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a 5400rpm harddrive and gaming

post #1 of 18
4/11/04 at 2:14pm
Thread Starter 
I'm just wondering - if I play games such as C&C generals, max payne 2, nfs underground, mostly newer games - will the comp have problems with them since the harddrive is only 5400rpm ? I am asking for a friend he has a 2.8ghz p4 alienware with 1gb of ram and a radeon 9000 128mb graphics card - should he have any problems or should he try to upgrade to a 7200rpm drive? Thanks in advance.
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post #2 of 18
4/11/04 at 2:45pm
i have a 4200 rpm drive, and have played through some of those games just fine. the harddrive is used mainly for loading screensm and they can drag on. It was a mistake on my part to go with such a slow harddrive, i plan on upgrading really soon. anyone know when the 10200 rpm drives are due out for a sager?
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post #3 of 18
4/11/04 at 2:52pm
Thread Starter 
do you think it will need to be upgraded or is it not a factor ? also do you happen to know if the 2.8ghz processors were already packed with the HT technology or not since I see in your sig that you have a 2.8 one packed with HT
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post #4 of 18
4/11/04 at 3:02pm
5400 will be sufficient enough to do what you (or he) requires. loading screens will be quicker than mine, and file transfer as well will be faster. of course 7200 rpm is going to give the best performance. when purchasing my computer i didn't realize what i was getting into as far as the bottleneck i recieved when selecting the hdd. ipues vale!

I don't know about the 2.8 being HT enabled, you have to ask alienware. Henrik said he was able to enable HT on his processor that didn't officially support HT, so maybe ask him. Later on.
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post #5 of 18
4/11/04 at 3:05pm
I would definitely get/upgrade to the 7200 RPM drive. I've used both speeds on desktops and it is a noticable difference. Not only do programs load/install faster, but I find it speeds up 'everyday' operations, such as opening files, browsing around the computer, etc. For the difference in price between the 5400 RPM and 7200 RPM drive, it's worth the little extra money, IMO. The hard drive is also by far one of the slowest components on the computer (compared to RAM, other forms of memory, and so forth), so I like to get the fastest hard drive(s) available.

Aaron
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post #6 of 18
4/11/04 at 4:10pm
Thread Starter 
he told me he's prob gonna upgrade to the 60gb 7200rpm he said to ask where should he buy it for it to be compatible and cheap ?
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post #7 of 18
4/11/04 at 4:42pm
The only difference a faster harddrive will make in gameing is faster load times. Actual game play will not differ.
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post #8 of 18
4/11/04 at 5:03pm
As long as he gets an ATA drive, and it fits the caddie in his machine, it won't matter. From the description of the drive (60 GB, 7200 RPM) it sounds like a Hitachi though I suppose there are other brands with those specs.

And, n_lande is correct, the faster hard drive won't make any difference in game play, unless there are substantial maps, textures, etc, that have to be loaded continuously. There will be a difference in loading, both initially and in changing terrains and levels or occasionally when the game needs more data. On the other hand, it certainly won't hurt to have a faster drive. If your friend has the bucks to spend and he already has a good CPU, adequate RAM and a good GPU, a better hard drive is the next item in line for improvement. Regardless of anything else, rotating media is going to be around for quite some time and he can always use the drive in a future machine or with an External Drive Enclosure. Its one of the few computer expenditures that really can be considered an investment of sorts.
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post #9 of 18
4/11/04 at 5:04pm
Thread Starter 
how much slower are we talking about in the loading etc I mean are we talking about fractions of seconds, 1 sec 5 secs 10 secs ? I know you can't tell me accurately just for someone that has experienced gaming with both - approximate thanks
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post #10 of 18
4/11/04 at 8:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by zacharac
anyone know when the 10200 rpm drives are due out for a sager?

WHAT@#!@!!!~~!1``
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post #11 of 18
4/11/04 at 8:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by AaronC7
Not only do programs load/install faster, but I find it speeds up 'everyday' operations, such as opening files, browsing around the computer, etc.
A faster hard disk spindle speed means faster disk cache operations. If you frequently use apps that use the hard disk as "memory" (e.g. Photoshop), you will notice the difference.
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post #12 of 18
4/11/04 at 9:55pm
Thread Starter 
thanks guys
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post #13 of 18
4/11/04 at 9:59pm
i think the loading times will differ greatly on what you are comparing...

4200 rpms vs 7200? you will definitely see a big difference...
i have no idea about a 5400 vs 7200 tho...i'd imagine it cant be all that much difference...probably just a few seconds on average....
but i definitely would never go with a 4200 drive on any of my machines....
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post #14 of 18
4/11/04 at 10:02pm
Difference between 4200 rpm and 5400 is a lot if you do anything disc intensive. Not as large as the increased performance form the 7200's - but still a lot. IMHO & experience.
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post #15 of 18
4/11/04 at 10:22pm
As far as having problems, no he wont. But...Disc performance can have the effect of making your box feel snappier overall. You feel it everywhere, clicking around windows, loading apps etc. Go from 512 megs of ram to a gig and you will only feel it if you use a small number of apps that can take advantage of that ram and only then while your using those apps. Its pretty common these days for folks to overkill on ram that gives them an improvement they need test software to see and then skimp on other components that would have given them a performance increase they can actually feel in every day use. Such as improving disk performance via a zippier drive.
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post #16 of 18
4/11/04 at 10:24pm
Thread Starter 
thanks lol - where were you guys earlier ?
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post #17 of 18
4/11/04 at 10:24pm
Thread Starter 
not like it matters...thanks for the help anyways
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post #18 of 18
4/12/04 at 4:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by zacharac
anyone know when the 10200 rpm drives are due out for a sager?
10K RPM drives are barely out in 3.5" format, and those were SATA if not mistaken.

10K is primarily common in SCSI and FC-AL formats (where 10K is the norm today and 15K is the wallet-buster).

Your best bet in 2.5" (notebook) format today is 7200 RPM. And that is fast enough for a PC IMO. It appears that 5400 RPM notebook drives can come in 16 Meg cache as well (like the one I got in recent trade), so your results may vary anyway.

--TSK
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