Need help buying the right hard drive

[aaa0897]

my hard drive now is a 250 GB, 5400 RPM SATA... my laptop is a dell inspiron 1420 core 2 duo, its a bit older, got it way before the I3, I5, and I7 series came out... so my question is will a 500 GB work? also what about a drive with 7200 RPM spindle speed, is that better than a 5400 in any way?

 

[linkin]

7200rpm should be noticably faster than 5400rpm, especially with a fresh install.

The faster it spins, the faster it can accesss data.

 

[Cameldude]

I upgraded my dell inspiron 1720, with exactly what you did, and it worked great, i also upgraded the ram, but that's a different matter. so yes it works and yes its much faster.
make sure when you buy though that you read reviews from the place you buy of the hard you are buying, see if any ones failed or there was a problem, since sometimes there is a batch of hard drives which is faulty.. just be careful, but otherwise it is great.