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80GB 4200rpm vs 60GB 7200rpm -> Will I notice a significant difference?

post #1 of 22
8/30/05 at 1:21am
Thread Starter 
My current setup is as follows:

Asus M6BNe
1.6GHz Centrino
1GB RAM
80GB 4200rpm hard drive

I notice that the notebook slows down sometimes, and I guess the hard drive is the bottleneck. I can get a 60GB 7200rpm for about $200 CDN (~$165 US). Is it worth the upgrade to the 7200rpm hard drive? Will I notice significant improvements? Or should I grab an 80GB 5400rpm hard drive instead?
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post #2 of 22
8/30/05 at 2:07am
What do you want to use it for? Video's, or just general gaming, etc?
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post #3 of 22
8/30/05 at 2:07am
Oooh, I forgot. Generally, you will notice the difference in the 7200 (from what I've heard).
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post #4 of 22
8/30/05 at 2:09am
huge difference-I will not even work on a 4200 rpm drive system anymore unless they will upgrade to 5400 minimum-too painful to watch and wait
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post #5 of 22
8/30/05 at 2:30am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by YinYang
What do you want to use it for? Video's, or just general gaming, etc?
My notebook is basically my desktop replacement. I use it for gaming (not much though, thats what the xbox is for), word processing, autocad, some graphics, internet, movies, music, etc.

So the question now looms, 5400rpm or 7200rpm? Ideally, I'll use my 80GB 4200rpm as external storage so I won't be short of space if I get a 60GB 7200rpm. I'm really aiming for a quicker running system. Is it worth spending $200 for a Hitachi 60GB 7200rpm HD or should I just get a Hitachi 80GB 5400RPM 8MB Cache hard drive for $170 (all in $CDN)? Will it be worth it to spend the extra $30, lose 20GB of space but gain speed?
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post #6 of 22
8/30/05 at 3:16am
well when i purchased my dell, i opted for the 80gb 5400 over the 60gb 7200. The reason being that i really wanted that extra space, and in a notebook, 7200rp isnt much over the 5400. However, you will notice a big improvement over your current 4200 with either drive.
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post #7 of 22
8/30/05 at 9:52am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by mr. roboto
well when i purchased my dell, i opted for the 80gb 5400 over the 60gb 7200. The reason being that i really wanted that extra space, and in a notebook, 7200rp isnt much over the 5400. However, you will notice a big improvement over your current 4200 with either drive.
But how's the speed difference between the 80GB 5400rpm and 60GB 7200rpm? Is it enough to justify sacrificing the 20GB?

Here are some prices of hard drives I can get (remember the prices are in $CDN):

Toshiba NoteBook 80G 5400rpm 16MB Cache $160.00
Hitatchi Travelstar E7K60 60GB 7200RPM ATA 8MB 10MS 2.5IN (3yr warranty) $210
Fujitsu 80GB 5400RPM 8MB Cache $150
Hitachi 80GB 08K0639 5400RPM 8MB $160

I need advice/suggestions!
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post #8 of 22
8/30/05 at 10:02am
The speed difference will be fairly considerable; however, whether or not it will be a bother is entirely up to you. Why don't you get a 100gb 5400 RPM drive? Or even an 80gb 5400RPM?
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post #9 of 22
8/30/05 at 10:14am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Redmumba
The speed difference will be fairly considerable; however, whether or not it will be a bother is entirely up to you. Why don't you get a 100gb 5400 RPM drive? Or even an 80gb 5400RPM?
Well, the price of the Toshiba 100GB 5400RPM is about $240. As for the 80GB 5400rpm, I'm just trying to figure out if the 20GB and $70 difference between that and the 60GB 7200rpm is really worth it.

