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    Swap to smaller but faster hard drive or not?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Below Par, Sep 3, 2009.

  1. Below Par

    Below Par Notebook Enthusiast

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    I have a 500GB Western Digital scorpio blue (5400rpm) drive in my laptop at the moment. I don't need all this space. Would I notice any performance difference (mainly playing games) if I bought a 320GB Western Digital scorpio black (7200rpm) drive?

    If so, where is the best place to sell the old hard drive (it's been used for less than 2 months)?
     
    Below Par, Sep 3, 2009
    #1
  2. Matt is Pro

    Matt is Pro I'm a PC, so?

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    It depends. How many platters does each have? What's the cache size?

    All these factor into performance.
     
    Matt is Pro, Sep 3, 2009
    #2
  3. Creator527

    Creator527 Guest

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    Yes, you will see a performance difference, especially in multitasking operations. The laptop might run a bit warmer cause the Black spins faster. That, and the Blue should have higher STRs cause it has more dense platters than the Black (250GB vs. 160GB.) but altogether it will feel faster.

    I would say go for it. Sell the Blue on ebay or something.
     
    Creator527, Sep 3, 2009
    #3
  4. sgogeta4

    sgogeta4 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    As they are both of the newer generation hard drives, you would not notice a difference in day-to-day usage if you had the same notebook and in a blind test had to pick out the 7200RPM vs. 5400RPM drive.
     
    sgogeta4, Sep 3, 2009
    #4
  5. tuηay

    tuηay o TuNaY o

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    The Scorpio Black is a fast drive. But like ^ said, you won't notice any diffrence if you play games. Maybe you will get a little bit better startup time and the loading times in somegames will maybe cut down. If you have problem with this and your HDD usage is high, you can try to disable indexing service if you use Vista. You can also disable auto-defrag but that run only when your machine is at idle. But don't know if you just leave your computer for a minut and maybe it starts and you start playing again (?)
     
    tuηay, Sep 3, 2009
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  6. iGrim

    iGrim Notebook Evangelist

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    You ABSOLUTELY will see a noticeable difference. Period...
     
    iGrim, Sep 3, 2009
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  7. BobXX

    BobXX Newbie

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    Personally, I always go with smaller 7200rpm drives over larger 5.4rpm if I have the choice. :p

    You can try selling your old harddrive in the NBR Marketplace once you get enough posts.
     
    BobXX, Sep 3, 2009
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  8. Below Par

    Below Par Notebook Enthusiast

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    How big is the temperature difference? I have a Dell XPS 1530 and reading these forums it seems this thing will get hot in the future and the longer I can avoid that the better.
     
    Below Par, Sep 4, 2009
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  9. tuηay

    tuηay o TuNaY o

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    The diffirence isin't that big between 5400RPM and 7200RPM.
     
    tuηay, Sep 4, 2009
    #9
  10. grbac

    grbac Notebook Deity

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    Here you go, link.

    And this too.
    Hope this will help you out a bit.
     
    grbac, Sep 4, 2009
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  11. Phil

    Phil Retired

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    No you will not notice it during games.

    The only time the Black will be faster is during medium/heavy multi tasking.
     
    Phil, Sep 4, 2009
    #11