5400 HDD vs 7200 HDD (with mSATA)

Ok so the Y500 comes with a 5400 1TB HDD as well as a 16gb SSD mSata, is this going to strongly affect the loading/boot times of games and programs? I know the data transferring might be noticeably different, but just by how much? Does 5400 decrease the performance of programs? I'd be using the Y500 for video/photo/music programs. Does the 16gb SSD brings things up to speed? Should it be ok with the 5400 HDD with mSATA 16GB? I could upgrade the 16gb to 256gb mSATA

 

Upgrade to the 256GB mSATA (preferably install your own, as it will be less expensive), put your operating system on that, and use the hard drive for file storage. Having an SSD cache is not going to be as effective as running the OS from an SSD.

 

That's assuming he's willing in to put in the effort to maintain two drives (ex: where to install a program, HHD or SSD?).

 

A 16GB SSD used as a cache (or otherwise) will do very little to the usability of a system for video/music/photo editing.

A 256GB mSATA (SATA3 - not SATA2) used as the C: drive will greatly enhance the system's responsiveness.

The 5400 RPM HDD will decrease the performance of anything the system is used for (even with the 256GB mSATA SSD)... HIGHLY NOT RECOMMENDED.


The best configuration would be two SSD's (240/256GB for the O/S and programs) and (960GB for the video/photo/audio 'data').

Next would be the 240/256GB SSD for the O/S and programs (left with ~30% 'unallocated') and a HDD partitioned with around 100-250GB as a WIP partition (work in progress) with the rest used for 'finished' work/data.


Along with the above: you want a quad core IB cpu with 16GB RAM (or more) along with Win8x64 PRO to ensure a fast and stable platform for the foreseeable future (~3-5yrs).


Good luck.

 

Keep in mind also that platter density plays a role in mechanical drives read speed. A 1 TB drive will read faster than a 500 GB drive.

 

Well, the good news is that the answer is pretty simple.

As you know, your Lenovo Y500 has two internal drive connections: an mSATA slot, and a 2.5" SATA drive bay. The only meaningful upgrade you can make is to get a 256GB mSATA SSD. Put your OS / apps / games on the SSD, and keep your bulk media content on your 1TB mechanical HDD (music, photos, videos, pr0n).

Any upgrade to the 2.5" drive bay wouldn't be meaningful. A 1TB drive (of any speed) already maxes out the capacity you can get. And any kind of upgrade for performance (7200rpm drive, hybrid drive, or SSD) would be meaningless since bulk media content doesn't benefit at all from having faster speeds on the storage drive. You COULD do it (e.g. get a 960GB SSD for $630), but you're really just throwing money away at that point for zero practical benefit. You might as well take six $100 bills, and just burn them. Because at least that way, you'd get a light show.

If you want to upgrade storage, get yourself a 256GB mSATA SSD for about $200, and call it a day.

 

There's no need for 16 GB of RAM. By the time you need more than 8-12 GB of RAM, it would've been already time to replace the laptop.

 

Go with Tiller and djembe on this one. It will serve you better to buy and install a 256GB mSATA and run your OS and programs from that. 256GB will be more than enough for media editing programs. Only large games will take up massive amounts of disk space. There are two other distinct advantages. One, if your SSD ever goes bad, you can swap it out for a new one and not have to worry about losing any of your personal files. Those would be stored on the HDD. Second, you can get whatever HDD you want, 5400RPM or 7200RPM. As it is being used for data storage and not OS, there is no drain on it's data bandwidth because the OS is not running off of it. Plus if it ever fills up in the future, you just go and get a larger capacity HDD, transfer your files to the new one, swap them out in your notebook, and away you go. There's also something to be said for having your data on an HDD separate from your OS drive. That gives a higher degree of protection in case your OS gets infected with a virus or something.