Laptop hard drive in desktop: Cons?

[rayden54]

Is there a reason, other than mounting to not put a SATA III laptop hard drive into a desktop as a primary hard drive?

Edit: Yes I have one from a dead laptop.

 

[namdlo]

Laptop hdd are usually more expensive and slightly slower performance (platter density) for even the same drive specs.

 

[Thanatos Telos]

They also run hotter, are more expensive, louder on occasion, and often have less storage.

 

[USAFRet]

Is there a reason, other than mounting to not put a SATA III laptop hard drive into a desktop as a primary hard drive?

If you already have it, and it is coming out of an otherwise dead laptop, not really.
It's just another drive. Slower and smaller, but no special differences.

Buying a new one to put in a desktop? No.

 

[rayden54]

Laptop hdd are usually more expensive and slightly slower performance (platter density) for even the same drive specs.

Why slower? I'm not sure what platter density is.

It's 7200 rpm, but I don't think that's what you mean.

 

[namdlo]

Laptop hdd are usually more expensive and slightly slower performance (platter density) for even the same drive specs.

Why slower? I'm not sure what platter density is.

It's 7200 rpm, but I don't think that's what you mean.

The closer the bits are together on the platter the faster they can be read.

This article has a good definition:

http://blog.macsales.com/11825-when-slower-is-actually-faster

 

[teh_gerbil]

Simply put, no.

For instance, in a moment of foolish insanity I put a 'high end' Seagate Momentus XT hybrid 750GB drive in my computer. Total price $160NZD.

As you can see from this review:
http://thessdreview.com/our-reviews/seagate-momentus-xt-750gb-solid-state-hybrid-drive-review-ssd-performance-with-hdd-capacity/4/
And many others, it supposedly wipes the floor against other laptop HDD's and stands up next to even the 1000rpm performance of the WD Raptor series. [Boy.. Were they being paid by Seagate or what! Read on..]

While it was high end for laptop harddisk drives I quick found that the peak transfer rates quickly let it down. Whereas I got 100mB/s Write transfer on to a brand new 1TB Seagate Black, This was maxing out at 80mB/s. The reason I know this is the 960 amd chipset drivers display the average reads across the life of the drive. Horribly dissapointing.

Tack on the cheating scoundrels promise of a 'faster' boot time for frequently used Applications (like windows) that never quite eventuated even after 3 weeks of reboots every night, it still paled in comparison to the seagate barracuda 7200.12 st1000dm003 that it replaced.

So, long story short, don't get fed cock and bull benchmarks showing laptop hdd's outpacing desktop HDD's. While they may look better on paper, (for a system drive at least) it's a hollow dream.

Do yourself a favour and learn from my mistake.. I had to sell the drive second hand for 100 bucks, and bought a Seagate 120GB 840pro SDD for 240NZD and holy sweet monkey my computer just flies along. I don't have enough time to brew my coffee in the morning (Using a nespresso nonetheless) before this guy awakes from anything, be it hibernation (6GB's RAM), cold start or standby!

So, while I don't know your circumstances OP, please share the word about laptop hdd's. They freaking stink.