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7200rpm hard drive really worth it?

post #1 of 50
5/7/06 at 8:34pm
Thread Starter 
ok, ive been looking at it, and i cant decided if i should go with a 5400rpm hard drive, or a 7200rpm. size is the main thing for me right now. ill be moving alot of my files from this computer to the laptop (seeing as how it will be for college use). i have a 140GB hard drive right now, and using about 90GB. i planned on getting a 120GB hard drive for the laptop (cause ill be adding photos, doing photoshop, and adding more games), but i dont know if i could overlook the speed advantage of the 7200rpm hard drive.
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post #2 of 50
5/7/06 at 8:55pm
From my experince having used both I see no speed difference. I would make sure the drive you select has a 8 meg cache as 5400RPM drives under 80GB usually have a 2 Meg Cache. I use Cad, Maya and a few games (no a big gamer) and my 100GB 5400RPM drive serves me well. hope this helps.
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post #3 of 50
5/7/06 at 9:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by HapiROTT
From my experince having used both I see no speed difference. I would make sure the drive you select has a 8 meg cache as 5400RPM drives under 80GB usually have a 2 Meg Cache. I use Cad, Maya and a few games (no a big gamer) and my 100GB 5400RPM drive serves me well. hope this helps.

I agree. I have a 60 gig 7200rpm in my 9300. My new E1705 has the 80gig 5400 rpm drive. I see no difference between them.
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post #4 of 50
5/7/06 at 9:22pm
wat does the 8 or 2 mb cache do for HDD?
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post #5 of 50
5/7/06 at 9:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by plAythiNG
wat does the 8 or 2 mb cache do for HDD?
As far as I know the harddrive cache is sorta like a memory module connected directly to the hardrive, It reads ahead data and caches data there so the access times from the harddrive platter are improved. 8MEG can hold more data and read more ahead.
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post #6 of 50
5/7/06 at 9:26pm
Yeah, you have to consider the impact of areal density as well. For example, a 60GB 7200rpm drive will be noticeably faster than a 60GB 5400rpm hard drive, however compared to an 80, 100, 120GB 5400rpm the difference in speed is closed by the impact of the areal density of the drive. It will still be faster, but not noticeably in most apps (heavy disc I/O will stll give the 7200rpm an advantage). So, if you choice is between a 120GB 5400rpm drive and say a 60GB or 80GB 7200rpm drive.... and you really need the extra space.... then get the 120GB drive.

Stu
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post #7 of 50
5/7/06 at 9:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by sakor1
Yeah, you have to consider the impact of areal density as well. For example, a 60GB 7200rpm drive will be noticeably faster than a 60GB 5400rpm hard drive, however compared to an 80, 100, 120GB 5400rpm the difference in speed is closed by the impact of the areal density of the drive. It will still be faster, but not noticeably in most apps (heavy disc I/O will stll give the 7200rpm an advantage). So, if you choice is between a 120GB 5400rpm drive and say a 60GB or 80GB 7200rpm drive.... and you really need the extra space.... then get the 120GB drive. Stu
Good point, But if the drive manufactures are like the CPU manufactures (refering to how they use a laser to neuter the cache size and functions on higher end chips to sell them as lower value chips) the HDD platter's have the same density and they just restrict the controllers on the platter so they can sell the same technology to a wider market. The new ones anyway.
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post #8 of 50
5/7/06 at 10:34pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by sakor1
Yeah, you have to consider the impact of areal density as well. For example, a 60GB 7200rpm drive will be noticeably faster than a 60GB 5400rpm hard drive, however compared to an 80, 100, 120GB 5400rpm the difference in speed is closed by the impact of the areal density of the drive. It will still be faster, but not noticeably in most apps (heavy disc I/O will stll give the 7200rpm an advantage). So, if you choice is between a 120GB 5400rpm drive and say a 60GB or 80GB 7200rpm drive.... and you really need the extra space.... then get the 120GB drive.

Stu

ok, thanks for the info
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post #9 of 50
5/7/06 at 10:39pm
I have heard that a computer with a 7200 will boot up considerably faster then a computer with a 5400.
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post #10 of 50
5/7/06 at 10:42pm
I have a 5400 RPM drive in my 600m, and all I can say is that when I format and reinstall XP it took forever...loading times are decent, but it still lags some compared to my desktop, very noticable difference there. I'd say go with 7200RPM. The HD is an everyday part of your computing experience....cut a corner somewhere else.
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post #11 of 50
5/8/06 at 12:24pm
another vote for 7200, i agree with commish as usual.
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post #12 of 50
5/8/06 at 4:48pm
I'm going off to college too. Heres what I'm gonna do. Get a laptop with a lame little hard drive (40gb 5400rpm if possible) go to newegg, buy a 60gb 7200 rpm internal and an enclosure for my 300gb desktop hard drive. This way I will have a fast internal one for windows and programs and a big huge storage space for my 130gb of music and 100+gb of movies. I figure I won't be listening to music off my laptop except when I'm in my dorm room with my Logitech z-2300's so no use getting a big hd for when I'm roaming. My iPod does me just fine when I'm mobile. As far as price it will probably turn out cheaper to get a 7200 rpm drive off newegg than it would have been just to upgrade to a bigger 5400rpm one through dell. I would definately reccomend an external hard drive if you are concerned about space seeing as you can get a 300 or 400gb 7200rpm hd with an enclosure for probably the same price as upgrading your internal one to a slow big hard drive.
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post #13 of 50
5/8/06 at 5:00pm
Sound like a good plan SHNAKE.

