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Notebook Buying Guide

What types of drives do I need?

First, decide how big a hard drive you need; this will depend on how much data you store. After that, determine what you'll use your notebook for. Will you be tackling the most basic computing tasks or do you worship Scorsese and plan to make your own DVD movies?

Drives: Hard drive | Optical drive | Swappable vs. fixed drive | External drive

Hard drive

A notebook hard drive removed from the system.

This magnetic disk provides you with space to save programs and files indefinitely--or at least for the life of the drive. Notebook hard drives can provide up to 500GB of storage, but these giant drives cost hundreds of dollars more than the default 100GB to 250GB notebook drives. The 120GB to 160GB drive should be sufficient, unless you store lots of music and movies or tons of pictures. Be warned that capacity alone does not make a good hard drive. The harddisk's rotational speed also makes a big difference; a 7,200rpm notebook disk delivers significantly faster performance than a 5,400rpm model. The faster the disk spins, the better your notebook will perform overall. The flipside is that battery life will also be adversely affected.

The latest storage devices are solid state drives (SSD), which are based on similiar technology as USB flash disks. With no moving parts, SSDs last longer and are more resistant to shock. Unfortunately, they are also very expensive compared to magnetic drives though prices are expected to fall to affordable levels in the next few years.

Optical drive

Even if you're going budget, don't settle for anything less than a DVD writer drive.

Most notebooks, even budget systems, now include a DVD writer drive (either built into the laptop or external and connected via USB) for burning discs and watching movies on the road. Some higher-end notebooks offer Blu-ray burners, which let you store large amounts of information on one disc.

Swappable vs. fixed drive

Here is a media module slipping into a swappable drive. Fixed drives won't let you remove the module.

The least expensive notebooks come with fixed (built-in) drives. In other words, if you buy your notebook with a fixed DVD-ROM, you're stuck with that drive. A swappable drive bay, on the other hand, gives you optimum flexibility. For instance, you can pull out the DVD-ROM drive and swap in a DVD writer drive or even a second battery. We recommend going with a swappable bay if you can afford it. Keep in mind, however, that the smallest and lightest ultraportable notebooks may include neither fixed nor swappable optical drives, relying instead on external USB drives.

External drive

This is an external drive tethered to a notebook.

External drives--storage and media-burning options that hook up to your notebook via cable--come in many shapes and sizes. Most of these drives connect to your notebook via a USB or FireWire cable. Drive choices include external floppy, CD-ROM, combo DVD/CDRW, DVD-ROM, DVD-RW, hard drive, and others. There are also flash drives that plug directly into your USB connector sans cable. These little drives are brilliant for transferring small amounts of data between notebooks or between notebooks and PCs, and they're much more convenient than burning data onto CD. Many notebook users don't need external drives, but there are scenarios that require them. For instance, if you buy a tiny ultraportable that lacks a built-in optical drive, make sure you get an external one so you can load software.

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