5400 rpm vs 7200 hd

How much of a noticeable difference is there in 5400 vs 7200 rpm hdrive ?

I use basically email, web browsing and office stuff. No gaming.

Thanks in advance...

 

You probably won't notice that much of a difference if you aren't gaming. Windows would start faster with the 7200rpm drive but other than that you shouldn't have a problem.
Tim

 

I read recently that some big 5400 rpm drives actually end up performing just as well in real-world productivity tests as 7200 rpm drives because they are dual platter and somehow are able to take advantage of their dual-platterness to deliver faster data access than their rpm rating would suggest. I don't really know this stuff well, but I thought it was pretty interesting, since one can generally get a 160 GB 5400 for around the same price as a 100 GB 7200.

 

The increase in performance, for most non-gaming tasks, is pretty minimal. However, when you factor in the hit on battery life and the very high premium you pay financially for the 7200 rpm drives while getting reduced storage space, it's really not worth it in my view.

 

dual-platterness ??????

 

What about noise levels? In my experience, 7200rpm models are significantly louder.

 

Generally, yes, faster RPM drives are not only louder, but they also generate more heat, and as I mentioned before, drain more power. However, actual perceivable noise level can vary wildly between manufacturers. Some say Fujitsus are whisper quiet, some say Samsung. I like Seagate myself, especially since they're one of the few with a five year warranty. You need extreme confidence in a product to issue a warranty like that.

 

If you ever plan to do video capture/editing, especially high definition, you'll probably want the 7200 rpm hard drive.

 

As a side note if you do end up receiving a Hitachi model be sure to download from Hitachi's web site their drive feature configurator program in ISO bootable format. After burning it to CD it allows you to enable your drive's acoustic management feature - by default disabled - which dramatically reduces seek noise with only minimal performance loss.

 

7200 uses more power thus draining ur battery, generates more heat, sound. Copying large files or gaming or backing up data are the areas where you can see a performance increase ...for browsing,office productivity,email 5400 is almost equal to 7200 rpm drive.

 

Thanks for the info.. I figured it wasn't that big a difference, looks like I'm going to keep the 5400

 

True, but if you're really serious about video capture and editing, the best way is to go desktop. In terms of speed and pricing per gigabyte, laptops lose.