As I mentioned before, I'll be using the 80GB 4200rpm as external storage (thru a USB enclosure) so I don't think space should be an issue (although with this 80GB currently, sometimes space is an issue).
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post #10 of 22
8/30/05 at 11:42am
I have the Seagate 100gb 5400rpm drive that I got from CompUSA for $164 last year This gives you a large amount of space, fast speed, and seagates long warranty. Also, the platter density of the drive almost makes it as fast as the 60gb 7200 rpm drive.
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post #11 of 22
8/30/05 at 11:48am
Just get a externel Hard Drive for the money you are paying for the Internel Hard Drive. You can geet 250G for like 200 odd US
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post #12 of 22
8/30/05 at 12:46pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by camvgk
Just get a externel Hard Drive for the money you are paying for the Internel Hard Drive. You can geet 250G for like 200 odd US
But I'm not really looking for more space. I want to speed up my system.
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post #13 of 22
8/30/05 at 1:08pm
yes, get the 7200rpm

you'll significant imprevement in application load times

and also greater performance in programs like Photoshop that tend to utilize a lot of swap
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post #14 of 22
8/30/05 at 1:39pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by awingedpig
yes, get the 7200rpm

you'll significant imprevement in application load times

and also greater performance in programs like Photoshop that tend to utilize a lot of swap
How is your 60GB 5400rpm hard drive holding up? Are you find the speeds alright?

As I stated above, these are the hard drives I'm considering:
Toshiba NoteBook 80G 5400rpm 16MB Cache $160.00
Hitatchi Travelstar E7K60 60GB 7200RPM ATA 8MB 10MS 2.5IN (3yr warranty) $210
Fujitsu 80GB 5400RPM 8MB Cache $150
Hitachi 80GB 08K0639 5400RPM 8MB $160

Does cache says make a huge difference (8MB vs 16MB)? Would the Toshiba 80GB 5400rpm 16MB run in par with the 7k60?
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post #15 of 22
8/30/05 at 1:47pm
Dont know about the US but in Europe Seagate has just started selling new Momentus Series of notebook harddrives:

7200RPM 80GB 8MB PATA 188€
7200RPM 80GB 8MB SATA 197€
7200RPM 100GB 8MB PATA 266€
7200RPM 100GB 8MB SATA 276€

The Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100GB is currently king of the hill in notebook harddrives.
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post #16 of 22
8/30/05 at 2:24pm
Although the 7200 RPM disk will give you definite performance improvements, it will also shorten your battery life.
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post #17 of 22
8/30/05 at 6:06pm
Thread Starter 
Ok, just went to a couple of computer stores but none of the employees/owners seems to know much. It seems that you guys are smarter then the computer specialists

So I've narrowed it down to 2 specific hard drives:
(1) Toshiba 80GB 5400rpm 16MB Cache - $160.00 (might be able to get it from another store for $135)
(2) Hitatchi Travelstar E7K60 60GB 7200RPM 8MB Cache - $210

Main questions (as throughout the thread):
*Is the speed difference between the two noticible?
*Does cache size really make a huge difference?
*Is the power consumption between the 2 the same? Or does the 7200RPM HD require more juice?
*Toshiba vs Hitachi - Who has better quality hardware?
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post #18 of 22
8/31/05 at 10:57pm
Thread Starter 
^bump^
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post #19 of 22
8/31/05 at 11:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by 426Hemi
Ok, just went to a couple of computer stores but none of the employees/owners seems to know much. It seems that you guys are smarter then the computer specialists

So I've narrowed it down to 2 specific hard drives:
(1) Toshiba 80GB 5400rpm 16MB Cache - $160.00 (might be able to get it from another store for $135)
(2) Hitatchi Travelstar E7K60 60GB 7200RPM 8MB Cache - $210

Main questions (as throughout the thread):
*Is the speed difference between the two noticible?
*Does cache size really make a huge difference?
*Is the power consumption between the 2 the same? Or does the 7200RPM HD require more juice?
*Toshiba vs Hitachi - Who has better quality hardware?

I would go for option 1.
It has more space to store your files.
It has more cache, which will increase speed.
Battery life shouldn't be affected too much.
See this :http://www.tomshardware.com/mobile/2...d_battery_life
Though the faster hdd, were larger in size, the point I am getting at is
Quote:
One result is particularly interesting - the fact that even a clearly faster hard drive like the 7200-rpm model from Hitachi only makes a negligible dent in the battery life.
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post #20 of 22
9/1/05 at 1:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by NightHawk7
Also, the platter density of the drive almost makes it as fast as the 60gb 7200 rpm drive.
The real performance difference on notebook hard drives is mostly about access time not transfer speeds. The hard drive responds more quickly to requests.
A 4200rpm hard drive will never have the access time of a 7200rpm hard drive, no matter what the platter density is.
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