What is faster, and better for games?

ok so, i just bought a laptop with a 80gb 5400rpm HDD.

if I also buy a Wester Digital External HDD that is
320GB / 7200 RPM / 9 MS SEEK / 8MB CACHE BUFFER

and use's the USB 2.0, Which one would be better to install my games/big programs onto???

I know the external is a little faster, but does the fact that it is connected via USB slow it down as opposed to the internal direct connection?



and is something like this - http://cgi.ebay.com/EXTERNAL-320GB-...QQihZ004QQcategoryZ116258QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


a good deal?

 

The external drive should be faster although USB does cause a tiny lag to its performance compared to internal IDE/SATA.

In general desktop components are quicker. The best 7200rpm desktop drive will be faster than the best notebook 7200rpm drive. The same applies to 5400rpm. Because of this difference the external should win.

Saying that if you looking to increase your gaming performance the hard drive is not the place to go. The gains you'll see will be hardly noticeable. Gaming performance is mainly determined by your GFX with sufficient RAM, then CPU and finally hard drive. You might see quicker load times but you will not see any increase in frame rates (maybe +1 or 2 FPS if your lucky).

If you need backup storage or just need the extra space as well then it may be worth investing.

 

A computer will only work as fast as it's slowest component, so the usb connection will be the bottleneck slowing down the transfer.
I wouldn't recommend installing your major apps on an external drive.
That seems to be a good deal, but it will benefit you more if you get a faster laptop drive and upgrade. Since it's a new laptop you won't have any data to move over which will be a big pain in the future.

 

yea i was planning on installing my major apps and games on my main hard drive. i was just wondering if the external usb would be faster, or way slower.

since it is only an 80gb HD im going to get the external drive for games i dont play very often, and mainly to transfer all my files from my old desktop to it.

but this brings up another question, does anyone know of a turtorial to set up a home network so i can get all the files i want from my desktop to my laptop without using a direct connect program (e.g. aim)?

 

You'll need to set up a workgroup and then share the files on your desktop. Then you can just go to your network place and find the files you want to transfer.

You could probably do it faster if you'd connect through firewire or even through direct ethernet, however.

 

My home desktop doesn't get turned off, it has just under a terabyte that I use with my notebooks over wireless setup as network places. It works decently, but I don't actually run anything from there.

 

An external HD will be less efficient than the built in HD for data transfer and access times, even with the speed advantage of 7200 RPM. Look at the manual for transfer rates on the USB interface. Your throughput will still be a fraction of the throughput of the built in drive.

 

okay so since the transfer of usb is way slower....

When i purchase this external drive. is it pointless to get a serial ata 7200 rpm 16mb buffer?

or will a 5400rpm drive function just as well? or should i stick to just a 7200 rpm 8mb buffer?


the price for a 7200 rpm 8mb is about $10 more than the 5400, but it is like $35 for the SATA 7200rpm with 16mb buffer.

so, i am willing to spend the extra money if it helps, but if not i'll just save the $35....

 

Btw, if you have a firewire connection use it as it is consistently overall faster than the USB 2.0 for transferring info eventhough the USB 2.0 has technically a higher possible transfer speed.