What's faster 7200rpm 100gb or 5400rpm 160gb?

the 7200rpm will be faster... by a noticible amount

RPM = rotations per minute

So, 7200 > 5400

If you're getting a gaming laptop, the bigger the numbers, the better.

Although I, too, think that the 100 will be faster, I'm feeling that you didn't consider the disk density on your answer. It's not that obvious... Anyway, I didn't stumble upon any 160gb 5400 benchmarks yet.

7200RPM will be fast on reading small files or known as fragmented pieces files. While 5400RPM will be slower on that but slight fast on large file reading. But still, i think both are good depend on what use to it. ANd remember how much MB cache for each? The higher cache the better performance.

I think it depends on drive config...

Increased speed w/ increased capacity comes from an increase in aerial density. Say you compare 5400RPM 60GB v. 80GB. If they're both two platters, but one's configured as two platters 3 heads and the other is 4 heads, there's no difference in aerial density. I would guess there is no speed gain in this situation. This setup isn't hypothetical. It's actually quite common and you'll catch it when you read detailed datasheets for a few HDDs.

Both an increase in aerial density and spindle speed improves sequential read speed. Only faster spindle speed can reduce spin latency and this and seek speed are what matters for random access speed. Say your first set of data is at 0degree position and the other one is at 359 degree position. It has to wait for the spindle to make a whole spin to get to next data.

For 4200 RPM this is 13.8mS
For 5400 RPM, this is 11.1mS
For 7200 RPM this is 8.33mS

I believe there are some benchmarks out there comparing the 160GB 5400 RPM drive to 7200 RPM drives (but I'm too tired to google).

I have the 160GB drive in the m5500 notebook...I don't see a noticeable speed loss compared to an 80GB 7200 HD in everyday use. It might be different for applications like music/video recording and other large file transfers...but I really don't see an issue with games.

And, I've found the extra storage on the 160 GB HD is quite useful. The other thing besides density on the 160GB drives is the use of "perpendicular" technology...again, google is your friend.

exactly, shazza! why do we have to do everything for them?

lol...normally, I'm quite happy to research and post my google links...just been really busy and tired by the time I check in here. Certainly didn't mean to dis anyone...

The performance increase of 7200 over 5400 RPM drives is largely un-noticeable while working with small files or running common applications. The higher RPM drive's become noticeably faster when you are transfering large amounts of data. For example you will see a significant speed increase with 7200RPM drives when moving movie or other large multi-media files, iso images, HD image back-ups, etc...

didnt read half of the posts, so my thoughts might be in one of them

untill you get deep into the info of a hard drive (IE 70 gigs deep) you wont see mucch of a preformence hit between 5400 and 7200 however 7200 is always recomended

soulsaver

So do I. Except for the "tired" part.

There are two factors that affect raw transfer rates on a hard disk. Those are areal density, and rotation speed.

The 160GB drive is a perpendicular drive with particularly high areal density. The 100GB drive is a normal drive with lower areal density and higher rotational speed.

For raw transfer rates, the drives are actually quite similar. For seek times, the 7200RPM drive is still faster. So if you are worried that the 160GB drive will be much slower overall, it won't be. But it WILL be slower.

Just search for reviews of the 160GB drive, there were several that compared it to 7200RPM drives, which is where I got my position from (although from memory of the reviews).

Personally, when I buy a new laptop soon, I'll be getting the 160GB version for the extra storage capacity. The 60GB drive in my current laptop is just too small, this time I want bulk capacity.

160GB will be hard and long to maintain. I maintain HDD frequently and 160GB is normally a headact as it take extreme long to scan clusters.. I been told and belive that the more your HDD read cluster your HDD will be better

Your post doesn't make much sense. I think you're trying to say that larger drives take more time for disk scans? That logic is flawed; notebook drives increase capacity by increasing density, which means higher read and write speeds. Although certainly the increase isn't 1:1, so it might take a bit longer.

On the other hand, who cares? A disk surface scan is something that one has to do only a handful of times over the lifetime of a drive. Virus and spyware scans take place during idle (eg night) periods. So I'm not sure I see your point.

hello,

this is a topic that i am trying to truly understand better because i need to purchase another laptop soon.

i, like many others are leaning towards the 160gb drive because of space, but i don't want to be waiting for files to open and save.

some of the posts in this thread say that we will see a difference with large files. i'm not sure what is considered a large file. for example, on a regular basis, i create and edit ms word documents that are 2 gb or larger because they are often 40 pages and have 20-40 screen shots. is that considered a large file?

does the effect the speed at which software opens? the software that i use frequently includes visual studio pro, crystal reports, ms project, dreamweaver, adobe acrobat and photoshop elements

in frequently use quarkxpress, adobe premiere elements and dvd workshop 2- for video editing.

i was also under the impression that sata drives were faster then IDE drives. is that really true?

is the response time of a 160gb 5400 rpm SATA drive faster than a 60 gb 7200 rpm IDE drive?

i ask because i have a 60 gb 7200 rpm IDE drive in my current laptop and i don't find it particularly fast. it can take 10-15 seconds to save many of my ms word documents and it also slow sometimes when saving visual studio projects, not un bearable, just noticeable, if that makes sense.

thank you.

If you can wait, Hitachi will be releasing the 7K200 series early next year.

It has the best of both worlds, perpendicular recording (higher density platers) and 7200RPM spindle speed.

200GB will also be the flagship capacity.

These drives should be SIGNIFICANTLY faster than the current 7k100 drives (which are king of the hill in laptop drives).

hi brent,

a 200 gb 7200 rpm drive sounds wonderful.
i'm not sure that i can wait another 3 or 4 months.
but i will keep an eye out for this drive.

thank you.