so my roommates (citizen snips)'s laptop was fried a ways back with our last roommate charity case. however upon further inspection the device was deemed ... redeemable with minor replacements. a friend pointed him in the direction that a new hard drive was in order and the beast could be back up and running in no time. however due to my lack of computer knowledge and the lack of his... any knowledge, i am turning to you in hopes that one of you could let me know what kind or requirements to look for when purchasing off newegg.com. the laptop is an inspiron e1705bought new and never modded past its "stock" base.

any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

stay classy san diego.

I suggest you remove the HD and see if it is IDE or SATA, then just goto Fry's and pickup a new one.

Newegg is not that much cheaper than a HD on sale at fry's, plus you can look at what you're buying closer. The sales people there are not the most helpful.

Either way, just make sure you have the correct interface, and you should be fine.

If he doesn't get one >100gb, i'm going to ban him again.

its a SATA and i think it came stock with a 100gb. ill recommend at least a 160 or better even though my 120 works just fine. but my ride is a pc and his is a laptop.

thanks a bunch kirin.

I would avoid Fry's if at all possible - they have good prices, but they sell a lot of junk. You're better off buying once from Newegg than risk getting returns from Fry's.

Make sure you get a 7200 RPM drive with as much cache as you (he) can afford at the capacity you want. You should be able to get a 250 or 320 at a good price these days - maybe more.

Typically, Seagate has been the best brand out there, but they've been faltering lately. I'd go with a Samsung drive - they're very good and well priced.. If you can't find a Samsung at the right capacity/cache/price, Western Digital should be a good alternative. Typically, I wouldn't recommend them, but most of their new stuff is reliable. Avoid Maxtor at all costs.

Actually, since I started following the "Do not buy previously opened merchandise" rule, I have not had a problem with Fry's. And I buy a lot of equipment there, and will continue to do so.

Just don't talk to the sales people, they are not very helpful or tech savvy, and some think they know everything, (which is quite laughable). Also, they most likely will try and make you buy something that was previously opened.

I would certainly buy from newegg if the price was better, or if they did not stock it at Fry's.

Personally, if it is a difference of less than 10.00, I'm going where I can talk to a manager in person if needed.

Perhaps they've gotten better about marking what is returned or refurbished? While in school I worked at a local computer shop and used to get lots of people in daily who had bought stuff at Fry's, even stuff marked as new, that either never worked or never worked well.

We made a lot of money fixing computers built by Fry's and built with Fry's components.

Wow. I would never buy a machine built by them. The horror.

I tend to stay with manufacturers I trust when I goto Frys. For example: Nvidia, Intel, Cooler Master, etc. However, I'm sure Fry's management is looking at always selling the items with the fattest margins.

well since i live up in the puget sound in washington and i dont think we even have a fry's i should be alright. thanks again though. new should do just fine once he opens up the laptop to see which size he needs to buy.

You haven't been to a Fry's?

Everyone should go once.