Dell M1330, Hard disks...hmmmm...

Hi, how's everyone doing?

Going to take the plunge and buy a M1330 - just the right size/performance/price point.

The only sticking point is the hard disk...deciding between the 320GB 5400rpm and the 200GB 7200rpm.

I've googled and searched this forum and other forums, and there's no clear answer. The other confounding factor is that the 200GB cost $50-60 less over here in Australia.

So my issues are:

1) Capacity
Obviously the 320GB wins out here...

2) Speed
On paper, the 200GB is faster, but I've also heard that higher capacity hard drives are faster (eg. a 200GB is faster than a 160GB) because of density of data on the disk. So how much faster is the 200GB?

3) Heat and Noise
Is the 200GB spinning faster, produce more heat and noise than the 320GB?

4) Battery life
Does 7200RPM disk sap into your battery life, or does the reduced read/write access times mean that you use your hard disk less (and therefore compensate for the higher speed)?

Thanks a heap for the help!

 

get the 320 if you have the 50 extra bucks. those 2 hdds are probably about the same speed but i'm sure the 7200 rpm one run's hotter.

 

7200 RPM drives are only negligibly hotter, if at all. They still stay well within temperature regulations - if you've got heat problems bad enough to scorch a 7200 drive, chance are very high it will scorch a 5400 as well. Battery life is also within a negligible amount between 5400 and 7200.

What is comes down to is speed or capacity. If you need lots of storage, go 320. If you don't, go 200 and benefit from faster speed.

Generally, a 5400 drive of twice the space of a 7200 drive is equally as fast - thus a 160x7200 is about the same speed as a 320x5400. Of course benchmarks are better to go on. It also gets a bit wacky over 320 GB - 500 GB 5400 drives are no more dense than 320's (they just have one more hard drive platter), so they are no faster (well, maybe a very small percentage for the extra 20 GB over 320*1.5).

 

thanks for the advice and poll votes. Sounds like I'll take whatever special that Dell comes along - I don't need the extra capacity, the speeds sound almost the same, so if they give me a free upgrade to a 320GB...I'll probably just take it.

Although, the only other question is that I've heard that the 7200rpm drives have free-fall sensor technology etc...does this really make a difference - I don't really envisage on dropping my laptop anytime soon...

 

I definetly recommend the Free Fall Sensor - it basically stops your disk when it detects vertical movement. There is a PC mag article about its benefits.

Also, if you really want to check the benfits of the 320gb 5400 rpm vs. 200gb 7200 RPM (isn't it 250 now?), do a google search for benchmarks. That should give you some quantitative data regarding performance for both units.