD would have cost me upwards of $AU300). So my decision was based around cost more than anything.

Not sure how this particular hybrid drive compares against SSD. All I know is that it's a massive improvement on the 5400RPM 120GB Hitachi drive that the laptop came with.

 

[renv]

Best answer selected by renv.