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    Upgrading 2.5" HDD 7200rpm or 5400rpm?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by davince, Sep 7, 2008.

  1. davince

    davince Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hello, everyone
    I have a dell inspiron 1520 with a 160GB 5400rpm seagate(?) HDD

    the problem is that i couldn't see the specs and drive status using the HDtune
    and there is a random "kaka" sound coming from the drive.

    and i want to change to bigger hdd anyway.
    so i'm thinking about buying a 320GB or 250GB ones.

    but there are some things i'm still not sure.

    1. should i choose 7200rpm or 5400rpm?
    i know 7200rpm will have better performance than the ones with 5400rpm
    but does it necessary be louder, hotter, more vibration, and more power consuming?

    i'm thinking about the WD scorpio black BEKT or the BJKT ones with free fall sensor.

    what i normally do on my 1520 is mostly journal reading but sometimes i play games and i need to do some in silico calculation with 3D visulization of proteins and heavy calculations.

    what do you think about WD's scropio black?

    or other drives from other brands?

    thanks alot
     
    davince, Sep 7, 2008
    #1
  2. Andy

    Andy Notebook Prophet

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    Not necessary, you can check out the charts for Power Consumption here.

    Better 7200RPM drives are the Hitachi 7K320 or the Seagate 7200.3.
    You will notice a boost with the 320GB 7200RPM drives.

    I guess the silico calculations might be CPU intensive, so you might not notice an increase in performance in that specific task. (not sure)
     
    Andy, Sep 7, 2008
    #2
  3. Lvivkse

    Lvivkse My username is a typo

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    i cant recommend seagate momentus at all though, they run hot as hell from my experience. totally unsuitable heat levels for laptops
     
    Lvivkse, Sep 7, 2008
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  4. Phil

    Phil Retired

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    Seagate 7200.3 320GB looks like the winner at the moment. It's the cheapest of the 320GB/7200rpm drives, fastest in PCMark, Vantage and HDTune and lowest power consumption.
     
    Phil, Sep 7, 2008
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  5. zero7404

    zero7404 Notebook Deity

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    i use 2 320gb wd blacks in my machine running raid 0. so far no complaints. very quiet, although i haven't benchmarked them, i trust the setup is fast enough without spending millions (ok, maybe not millions) for a similar SSD setup....
     
    zero7404, Sep 7, 2008
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  6. miro_gt

    miro_gt Notebook Deity

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    totally oposite here, I've had 2 Hitachis and both ran hot (one IDE, one SATA).

    I've had 2 seagates as well (SATA), and both ran colder and so quiet :) Use less power too vs. same size/speed Hitachi drive
     
    miro_gt, Sep 7, 2008
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  7. davince

    davince Notebook Enthusiast

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    do WD scorpio black drives generate alot of heat and vibrations?
     
    davince, Sep 7, 2008
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  8. Andy

    Andy Notebook Prophet

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    No, none at all. Mine used to idle at 40*C, and peaked at 53*C.
     
    Andy, Sep 7, 2008
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  9. zero7404

    zero7404 Notebook Deity

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    mine as well are quiet and stay fairly cool. haven't checked the actual temps, but feeling them under the notebook they don't get as hot as GPUs.
     
    zero7404, Sep 7, 2008
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  10. t30power

    t30power Notebook Deity

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    It is still difficult o figure out which drive is the quietest of all.
     
    t30power, Sep 8, 2008
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  11. Han Bao Quan

    Han Bao Quan The Assassin

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    All of them are very quiet, you can't hear them unless you put your ears over the drive.
     
    Han Bao Quan, Sep 8, 2008
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  12. Phil

    Phil Retired

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    Phil, Sep 8, 2008
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  13. ZaZ

    ZaZ Super Model Super Moderator

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    I think the problem is it can vary from one drive to the next. You can have two drive of the same make and model, one's quiet and the other's not.
     
    ZaZ, Sep 8, 2008
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  14. davince

    davince Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thank you all a lot!!

    i think i'm going to get a WD BEVT ones.
    'cause the 7200rpm scropio black ones are really quite expensive
    :(
     
    davince, Sep 8, 2008
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  15. Phil

    Phil Retired

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    WD3200BEVT is a good choice. It's really fast for a 5400rpm drive. Downside is it uses a bit more power.

    Also consider the Seagate 7200.3. It's a lot cheaper than the Black Scorpio.
     
    Phil, Sep 8, 2008
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  16. Bubbleboy78

    Bubbleboy78 Notebook Enthusiast

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    If you really want to save hard drives... run Linux.... just saying
     
    Bubbleboy78, Sep 8, 2008
    #16