If you chose 7200 rpm for your T61/T61p, Why?

Just out of curiosity!

you've heard it over and over again about the 5400 vs 7200 debates!

so knowing the ad/dis of 7200 why did you finally decided to go with the 7200?

 

7200 RPM HDs don't really run any hotter or produce any more noise than 5400 RPM drives so the biggest advantage is speed. Pure speed then I guess would be the answer to your question. lol

 

so did you choose 7200?

 

Yes I did. I've been happy with my choice because I have a gaming laptop and I didn't want my HD to be the bottleneck of the system. Even in non-gaming rigs usually the HD is the bottleneck so it is nice to go with a 7200 drive.

 

I got the 5400 rpm 160gb cause I need the extra space, I am going to put a 7200 rpm in my Ultrabay though.

 

I ordered the 100gb 7200rpm over the 120gb 5400rpm I originally planned on purchasing. The extra speed and less space is worth it for me because I don't use more than ~50gb anyway

 

I have a Seagate 7200.2 160GB drive and it is louder. Haven't had the chance to test battery life just yet. The loudness isn't that much and whether or not it matters is really up to your preference.

 

Well, you might have gotten a loud one.
But in general, the 7200 rpm drives are not any louder.

http://laptoplogic.com/reviews/detail.php?id=92&part=full&page=16

 

Upgrading a laptop HDD from 5400 or 7200 rpm will provide a slight perfomance increase but it also brings about more noise, more heat, and typically less battery life. Now to upgrade from the fastest laptop HDD to a SSD (Solid State Drive) will potentially provide hundreds of % in performance increase:


However, not all SSDs are created equal. Mtron's SSD is the fastest in the world, not only in sustained read/write speed but in sequential & random access speed. A HDD must physically locate data on a platter and position the actuator arm over the correct position before data can be read which translates to seek time. A SSD doesn't have any seek time, it's limited to it's IOPS & read/write speed, which is why you will notice a phenomenal speed increase in application load, file copy, boot time, shut down time, & sleep/hibernation states. Instead of upgrading from 5400 rpm to 15,000 rpm HDD and only shaving off seconds, you go from waiting to seemingly instantaneous with SSD.


Of course the performance boost isn't the only compelling reason to replace a mechanical drive, other incentives:

1. No moving parts: no vibration & no noise (totally silent)
2. Consumes 50% less power: less heat & longer battery life.
3. Lighter weight, translates to lighter laptop.
4. 1000 - 1500g operating shock.
5. Reliability & Endurance that a mechanical HDD can't provide (50% of computer failure is due to HDD failure!):
   -Write Endurance: >140 years @ 50GB write/erase per day
   -Read Endurance: Unlimited
   -Data Retention: 10 years

The only known deterrent to upgrading your HDD to SSD would be cost.

 

that was an awesome post. +rep

 

7200 everytime, putting a 7k2 drive in a 3 or 4 year old laptop can bring it back to life. 7200 everytime, no questions asked.

 

And the newer drives dont emit more heat and noise...

 

7200 rpm HDs are not any noisier and don't run any hotter.
And what do the SSDs have to do with this thread question?

 

Yea, a minor detail...

 

That webpage is outdated. The 7200.2 is louder than all of the drives listed there.

http://www.storagereview.com/160notebook.sr?page=0%2C5

Why must you try to contradict me? I don't understand. Yes, 0.8 decibels compared to a 5K160 isn't much, but that's why i said that the 7200.2 is louder, but how much you care really depends on your own tolerance level.

And that cost, quite unfortunately, kills everything you just talked about. We are talking about hundreds of dollars more for merely a fraction of the space. Insanity, I tells ya.

 

That webpage is NOT outdated.
It compares the 7200.1 Seagate drive (the model that you get from Lenovo if you opt for the 7200 rpm drive) and it's whisper quiet. I have one.

Your aftermarket 7200.2 looks to be louder.
I wanna see more tests since it doesn't quite make sense why Seagate's newer drives tend to be not as quiet as the older ones.
As of now I would avoid them.

 

I have one aswell, can 2nd that.

 

It's outdated because it doesn't talk about the 7200.2. When I talked about a louder drive, I was talking about my 7200.2, which you decided to chalk it up to me getting a messed up one.

 

Can you return it, or exchange?

 

I suppose I was generalizing HDDS in that faster typically translates to more heat and noise:
5400 rpm < 7200 rpm < 10k rpm < 15k rpm

Sure, with newer generations there have been improvements with power efficiency and noise reduction but with concurrent models the aforementioned heat & noise progressions should hold true. Besides, it’s a logical assumption that heat and noise for HDDS are not:
5400 rpm = 7200 rpm = 10k rpm = 15k rpm

Besides I did much research for my desktop which is a silent PC that is totally fanless. You see, in addition to the more audible seeks, the more rpms means more vibration which creates noise within the case of the PC. For laptop HDDs and most certainly desktop HDDs, more rpms almost always means more noise.

However, my HDDs which are relatively slow, 5400 rpm, they still makes noise, although they are laptop HDDs (WD Scorpio), which produce less vibration and seek noise. So I’m highly motivated to acquire two Mtron 3.5" 64GB SSDs to truly make my desktop totally silent! As it is now I still hear my Scorpios running in the background and I believe it's due to the vibration (because idle and seek are equal at 20dB). It's faint but there and most noticeable at night (when everything else is quiet).

The Totally Noiseless PC I'm using:
http://www.xoxide.com/zalman-tnn300.html

Here’s a good shot of the inside:
http://img.hexus.net/v2/internationalevents/cebit_hannover_2005/store/zalmantnn4.jpg

 

There's nothing wrong with it! I'm saying your assumption that my drive was flawed is wrong.

 

So, you're happy with it?
Sorry then. I got a wrong impression.