In the same size drive, a 7200 will be faster. You could always look at HDD read/write reviews on tomshardware.com or somthing. I looked for a bit and found none.
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post #14 of 50
5/8/06 at 5:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by HapiROTT
Good point, But if the drive manufactures are like the CPU manufactures (refering to how they use a laser to neuter the cache size and functions on higher end chips to sell them as lower value chips) the HDD platter's have the same density and they just restrict the controllers on the platter so they can sell the same technology to a wider market. The new ones anyway.
I'm not sure exactly what you're saying there and how it applies to the decision to get 5400 or 7200 RPM.

I looked up the specifications of the 5400 RPM Travelstar drive that came in my new E1505.

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/5k100/5k100.htm

In that line of drives the 40, 60 and 80 GB drives all have the same areal density. The difference is they use 2, 3, or 4 disk surfaces for storage (with the 40 GB 2 surface drive having only one platter instead of two). They also had a 100 GB drive in the same series using two platters and 4 surfaces for recording. That drive did have a higher areal density, and presumably a higher maximum transfer rate.

All that is fairly straight forward. I don't think any of that qualifies as playing tricks with the controller. However, at the bottom of the page is this note:

"Part numbers 0A25825 and 0A25826 and other special bid parts are 5400 RPM drives with 4200 RPM emulation mode enabled. These part numbers are designed for applications where 4200 RPM performance is desired."

Is that the sort of thing you meant? I would agree that that is playing tricks with the controller, and deliberately crippling a product to sell it to a cheaper market segment.
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post #15 of 50
5/8/06 at 6:24pm
Yes.. it is common for manufactures to cripple a product to provide a lower market segment. I have direct experince in the enterprise market with this. I guess it makes me cynical as specification and marketing data have become interchangable. I have had 2.5" 7200RPM and 5400RPM drives and have noticed very little difference in how fast they operate in a practical setting. Although the specification and marketing data would indicated a vast difference on paper or with a specific test. When the question is asked; " Are 7200rpm hard drive really worth it?" In my opinion I would say NO, based on my practical experinces.
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post #16 of 50
5/8/06 at 6:49pm
As Public Enemy would say "Don't believe the hype". The 7200 will boot faster but it won't really be that noticeable. If you do HD intensive stuff, e.g. vid capture, work with huge DBs, etc. I'd rather go for the larger, cheaper (per GB), 5400rpm drive. I was planning to get it for my 9300 but Dell was out of stock at the time.

Quote:
Originally Posted by stuoke
I have heard that a computer with a 7200 will boot up considerably faster then a computer with a 5400.
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post #17 of 50
5/8/06 at 11:38pm
In any case DO NOT set up your computer with a bigger/better hard drive from dell. Go to newegg or tigerdirect or whatever store you want and get a MUCH better deal. The install is seriously like unscrew one screw, slide it out, replace and screw back in.
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post #18 of 50
5/9/06 at 3:44am
I should have waited,purchased a 7200 80 gb drive and was going to get the 100 gb 7200 drive.Now I'm glad I did'nt.Thanks for the info about how easy it is to install a new harddrive.
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post #19 of 50
5/9/06 at 4:12am
Quote:
Originally Posted by NOSintake
ok, ive been looking at it, and i cant decided if i should go with a 5400rpm hard drive, or a 7200rpm. size is the main thing for me right now. ill be moving alot of my files from this computer to the laptop (seeing as how it will be for college use). i have a 140GB hard drive right now, and using about 90GB. i planned on getting a 120GB hard drive for the laptop (cause ill be adding photos, doing photoshop, and adding more games), but i dont know if i could overlook the speed advantage of the 7200rpm hard drive.

If your laptop is being used mainly for Photoshop, I would suggest going for a 7200rpm SATA. I've been using PS ever since v3.0 for photography work, and drive speed DOES makes quite a big difference. As someone else mentioned, get a drive with an 8MB cache (you'll thank yourself later), and buy online from someone like Newegg (much cheaper than Dell). If the system is being used mostly for gaming though, go for the slower drive, and a good graphics card.
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post #20 of 50
5/9/06 at 4:18pm
Bump.

I have a 40GB 5400RPM drive in my laptop, for a little over 100, I can get the 7k100, would it be worthit? I mean, storage size is not an issue because I have plenty of external drives, but the $100 for 20GB more space and rpms, would you upgrade?

Also, I use a lot of Solidworks and StudioMax, will it make a difference?
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