Hard drive question 5400 vs 7200

As I wait for LED backlight on the T500, I'm researching the rest of the system.

It has been my understanding that HD performance improves by both rpm and density of the information. That is if a drive has higher density, transfer is faster and can "make up" for the a lower rpm.

Since most 2.5 inch drives over 120gb are two platters, would the 5400 rpm 250gb drive perform about the same as the 7200 rpm 160 gb?

 

No. The 160gb 7200 RPM would still be faster, especially when comparing seek times. I believe most 160gb notebook drives are single platter, vs 2 platters for the 250gb+.

 

^ nope

 

7200 RPM ftw.

 

So much for that myth. Thanks guys.

 

The myth DOES apply, to a certain extent, but the difference in data density has to be greater. ie. The 320gp 5400 RPM Scorpio, for the most part is similar in performance to the 200GB 7200RPM Momentus.

 

There is a point where the speed differences between the two RPM's can be very small if there's a big difference in drive size (say 100GB 7200RPM vs 320GB 5400 RPM as an example), but the 7200 drive will almost always win in access time latency (seek time).

You'll generally notice more of a general usage speed increase when using a decent 7200RPM drive over a larger 5400 mainly because access time is the main factor in how people notice "speed" in traditional system usage (ie, loading programs one at a time). If you were transferring some files to or from the drive then this perceived speed advantage for the 7200 RPM drive would be much less or possibly negated as you're not seeking files so much as transferring data in one continuous stream and it's here that the higher data density of the 320GB drive would come into play in the form of higher sustained transfer rates.

 

Definitely get the 7200. I swapped out my 5400 for a 7200 and have seen considerable improvements. ultra is right in that the seek time is the real thing that you notice, but thats the real important thing. How often are you really writing to the hard drive that extensively and at the max speeds? when downloading your download speed is far below what the drive can handle but I am very impatient and the deceased seek times are very nice.

 

Hey,
will there be a huge difference in noise between a 5400- and a 7200-HD? Right now I have a 5400 and I cannot ear it (and I really like that fact). Will a 7200-HB build into a Thinkpad T400 be much louder?

 

7200 HDDs are a bit louder, at least as I hear it.

 

The noise difference really depends more on what brand of drive you get than the RPM. I'm not sure what the current standings are when it comes to what manufacturer is the quietest, but I can tell you my 7K200 is pretty quiet overall. Usually the only thing you might notice as far as noise goes when going to a good quality 7200 drive is a slightly more noticeable whooshing sound (sounds like air movement, kinda).

 

1 platter 7200 RPM drives are faster, quieter, and cooler than 2 platter 5400 RPM drives.