5400rom to 7200rpm HDD worth it?

I am about to receive my brand new XPS 1530 and it was ordered with the 320gig 5400RPM drive. I will mainly be using the system as a light weight gaming/entertainment laptop as i travel.

I am considering buying a new 500gig 7200rpm HDD but i want to know first if it will make that big of a performance different?

 

5400rpm drives offer more battery life, while 7200 ones offer faster load times...

 

Are we talking about a noticeable difference in load times or 10ths of seconds?

 

A very noticeable difference IMO. Low access times help alot in reducing load times. Plus, the 500gig drives will also have much better R/W rates.

I would advise you to read a couple of reviews before going for the new 7200RPMs.

 

7200 rpm drives are pretty much always better, its basically about whether you can afford to pay for the best.

 

Agreed.

Just purchased myself a Seagate 320GB 7200rpm...I know I'll like it more than my current one. I heard it's a 30min difference in battery life, but my laptop is always hooked on the power cord anyways.

 

Hi

I'd say there is definitely some difference between a 5400 rpm drive and a 7200 drive. In particular:

1) The 7200 RPM drives will load your games or applications faster.
2) The battery life with a 7200 RPM drive will be slightly lower due to its faster speed.
3) One thing to note about 7200 RPM drives is the extra heat it generates - take that into consideration too.

 

I see a lot of such comments.

Let's take a look at the specs:

Code:

WD3200BEVT 5400rpm
[b]Current Requirements[/b]
	5 VDC
	Read/Write	500 mA
	Idle	400 mA
	Standby	50 mA
	Sleep	20 mA
[b]Power Dissipation[/b]
	Read/Write	2.50 Watts
	Idle	0.85 Watts
	Standby	0.25 Watts
	Sleep	0.10 Watts

Code:

WD3200BEKT 7200rpm
[b]Current Requirements[/b]
	5 VDC
	Read/Write	500 mA
	Idle	400 mA
	Standby	50 mA
	Sleep	30 mA
[b]Power Dissipation[/b]
	Read/Write	2.50 Watts
	Idle	0.85 Watts
	Standby	0.25 Watts
	Sleep	0.15 Watts

Barely any difference.

 

7200 RPM here!

Ok the answer I quoted is the naked truth, no more, no less than that.

if you want a recomendation, I will say I recomended only for gaming or video editing.

(sorrry for my english guys )

 

Basically, 7200 rpm is 27% (off the top of my head but I'm pretty sure that number is right) faster but everyone is correct about it taking more battery life and it also runs a bit hotter depending on the brand. I always find it worth it.

 

Did you even read the thread? Mainly my last post in which I show that a 7200rpm drive consumes NO additional power and outputs NO additional heat?

 

Actually what you posted just shows the difference between the two WD drives, it doesn't prove that there are no differences betwen 5400 and 7200 RPM drives.

For instance the seagate 5400 vs 7200 at 25c

idle performance mode 1.6 vs 1.9w
seek 2.0w vs 2.3w
read 2.0w vs 2.1w
write 1.6w vs 2.1w

and they do run hotter, faster speed, more heat.

So both are correct, its possible to find a drive that does have similar specification on power consumption, but not all drives are the same.

 

Guess that means don't buy a POS Seagate.

 

Well it depends, WD might have reduced the performance of the drive to keep the power draw lower, plus you don't get the full picture from just looking at the power draws per item at a particular temperature, you have to look at the overall usage, seagate usually provides that information too, a lower penalty for seek might outweigh higher costs elsewhere.

but given i just pulled a 7200 RPM momentus from my laptop with a crashed head, i'm not all that up on seagates at the moment, but then my WD 10,000 RPM velociraptor died a few weeks ago, both in about the same time frame.

 

The thing is though, hard drive don't use that much power to begin with. The CPU, screen, GPU (if you have dedicated), and wireless card will all use more power even on battery. So unless you've got a very power-optimized system - which wouldn't include an XPS - hard drive power usage isn't really something to be concerned about. If you had a ThinkPad X61 with the ULV processor, then hard drive power usage might be something to think about.

As for heat, almost any laptop out there today can handle the slight increase a 7200 will generate on average. Maybe the absolute cheapest Packard Bell would warrant reconsidering, but any random Wal-Mart PC should be able to handle one without any problems.

 

I'd like to do a bit more testing on my 7200 rpm drive before i decide if its a slight increase and if its going to be ok, i ordered a replacement and have my old samsung 5400 in there now, i'll data log the temps it shows and do a comparison i can run a couple of k type thermocouples into the case as well since i have some nearby..

its possible i just got unlucky and the drive failed prematurely, it happens enough.

 

I found going to a 7200RPM drive was worth the money/effort in my MacBook. I tried to upgrade to a 7200 RPM drive in my M1530 but the western digital drive I ended up getting caused an issue where it wouldn't wake from sleep. I still don't see how a hard drive could do that but now that I am back on my 5400RPM, I have no problems. I started a thread about my issue:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=330403

 

The speed is not everything!

A 320GB 5400rpm drive will be just as fast as a 200GB 7200rpm drive because of the data density.

So it depends upon the HD size as well. It is only when you go to 10000 or 15000rpm is there a real diffrence between the 2. And remember it will take less time for a 5400rpm drive to spin up to full speed than a 7200rpm drive.

 

1 to 2 seconds difference if your lucky