5400 rpm vs 7200 rpm HD

does 7200 make a dramatic difference? is it worth $139 to upgrade?

 

I probably won't be the first one to tell you this, but this is debated to death in about 5-10 other threads...

It's not worth $139 if the size of the hard drive is the same. Here's a good site that answers your questions:
http://techreport.com/reviews/2006q1/mobile-hdds/index.x?pg=1

My conclusion from the site is that the brand of hard drive has a greater bearing on performance than rpm does, but you can't choose the brand. So I went with the 5400 rpm, 160GB for my Inspiron 1420. I'm waiting for it to ship still...

 

it's a no brainer the 7200 RPM drive will blow the 5400 rpm drive out of the water

Good thing that I picked up to 160 gig 7200 drives when Dell had them for $107 a few weeks ago

 

That is money maker for Dell if the same size costs Dell $39 they make $100. But if you need 7200 then cheaper for you except you would have original as back up if you bought on your own. Unless you do HDD intensive tasks 5400 is fine. Adds a few seconds on your boot time, adds a fraction of a second opening an app if it needs to go to HDD. You don't need it but 7200 is nice if you can afford it.

 

Will 7200 make a big difference in gaming? That is the main reason I am considering it. Thanks for all the inputs guys

 

In gaming your bottleneck will be your graphics card and RAM. The 7200 will help, but it may only be by one-two FPS.

If you have the money, get the 7200. Its worth the upgrade IMO.

~Fred

 

yes, 7200rpm is usually better than 5400rpm one.

although new technology such as Perpendicular recording, which creates a more dense packed data is able to match 7200rpm drives with 5400rpm one. so it also depends on technology the drive use. but if it is the same drive, 7200 one will denfinitely be faster.

 

lets say that my graphic card is a gddr3 8600m gt on a 2.2 core 2 duo, with 2 gb of ram on 1600x1000 (i know thats not the exact numbers but go along with it) resolution

big difference or no? =T

 

i don't think you need the 7200 and gaming is base on ur graphic card and ur ram.

 

Dell doesn't offer a gddr3 8600m GT. The one from Dell is gddr2. And that is going to be your bottle neck.

There is no way you can match a Desktop graphics card in a notebook, but the 8600 comes damm near close. What games are you planning on playing?

~Fred

 

No... maybe a few fps

 

...i cancelled my dell today after getting anotehr delay call and this time it was for aug. 28th....the notebook i am looking at has 512mb gddr3 ram 8600m gt

would it make that much of a difference then?

 

Here's my suggestion. Get the slowest and smallest HDD and upgrade it to a SSD drive when their price and storage capacity are more reasonable. I opted to do exactly this and ordered my M1330 with the most basic (here 5400 rpm 160GB) drive. As soon as the 64GB SSD drives come more widely available and therefore cheaper, I will put my current drive into an external enclosure and use it to backup my files.

 

and why couldn't you do the same with a 7200rpm drive? Basically, unless 64GB SSD becomes reality (which may be very well 2009), you will end up using a slow drive. Why would you want speed in 2 years from now and not today? That's lame!! By the time 64GB SSD becomes affordable, there will be another technology to look forward to. This game never ends.

Just buy the best you can now and live with it for 2-3 years and then get a new one, possibly the best at that time.

BTW, dell has the 5400->7200 upgrade for 46$ for Seagate 160GB.

 

its not 46 bucks for an m1330 to upgrade to a 7200. Its more like 150 bucks.

 

Well, in his original post he asked if shelling 139 bucks more for 7200 RPM drive was worth it. In my opinion it isn't. Especially if the size remains the same. I just suggested that s/he save that money for now and spend it to a SSD later.

And 5400 RPM drive isn't _that_ slow. Besides, I doubt that it'll hinder your actual gaming at all. For sure, the load time of a new level might be few seconds longer, but if you get there 2-4 seconds later... does it really matter? Peace!

 

Ok, I think I missed out on that detail. The upgrade DEFINITELY is not worth 139 bucks, not for gaming at least.

Sorry (really I am) about that!!

 

Yeah 7200 RPM hard drives will be only a tad faster..... For people who are ready to invest in it and get the best performance go ahead but those who are having a low budget (like me ) can better go for a 5400 RPM drive as it would more than suffice..... You can invest that money in something else more useful like a RAM upgrade or a better GPU or some cool accessory

 

thanks everyone i just ordered my new laptop

 

To devsk: No problem. We're cool. minj has the information and help s/he was looking for and ordered new laptop.

 

Don't 7200 rpm drives also consume more battery life?

 

I heard 7200 drives consume about the same as 5400. Since it would take less time for a 7200 drive to access information, less sustained power is needed.